Violence In The Outsiders

First and Last Name

Ms. Cunningham

ELA Period #

3 May 2023

Creative Title Imagine this: Your parents are dead, your older sibling is now in charge, you are part of a social class that is heavily targeted, and fights between these social classes often occur. This is the world in which Ponyboy Curtis lives in. In the novel The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton, violence has consequences.

Johnny Cade, a greaser that is in a gang with Ponyboy shows many examples of how violence can have consequences. When Ponyboy and Johnny are jumped by socs, a soc named Bob begins to drown Ponyboy in a nearby fountain. When Johnny notices, he stabs Bob using a switchblade in self-defense. Shortly after Ponyboy regains consciousness, he sees Bob on the ground in a pool

"We'll need money. And maybe a gun. And a plan." (Hinton 50). In this part of the book, Johnny and Ponyboy realize the consequences of violence. They soon realized that they would need a plan. The plan becomes official when Ponyboy and Johnny go to Dally, who is another greaser. They soon plan to run away to avoid getting caught by law. This is a consequence because they have to run away from family and regular life to avoid being caught. Another example of how Johnny is affected by the consequences of violence is when Johnny begins to feel guilt for his actions. In “The Outsiders'' by S.E Hinton, Johnny exclaims, "Stop it!" Johnny gasped from between clenched teeth. "Shut up about last night! I killed a kid last night. He could not have been over 17 or 18, and I killed him. How'd you like to live with that?" He was crying. I held him like Soda had held him the day we found him lying in the lot. "I didn't mean to," he finally blurted out, "but they were drownin' you, and I was so scared..." He was quiet for a minute. "There sure is a lot of blood in people." In this part of the book, Johnny experiences guilt about stabbing the soc, Bob. He is also traumatized by the amount of blood and gore that violence displays. This relates to the statement that violence has consequences, because this section of the book depicts one of the emotional consequences of violence on

When Ponyboy and Johnny are preparing to jump a freight train, Ponyboy thinks to himself, “Then for the first time, really, I realized what we were in for. Johnny had killed someone. Quiet, soft-spoken little Johnny, who wouldn't hurt a living thing on purpose, had taken a human life. We were really running away, with the police after us for murder and a loaded gun by our side. I wished we'd asked Dally for a pack of cigarettes....” (Hinton 54.) This evidence shows that ponyboys are worried and uneasy about the thought of running away from the law. This is because they cannot see many people, will always be moving, and have police after them. This relates to the theme of violence having consequences because it shows one of the issues that it can create for your life. Another time, ponyboy was affected by violence when ponyboy wakes up and thinks about what his normal routine is like. “I half convinced myself that I had dreamed everything that had happened the night before. I'm really home in bed, I thought. It's late and both Darry and Sodapop are up. Darry's cooking breakfast, and in a minute he and Soda will come in and drag me out of bed and wrestle me down and tickle me until I think I'll die if they don't stop. It's me and Soda's turn to do the dishes after we eat, and then we'll all go outside and play football. Johnny and Two-Bit and I will get Darry on our side, since Johnny and I are so small and Darry's the best