In the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Johnny tells Ponyboy to stay gold before he dies in the hospital. The book is about a gang called the Greasers and a bunch of big events happening to them in a single week, involving their rival gang, the Socs. This has a lot of meaning, mostly involving being who you are and staying soft. Ponyboy stays soft, stays who he is despite everyone else in the gang being tough and hard, and just has really good character.
Staying gold has several meanings, to stay who you are, and to not become tough and hard, and to try to be clean, meaning you should try to make people your friends instead of your foes. You can see Ponyboy do this later in the book. In The Outsiders, Johnny kills the Soc that was harassing Ponyboy. “‘I killed him’, he said slowly, “I killed that boy’”(56). It set off a chain of events that eventually killed him. Ponyboy surviving the events even though he was involved a lot shows that staying gold will benefit, not harm you.
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Right before Johnny died, he told Ponyboy to stay gold. He wrote a letter before he died for Ponyboy telling him his feelings. “Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold. Keep it that way, it’s a good way to be”(178). That shows that Johnny wanted Ponyboy to stay the way he is, liking sunsets just like an example, but also because he’s soft and hates hurting people. He wants Dally to look at sunsets, and to appreciate things for once, and that might make him become gold again. Dally, also, who committed suicide after hearing that Johnny died didn’t stay