“This is a formative essay on how Ponyboy Curtis is a dynamic character, which means that he will change throughout the story.”
Have you ever had a time in your life where you were completely innocent and then you did something wrong, it made you worse, and then you regained it again? Ponyboy from the book “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton, is a dynamic character, because he changes throughout the story. Ponyboy goes from being innocent, to losing his innocence, then getting it back again, that is how Ponyboy is a dynamic character. It is always good to regain you innocence somewhere in time, because it can make you a better person, to the people around you, your family and friends, and it’s just good for you in general.
In the beginning of the story from about chapters 1-4, Ponyboy Curtis the main character and narrator of the story, is completely innocent. Ponyboy has done no harm to anyone around him, he’s just a boy in a messed up world. He lives with his brothers, because his parents died in a bad car accident, his brothers are all he has in his life. Ponyboy is part of a gang called the Greasers; they have a rival gang called the Socials or Socs for short. Being the youngest member in the group he just follows in the footsteps of his brothers, which are also a part of the gang. So far Ponyboy is innocent and he has done no wrong to anyone, he’s just being a young 14 year old teenager living his life.
In chapter 4, this is where Ponyboy loses all of his innocence. Ponyboy loses it when Johnny and him are walking by this one park, then all of sudden a blue mustang comes speeding up towards them and then a group of socs got out including Bob and Randy from earlier that night. Then Bob grabs Ponyboy and starts drowning him in a nearby fountain, and then Ponyboy passes out. We don’t know what happens in the meantime because Ponyboy is the main character. Once he wakes up he notices Bob laying on the ground dead and Johnny holding a bloody switchblade in his hand, which is where Ponyboy loses all of his innocence. Everything is now bad for Ponyboy and Johnny, they are running from the law and they end up hiding in an old abandon church. That is not the life a 14 and a 16 year old should have, but I guess that’s what you kind of get for taking the wrong path and creating a gang like that. Yeah I know they don’t have families but you could still take the right path.
Now a little bit farther into the book Ponyboy regains his innocence, when him and Johnny save these kids from a burning church. He figures out that this is pretty much the end for Johnny, and because Johnny got hurt really bad when he was saving the kids, it ended up taking his life. The last words Johnny said to Ponyboy in the book was “Stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold”, to my opinion I believe that Ponyboy changed and gained back his innocence when he saved those kids from the burning fire and once Johnny died. Ponyboy was starting to get really close with Jonny then he just dies, that was really hard for Ponyboy. Ponyboy finally started to believing in himself more and got his innocence back which made him think that what he has been doing in his life is bad, so he decided to take the right path.
In the end Ponyboy regains his innocence and everything goes back to somewhat normal, just three people less in the world. You can’t keep your innocence forever, but when you lose it, it is possible to retract it and gain it once again.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
“Stereotype theme of The Outsiders”
“This is a formative essay about how the people judge the Greasers in The Outsiders”
Have you ever been stereotyped for just being yourself, when you’re doing absolutely nothing wrong? It happens multiple times to all the characters in the Greasers, they get judged about being Criminals, and just being bad over all, when most of them aren’t at all; they have a soft spot. People shouldn’t judge other people because it isn’t right and it could really hurt someone.
Mostly every character in the book “The Outsiders” are misjudged and misunderstood, they all see them as criminals and bad people when they actually aren’t. Dally, one of the main characters in the gang of the Greasers, he’s from New York and he’s been in many other gangs and arrested many times before. Dally is one who puts up a bad example for the gang, he hasn’t really changed. One example of this is when the Church was on fire and the children, Johnny, and Ponyboy were trapped, Dally was going to just save Ponyboy and Johnny not the little kids in the fire. So that puts Dally on the bad side of the stereotype side when people talk about the gang, but Johnny and Ponyboy went and saved the children. Johnny put his life over the children, how is that bad? How does that make them criminals or bad people? Saving those children made them hero’s which made people change their thought about the gang just a little bit. Many people would consider the greasers as selfish, greedy, and criminals when most of the members couldn’t even hurt a fly, they just care about each other a huge amount. I think it’s just their looks that make people want to judge them, they wear leather jackets, have their hair gelled back, and they just look all tough and bad.
All the characters in “The Outsiders” has been judged at least once and it’s not alright. People shouldn’t judge other people unless they know what they are talking about, it can hurt people’s feelings and it can really make people angry when other people talk about people like that.
Have you ever been stereotyped for just being yourself, when you’re doing absolutely nothing wrong? It happens multiple times to all the characters in the Greasers, they get judged about being Criminals, and just being bad over all, when most of them aren’t at all; they have a soft spot. People shouldn’t judge other people because it isn’t right and it could really hurt someone.
Mostly every character in the book “The Outsiders” are misjudged and misunderstood, they all see them as criminals and bad people when they actually aren’t. Dally, one of the main characters in the gang of the Greasers, he’s from New York and he’s been in many other gangs and arrested many times before. Dally is one who puts up a bad example for the gang, he hasn’t really changed. One example of this is when the Church was on fire and the children, Johnny, and Ponyboy were trapped, Dally was going to just save Ponyboy and Johnny not the little kids in the fire. So that puts Dally on the bad side of the stereotype side when people talk about the gang, but Johnny and Ponyboy went and saved the children. Johnny put his life over the children, how is that bad? How does that make them criminals or bad people? Saving those children made them hero’s which made people change their thought about the gang just a little bit. Many people would consider the greasers as selfish, greedy, and criminals when most of the members couldn’t even hurt a fly, they just care about each other a huge amount. I think it’s just their looks that make people want to judge them, they wear leather jackets, have their hair gelled back, and they just look all tough and bad.
All the characters in “The Outsiders” has been judged at least once and it’s not alright. People shouldn’t judge other people unless they know what they are talking about, it can hurt people’s feelings and it can really make people angry when other people talk about people like that.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Letter To Ponyboy
Dear Ponyboy,
How is this whole experience going for you? I know you are probably going thought the worst time of your life at the moment, because I’m sure you are going nuts and you probably just want to get away from everything that is happening to you right now. Darry is probably going to be tremendously sorry once he figures out what he did was completely wrong, no one deserves to be hit for no reason. I’m sure Johnny feels even worse than you do; he’s the one who killed that soc in the first place. Bob deserved what was he was asking for, he should have been the one in the water drowning not a 14 year old boy like you. You did no harm to them, their girlfriends came on to you not the other way around, those stupid socs obviously couldn’t tell. You’re brothers will find out sooner or later, and they will come out to find you. If I were you I would just keep laying low in that old church, unless the feds figure out where you are hiding, but you should be fine out there. That old church is probably the best place for you to lay low right now, it’s in the hills all you are right now is a needle in a hay stack.
Well I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright and I just want to have a little chat with you, I hope everything goes well. Good luck to you and Johnny, stay out of trouble.
Sincerely,
Chase Seliger
How is this whole experience going for you? I know you are probably going thought the worst time of your life at the moment, because I’m sure you are going nuts and you probably just want to get away from everything that is happening to you right now. Darry is probably going to be tremendously sorry once he figures out what he did was completely wrong, no one deserves to be hit for no reason. I’m sure Johnny feels even worse than you do; he’s the one who killed that soc in the first place. Bob deserved what was he was asking for, he should have been the one in the water drowning not a 14 year old boy like you. You did no harm to them, their girlfriends came on to you not the other way around, those stupid socs obviously couldn’t tell. You’re brothers will find out sooner or later, and they will come out to find you. If I were you I would just keep laying low in that old church, unless the feds figure out where you are hiding, but you should be fine out there. That old church is probably the best place for you to lay low right now, it’s in the hills all you are right now is a needle in a hay stack.
Well I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright and I just want to have a little chat with you, I hope everything goes well. Good luck to you and Johnny, stay out of trouble.
Sincerely,
Chase Seliger
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