Fear In The Outsiders

“And the things that we fear are a weapon to be held against us.” In reference to the quote, look at how Graham Greene and S E Hinton’s presentation of fear is shown to the characters in the novels ‘Brighton Rock’ and ‘The Outsiders’ and to us as the readers.

Fear is a unique emotion and it is displayed differently in each individual, but the one thing that is the same is that fear will always be an unpleasant emotion. Fear is the outcome of being in a dangerous situation, and of being aware of a threat to your wellbeing. In the novels ‘The Outsiders’ by S. E Hinton and ‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene, the characters each have their own distinct idea of fear, and this varies as the novel's progress. In ‘The Outsiders’, fear is depicted as

Kite is murdered before the novel begins and we know that Pinkie becomes fearful of it because it is referenced several times through the novel. Pinkie takes over the gang after Kites death and he is constantly compared to Kite and the way he leads. In part two Dallow says to Pinkie, “You’re a grand little geezer, Pinkie. Kite was right to take you on.” Whenever someone compares Pinkie to being something irrelevant, Pinkie becomes very agitated and upset. Pinkie’s reaction reminds me of someone who is insecure and it's this that makes me think that Pinkie is afraid of failing and looking powerless in front of those around him. When the police officer doubts Pinkie at the end of part two, Pinkies inner monologue goes through this “He trailed the clouds of his own glory after him: hell lay about him in his infancy.” The way that Pinkie personifies the clouds as glory and his childhood and past as hell relates to Pinkies earlier conversation with Rose about Heaven and Hell. Pinkie is frightful of hell and the way mankind react to it, Pinkie sees the evil in everyone and it's from this that his distorted view of the world has formed from. However in ‘The Outsiders’, Ponyboy reacts on a completely different scale and ends up shrinking into his own shell and barely acknowledging anyone when he finds out that both Johnny and Dally are dead. When Ponyboy

Fear is what motivates us to protect people and this ‘protection’ is altered in each novel. In “Brighton Rock”, Pinkie’s fear prompts him to protect himself rather than those around him which is evident when he tries to have Spicer killed, or when he creates a suicide pact with Rose. The suicide pact is relevant because his fear of dying alone causes him to use Rose in order to protect himself and he is thinking of what benefits him rather than the effects of his manipulation of Rose. However, in “The Outsiders”, the gang defend each other and they look out for each other. Their fear of danger causes them to protect each other because the loss of one of their members would cause greater pain than the actual fear itself. Ponyboy talks about the gang treating each other like family and the way they protect each other. We know that they protect each other because of the way Johnny kills Bob in order to save Ponyboy even though he knows that there will be consequences. This view can be connected to the quote in the title, “And the things we fear are a weapon to be held against us.” The greaser gang in “The Outsiders” all have similar fears and a large fear of theirs to lose one another and you can view this as a weapon to be held against them because if you were to hurt one of the gang, the others would be hurt by this also. The readers can become emotionally invested