Character Analysis Ponyboy
In many parts of the world, gangs are a big problem. People can get hurt, or even killed from the discrimination of different gangs. In the novel “The Outsiders”, by S. E. Hinton, gangs are a large problem, and people get put in bad situations that are life changing for them. These groups of boys try and stick together, through these horrible times, and learn that friends can sometimes be the closest thing to family.
Ponyboy is a 14 year old boy, whose is a so called "Greaser". He has long light-brown hair, and greenish- gray eyes, and has a very meager body. He lives in a small house with his two brothers, Sodapop and Darry. His parents passed away in a car crash when he was younger, but his older brother Darry stepped up, and took the role of both his parents. They have enemies called the Socs, which is a gang that lives in a nicer part of the city than they do. They get in constant fights, and have never liked each other. When fights start to get taken to the next level, and people start to get hurt, what are the Greasers to do?
Without his parents in his life, Darry, his oldest brother, has taken control of the family. This is both good and bad. Ponyboy and Darry haven't always gotten along, and have had many problems and disagreements lately. So it’s hard for Ponyboy to feel respected and loved, by someone that's always yelling and screaming at him. But it's not because Darry doesn't love him, it's because he cares about Ponyboy's future, and what he will become. Sodapop and Ponyboy always have discussions about Darry, on how he is always hard on Ponyboy, but Sodapop knows why this happens, but Ponyboy doesn’t truly know why, because he never takes enough time to notice it. But it doesn't help when Ponyboy pulls off shenanigans all the time. He has complained before, and this is just one of the many times he has, when Ponyboy says to Sodapop. "Tuff enough. Wait till I get out, though, so you can keep Darry off my back." As you can see, Ponyboy doesn't ever want to think that Darry cares or loves him; he just wants to deny everything about it.
With Darry pushing Ponyboy so hard in school, and overall in life, he gets stronger as the novel goes on. He realizes that if no one cares about him, he will have to take control and care about himself. So after a major accident, Ponyboy decides to run, just run and get away from everything, Darry, school, pretty much his life. He takes the easy route in life. He ran away from the problems, instead of taking them full on, and solving them in the moment. He then realizes that running away from his problems was a bad idea, and he needs to go back and fix them. But when they run away, bad things occur, and if he would have made the right decisions in the first place, he wouldn't be in this horrible position he is in now. At this point is he in a state of fantod.
Ponyboy is as strong as ever, since the worst of the worst happened. His best friend died. That's the only way to describe what has happened. He's lost the person he could talk to, without hesitating; he lost the person that meant the world to him. All because of one bad decision of running away in the first place. But for some reason, I think that this change was good for him, it made him stronger than he will ever be. It shows him that he can get through anything, with the love of his two brothers. This also shows that his brother really did love him; he just didn't realize it until it really mattered. He actually saw what he hadn't paid attention to his whole life. He had been wrong about Darry, completely and utterly wrong. And Ponyboy definitely regretted a lot of things that had happened in the last year.
I think that Ponyboy will continue to grow strong, continue to love and respect his brothers, and continue to live his life to the fullest. Because you never know what will happen tomorrow. He will continue to do well in school, and make it to college. He will graduate from college and get a good job and make money for his family, like he should. I have learned many lessons from this novel. But most importantly, I have learned to live life to the fullest, and to never give up. These lessons are very important, and made the story much more interesting to read.
