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Golden Things In Life In The Outsiders Essay

661 Words3 Pages

“Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.” Rose Kennedy once said. In S.E. Hinton’s realistic fiction novel The Outsiders, Ponyboy Curtis, the main character, and his group “the greasers”, experience several moments in which they lose cherished people and are unable to react positively or recover. As the story presumes, and more loved ones are lost Ponyboy, has learned to recover from his loses by cherishing the moments he has shared with his loses. In The Outsiders, Hinton demonstrates, golden things in life should be cherished while they last. One example of where the idea is introduced is in the beginning when Ponyboy describes his mother who was loving and kind. He lost his mother several months before and has yet to know the positive outcome of his lose. In the text, Ponyboy states “My mother was golden and beautiful.” Ponyboy’s statement can be referred to as an example of “golden things in life should be cherished while they last” because his statement is in past tense …show more content…

Ponyboy experiences three different moments delivering the big idea. These include of the description of Ponyboy’s mother, the reading of the poem “nothing gold can stay”, and Johnny’s last words to Ponyboy. It is in these moments, people must realize what is worthy of cherishing in life; what true meaning comes from under it. As one progresses through life he/she experiences moments with things and people that are unforgettable and will be cherished forever. Eventually, those things fade away and that is why people must value the moments with their loved things/ones because you never know what may happen to them. This book relates closely to this connection. As Ponyboy progresses through his live he forms “gold” relationships with the people around him but, out of nowhere some disappear and has learned to cherish them while they

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Ponyboy Curtis is a teenage boy who learns valuable lessons about life. Although, he is the one who stood out the most to me in the book, “The Outsiders.” He is the youngest brother out of the little family they have. He has the most dramatic changes, in his feelings and attitude. Ponyboy’s reasoning for his changes are by the forces of the Socs.

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Ponyboy must learn to stay gold through not wasting his innocence on the futility of violence. Ponyboy must also stay gold through learning to decipher that both Greasers and Socs are not that different after all, and that he himself does not have to fit into the Greaser stereo-type. Throughout Hinton’s The Outsiders, it becomes evident that in order for Ponyboy to learn the important lesson of staying

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In S.E. Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders, It first takes the reader to the 1960s in an unsafe neighborhood in Oklahoma, where a teenage boy called Ponyboy, who is raised by his two brothers lives. The novel shows the dynamics of two groups, the “Socs” and the “greasers”, as it goes through Ponyboy dealing with the harsh realities of life, loss, and other emotions he must march through. Hinton shows that when faced with grief and hate, it can be hard to regulate emotions until its accepted. One case that shows what the instability of ones emotions can do comes with Dally’s reaction to Johnny’s death. Dally is one to keep everyone an arms length away from him, except Johnny, which makes his reaction of grief very extreme.

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Then all is normal and the golden moment is gone. Another piece from the Robert Frost poem that support staying gold is “Nothing gold can stay.” This piece of the poem states how long a golden moment lasts. Never lasting forever the golden moment must go away, tying to the importance of staying

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To escape from the consequences of what Johnny did to protect themselves, the two boys run away. They feel scared and uncertin as they hide in an empty church. This shows that hard times can happen anywhere, no matter where you come from or how much money you hve. It proves that challenges can come up unexpectedly, which shows that the quote is true. Ponyboy and Johnny's journey shows that problems in life aren't only for certain neighborhoods or groups but can happen to anyone.

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Ponyboy lived with his two brothers Darry and Sodapop after his parents were killed in a car accident. Ponyboy had some friends in the gang: Steve, Two-Bit, Dally but his best friend was a boy named Johnny who was considered the gang`s mascot. Ponyboy was a boy who always wanted to be tough but an accident that happened in the story might make him change of mind on what he wanted to be. He also finds a way of how to finish the gang that was taking place from many tima.

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He could take anything. It was Johnny I was worried about.” He knows how frightened and anxious Johnny is after being jumped and how he is not as tough as the rest of the Greasers. Especially without a loving family at home, Johnny only has the gang and is not able to take as much. Throughout the whole novel, Ponyboy expresses how much he cares for others both with Johnny, and

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“The Outsiders” is a novel written by S.E. Hinton. Originally Published in 1967, Hinton was only 18 when her novel hit the shelves. Instead of using her real name Susan Eloise Hinton, she used her initial’s so people wouldn’t know she was a girl making the book less desirable. The Outsiders is considered a cult classic and is typically assigned reading across the U.S. She always loved reading but did not like the books they had for young adults

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He wanted everyone to know that there was still good in the world. In conclusion, the book The Outsiders explain a hidden message through Johnny that is said to only Ponyboy because he is innocent and unique. Johnny’s final wish before he passes away is that Ponyboy will stay gold because it was truly an important theme in S. E. Hinton’s story. Therefore, S. E. Hinton wanted Johnny’s powerful and final message to the readers of The Outsiders to be stay gold, hoping you will,

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Ch 9 Pg 148 “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold…” The quote is significant by connecting to an Essential question because in Johnny’s last words he refrences the same Robert Frost poem that Ponyboy repeated outloud when they were sitting on the back porch of the church.

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He want Ponyboy to stay his good self. In conclusion, The Outsiders novel has many symbols that can teach about life. Through hair, sunrises, and ‘gold’, we can learn about life. We should always know who we are, what are life is, and what we need to

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At the end of the novel, just before Johnny Cade dies he tells Ponyboy to “stay gold”, in saying this, he means that he should stay innocent and to not change who he is as a person. This is an important moment as, after Johnny dies, Ponyboy is very distraught and becomes more like the other Greasers. For example, he starts taking out his anger and sadness and hopelessness by fighting in the rumble, his school grades drop rapidly as he loses interest in school and he begins to fight with Darry a lot more. One evening while Ponyboy is in his bedroom looking for something to read, he notices the copy of “Gone With The Wind” that he and Johnny read in Windrixville. To his surprise enclosed is a

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This shows to Ponyboy that just because his best friend is dying doesn’t mean he shouldn’t stop living his life too. It also shows that he shouldn 't stop doing good deeds himself. Lastly it shows that just because he lost a friend don’t mean the world has turned rotten and mean on him, it is still the same world, with more love than

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In the novel, “The Outsiders” that was written by S.E Hinton, one of the characters within the book that has changed a lot was Ponyboy Curtis. Ponyboy Curtis’ change was a slow process, but a lot happened to him throughout the novel. He goes through many events at the start, middle and at the end of the novel too. At the start of the novel, Ponyboy was just an innocent and smart kid who lived with the gang known as, “The Greasers”, but by the end of the novel, Ponyboy is a different person compared to how he was in the beginning. The events that took place in the middle of the novel has some key events that make him change his personality and opinion on life, and that the reader learns that his personality and opinion changes because of the dramatic events he goes through like how Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston’s death.

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