Self Concepts In The Outsiders

Everybody has a self concept but they aren’t permanent. In fact many different outside factors, such as parental influence, social role, or the influence of friends or siblings change one’s self concept frequently. One of the main factors that impacts people's self concept at a young age, is the way that their parents treat and care for them. In Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Outsiders, he portrays the conflict within a community with two main social groups, the Socs who are richer, and the Greasers who are less fortunate, but also shows the characters making many new realizations and growing as people. This film follows a group of young Greaser boys as they make many mistakes and get in many fights with the Socs, while also exploring many

Although there were many different outside factors that affected Johnny, Dally, and Darry's self concepts, parental influence was one of the most prominent negative factors that was revealed.
First of all, during the film The Outsiders, Johnny's self concept, specifically his self esteem, was severely affected negatively by the absence of parental care and love. At the beginning of the film when the boys are all going home, Johnny starts to get really upset because his parents are fighting. He then says “I can't take much more of this… I'll kill myself or something” and decides he is going to sleep in the lot instead of going inside (Coppola). Johnny’s reaction to his parents fighting, reveals that when his parents are fighting it tortures him and has made him feel really bad about himself. The fact that he even says that he may kill himself, shows that he has lost so much confidence due to the lack of care he is receiving at home that he is beginning to feel worthless. In addition, after Dally meets up with Johnny and Ponyboy and gives Ponyboy the letter that

First, when Ponyboy was talking to Sherry and Marcia, they asked about Darry and why they haven’t seen him in school since their parents died, Ponyboy responds, “He’s a dropout” because he works full time to provide for their family (Coppola).The fact that Darry is still a kid, but was forced to dropout of school so that he could take the place of his parents and take care of his siblings, shows that although there were many negative effects of the death of Dally’s parents, it also made him step up and become more responsible. Viewers can see that the death of Darry’s parents made him more independent and self-sufficient, but it also reveals that Darry never got to fully grow up and was forced to put his life on pause so that he could help his family, which could affect his success in the future. Moreover, later in the film, when the Socs and the Greasers are preparing to fight, Darry is face to face with one of the Socs and they say hi to each other as the narrator explains that “they used to buddy around, play football” (Coppola). This narration exposes to readers that before Darry’s parents died, he was becoming successful because he did many sports and even played sports with the Socs, meaning he may have been really good at them. However, when his parents passed away, he was forced to put all of his success to a stop so that he could