“When [Ponyboy] stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, [he] had only two things on [his] mind: Paul Newman and a ride home…” (Hinton 180). The author, S. E. Hinton, begins and ends “The Outsiders”, with this single sentence to show how the character, Ponyboy, had developed and matured throughout the events that occurred during the story. Ponyboy faces many types of conflict throughout the story, such as nature vs. self, person vs. society, and person vs. person. Although he struggled against his worries he had also overcome them. Person vs. society is noticeably the most recognizable form of conflict. In “The Outsiders”, Ponyboy must come to terms with life not being equally fair to everyone. He and …show more content…
Nature is another conflict that Ponyboy faces, alongside with his friends Dally and Johnny. When the boys decided to turn themselves in rather than stay in hiding, they go back to the church, where they were hiding, finding it go up in smoke. All Ponyboy could think of was that “[they] started it”, and went to save the children trapped inside (Hinton 91). The word nature des not only refer to mother nature, but to the circle of life. Near the end of the book, Johnny comes to peace with himself and thinks “It’s worth it. It’s worth saving those kids. Their lives are worth more than [his], they have more to live for” (Hinton 178). As Ponyboy discovers how Johnny overcame his anxiety and rightfulness, Ponyboy overcomes his depression and sadness over the loss of his …show more content…
self is the most relatable form of conflict to Ponyboy. As a fourteen year old boy, who has yet to find out who he really is. Ponyboy has always been good at school, told he couldn’t use his head, and was not a like normal Greasers. He blames the death of Johnny and Dally on himself, and tries to convinces himself that “[he] killed him. [He] had a switchblade…”, and killed the Soc ( Hinton 165). This sets Ponyboy into not giving a care into the world and settling into a deep depression. That is untl he read the letter left for him by Johnny, telling him to stay gold because “[people] are gold when [they] are a kid, like green. When [people] are a kid everything’s new, dawn” (Hinton