When families break down friends are important. In the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E Hinton this message is shown in many ways. Certain characters have been abandoned or disowned by their families, some characters have family members that have passed away and some don’t have any at all. Pony Boy Curtis, Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston all have experienced family breakdowns and each and every one of them has a loyal group of friends to fall back on. This shows why Friends are so important. Family isn’t who you’re related to, but who cares and is there for you when you need them.
Pony Boy Curtis is the main character in “The Outsiders” novel and experiences two family breakdowns. One shortly before the novel was set and the other during the book. When Pony boy lost his parents before the book, he started to depend more on friends than he ever did but he still had his brothers. When Pony Boy ran away (Pg..) he had no family by his side, the only person he had to depend on was his best friend, Johnny. Ponyboy left his family and ran away with Johnny after he stabbed the Soc, without his friend he wouldn’t have anyone to depend on. Ponyboy didn’t ditch his friend when times looked tough, even though Ponyboy didn’t do anything he risked his future and possibly life to stand by his friend. With Johnny’s family broken down all he could count on was Pony Boy
Johnny family is also broken down. Beaten by his father and ignored by his mother, his family may not care for him much anymore but his friends always will. Johnny is also referred to as “the gangs kid brother”, Johnny only stays in town because of the gang. When Johnny stabbed the Soc at the park, the night he ran away with Pony Boy, Pony didn’t abandon him; he ran away with him and helped him escape trouble by being by his side. Without his friend Pony, Johnny wouldn’t have run away and he would have been charged for murder. Johnny’s family wouldn’t have helped him at a time like that but his best friend wouldn’t leave him. This is why friends are important when family isn’t there. Unfortunately, Dallas Winston’s family isn’t there for him either that’s why he has such a close bond to all his friends.
According to Dallas Winston his family “doesn’t care if he even come home at night.” His family has obviously broken down not in a way that is permanent but in a way that is hard and hurtful. That is why he has such a strong bond with his friends. For example, when Johnny died, Dallas lost control. He cared so much for him that he couldn’t control his emotions and broke down. From the way his family is portrayed in the novel, it appears that Johnny is like his brother, like family and so he cannot cope when he dies because he must feel like he has nobody now. It is obvious that Dallas is closer with his friends than his family and this is why friends are important.
To conclude, nearly everyone in the novel “The Outsiders” has experienced family breakdowns and all of them are there to pick each other up and support one another. The novel suggests that when your family is not there the only people you can turn to are your closest and most trusted friends.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
“It seems like there’s gotta be someplace without Greasers, or Socs with just people. Plain ordinary people.” The novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton takes place in Tulsa Oklahoma during the 1960’s. The novel shows how a gang of seven greasy boys deal with society being divided into “Greasers” and “Socs”, however along the way they face hardships including death. In the novel, “the outsiders” were considered people who didn’t fit in. In this case the “Outsiders” were: Ponyboy, Cherry, and Johnny.…
- 370 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
“The Outsiders” by S.E Hinton has many main characters, I'm only going to focus on one and that's Ponyboy Curtis. Ponyboy Curtis or Pony for short is a 14 year old boy who is apart of a friend group called the greasers. They're called the greasers because they have greasy hair and are not very clean. Pony also has a brother named Darry, who is 20 and has legal custody of him and his 16 year old brother named Sodapop. Darry has legal custody of him and his brother because their parents were in a car accident and killed just months before the story started.…
- 350 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The Outsiders, directed by Francis Ford Coppola was released in 1983. Ponyboy Curtis (C. Thomas Howell) is a greaser whose parents were killed in a car accident. He and his friends: Johnny (Ralph Macchio), Dally (Matt Dillon), Two-Bit (Emilio Estevez), and Steve (Tom Cruise), and brothers, Darry (Patrick Swayze) and Soda (Rob Lowe), are always getting in fights with a gang called the Socs. One night, best friend Johnny, are attacked by Socs. The Socs almost drown Ponyboy, and Johnny, defending Ponyboy, stabs Bob (a Soc). Pony, and Johnny find a church to hide out in. A bunch of little kids are trapped inside the church which caught on fire, and Pony, Johnny, and Dally save them. Ponyboy gets out ok, Dally burns his arm, but a huge piece of wood falls on Johnny, breaking his back, and burning him badly. At the end, two of the greasers end up losing their life and both gangs still fight and hate each other. I think that The Outsiders was decent, at best. Please spare yourself save the hour and…
- 1053 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
The Outsiders is a novel by S.E Hinton that is set in the 1960’s in a…
- 982 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
A choice made by Johnny affects Pony because Johnny killed the soc Bob. This is perhaps the least impactful of Johnny's choices but it still had a big affect on Pony. While Johnny and Pony are at the park the Socs attack them and try to drown Pony. Then to save Pony, Johnny kills Bob. After Pony…
- 431 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
‘The Outsiders’ written by S.E Hinton demonstrates that violence can cause much change to a person on the inside as well as outside. This book became an immediate success when it was written during the 1960’s and was based around the reputation and the stereotypes of that current decade. If you were a kid growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma you either belonged to one of two groups, a “Soc” or a “Greaser”. In this book, there are many differences between the two groups, which tends to cause much violence. S.E Hinton has much authority to write about this violence because she has seen it happen firsthand. In The Outsiders violence occurs at its very best. It affects people in different ways, changes people – physically and emotionally but also causes very positive outcomes which turns into a lifelong lesson for both the Socs and the Greasers.…
- 913 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
A student who attends Jay Mountain high school was found dead early Saturday morning in the local park.…
- 1005 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
| |14 year old boy’s perspective. She was growing up at the time that the book is set so the |…
- 2458 Words
- 10 Pages
Good Essays -
S.E. Hinton is one of the best known American authors. She has written many stories and novels, none of which are as famous as her young-adult novel, The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton has won some awards for her contributions to English literature. Her books have been used in schools as she has inspired many teens and adolescents to write about topics used in her books. S.E. Hinton has captivated readers of all ages, all over America and the world with her story The Outsiders.…
- 1423 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
“How do you feel Johnny, your first sunset up close and personal?” I asked him…
- 552 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton, the protagonist Ponyboy struggles with many common problems that a teenager encounters. One of these problems is when he struggles with remaining loyal to the Greasers and living a moral life. The Greasers don’t have many morals except for looking out for each other, and that is how most of them lose their innocence. This is the problem that Ponyboy must deal with. He strives to maintain the Greasers’ tough reputation while desiring to protect the innocence he has left from childhood. They will often lie, cheat, steal, and kill in order to protect their brothers. Ponyboy somewhat objects to this principle because he wants to protect his innocence. Although he cares a lot about the Greasers, he feels as though his innocence is the last positive thing he has left from his childhood. Ponyboy says about Two-Bit that “the fight for self-preservation had hardened him against caring” (Hinton 59), and Ponyboy does not want to come to that point.…
- 1189 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The Outsiders is a novel written by SE Hinton. It was first published in 1967 and is a novel written for young adults. It is about a boy named Ponyboy who belongs to a social group called “Greaser” which dislikes the “Socs” which stands for Socials. The novel teaches about groups, friendships and affection for each other. In the novel there is violence between the two groups and how the greasers changed from violent to knowing affection. The relationship between the Curtis Brothers has change throughout the story. This is demonstrated through the different relationships they had at the start and at the end, how their relationship changed and what caused their relationship to change.…
- 752 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
ZZ Packer’s Drinking Coffee Elsewhere a book that consists of many short stories that are very similar in plot, however very different in the overall meaning of the story. Throughout her compilations of short stories Packer grasps the idea of being labeled an “outside” in our society. In these three stories “Brownies, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, and Geese” all of the main characters of the story receive discrimination from their other peers. In one story “Brownies” the main character are the ones dishing out the discrimination. Being labeled an “outsider” does mean that you are receiving some form of discrimination; however that discrimination or malice towards “outsiders” is not always intentional.…
- 1272 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
“No rival gangs, only Socs. And you can't win against them no matter how hard you try, because they've got all the breaks and even whipping them isn't going to change that fact.” The Outsiders a novel that was first published in 1967 by the author S.E Hinton is not only a novel about gang mentality and gang rivalry but is also about how a person could feel like ‘an outsider’ based on where they live or how much money they have. In Pony Boy’s case it was his grades that made him feel like an outsider within his own family.…
- 837 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Het verschijnsel ‘buitenstaander’ is welbekend. Bij een buitenstaander dient niet gelijk gedacht te worden aan een persoon die altijd buiten de algemeen geaccepteerde sociale structuren valt. Iedereen kan op enig moment een buitenstaander zijn. De een kleedt zich op een bijzondere manier, de ander heeft een Brabants accent, weer een ander heeft in een straat met rijwoningen een bijzondere tuin. Dit zijn eenvoudige voorbeelden van deviant gedrag waardoor mensen in bepaalde situaties bestempeld kunnen worden als buitenstaander.…
- 1122 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays