Character Analysis: Nothing Gold Can Stay

Within every character, in every scene, on either side of town, important lessons can be learned to turn the community around. In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, several roles portrayed could use some lessons being depicted in the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” written by Robert Frost. Tough hoods on the East Side of town and the snobs of the West Side, also known as Greasers and Socs have very different stories but could learn a lot from each other if they were willing to put aside their differences. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is all about the diminishing of the gold soul you had the chance to keep. A mass group of characters from the novel can take the themes presented in the poem to heart, whether they’re from the East or West side. The most important

Almost none of the characters take the time to think long and hard about the line “Nature’s first green is gold”, its meaning much deeper than what you might view as the first impression. East Side Greasers, tough and have to uphold the reputation of leather jackets, slicked back hair, and not really be cared about much until it came down to a life or death fight between them and the enemies-they don’t seem like the type of people to give a care in the world about a “pointless” poem. Well in some cases you’d be right, and others you’d be nothing but wrong. Meet Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade, the only two boys capable of seeing the deep meaning in what others might just sweep under the rug. They’re a small part of the gang, but resemble the most of what the poem’s words are trying to express. The rest of the gang (including Soda, Darry, Two-Bit, Dally, Steve and the Brumly boys), well they wouldn’t really care unless Pony and Johnny forced them to be interested. Oh, and then we’re left with Socs-a rich, preppy, snobby mix of boys and girls. The same rules apply to those of the West Side but they’re held to different standards. “It wasn’t fair for the Socs to have everything.” They had good cars, good grades and good girls, which seemed unfair in the sense that they were able to have anything they wished for, or at least that’s how it seemed. Socs also had the impression of they were all more innocent

From this, we along with the characters in The Outsiders can learn many lessons and use them in our everyday life. As we’ve explored the different problems from the different sides of town, we can hopefully conclude that innocence is not something worth being lost. Innocence isn’t going to be found everywhere, so don’t take it for