The Outsiders | Mrs Mitchell's English Class

QUOTES and ANALYSIS from Gradesaver.com

“How’d you like that haircut to begin just below the chin?”

An anonymous Soc says this to Ponyboy in Chapter 1

The Socs have jumped Ponyboy, and are taunting him about his hair. At this point, they are holding him down with a knife at his throat. The phrase is not just a threat of violence (it implies the Soc is about to slit Ponyboy’s throat), but a reference to the distinguishing quality that makes Ponyboy stand out as a Greaser: his hair.

“Things are rough all over.”

Cherry Valance says this to Ponyboy in Chapter 2

Ponyboy has just finished relating the story of Johnny’s attack to Cherry, and to the reader for the first time. Cherry is shocked, but points out to him that not all Socs act that way, just like not all Greasers act like Dally. She insists that “We have troubles you’ve never even heard of.”

In Chapter 7, as Randy tells Ponyboy that he is tired of fighting and is going to leave town instead of going to the rumble, Ponyboy remembers Cherry saying “Things are rough all over,” and understands what she meant. By the end of the chapter, Ponyboy has decided that, “Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.”

“Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.”

Ponyboy as narrator in Chapter 3

After talking to Cherry and realizing he can really connect with her, Ponyboy uses the sunset as a bridge between the world of the Greasers and that of the Socs. Throughout the story, he notices the sunset and thinks of Cherry, and notes that she is seeing the same sunset. This daily natural occurrence links two disparate worlds — and the implication is that it links far more as well.

“Next time you want a broad, pick up your own kind.”

Bob says this to Johnny and Ponyboy in Chapter 3

Right before the Socs attack Ponyboy and Johnny, in the fight that results in Johnny killing Bob, Bob describes the reasoning for the attack. He wants the Greasers to know their place in society, and to stay away from Soc girls. Later, in Chapter 6, Dallas Winston echos Bob’s words when he explains how Cherry is acting as a spy for the Greasers, saying, “Man, next time I want a broad I’ll pick up my own kind.” Ponyboy remembers Bob saying this, and a link is created between Bob and Dally, both of whom die young before the story ends.

“You can’t win, even if you whip us. You’ll still be where you were before – at the bottom. And we’ll still be the lucky ones with all the breaks. So it doesn’t do any good, the fighting and the killing. It doesn’t prove a thing. We’ll forget it if you win, or if you don’t. Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs.”

Randy says this to Ponyboy in Chapter 7

This speech describes the plight of the Greasers, and the futility of fighting. Randy has decided to leave town instead of attending the rumble that night, and here he explains to Ponyboy why. Fighting and killing don’t solve anything; the gap between social classes remains, and continues to define the Greasers and the Socs.

“I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man, do I have fun!”

Soda chants this as they leave the house for the rumble in Chapter 9

This chant begins the role-playing game, in which Two-Bit and Darry pretend to be Socs. The game allows them to get excited about their rumble, but at the same time reveals how conscious they are of their appearance to the rest of society. Though not all of the stereotypes are true of all Greasers, they embrace their appearance, refracting to a degree what they feel society thinks of them.

“Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold…”

Johnny whispers this to Ponyboy before he dies in Chapter 9

In his last words, Johnny references the same Robert Frost poem that Ponyboy recited aloud when they were sitting on the back porch of the church, watching the sunrise. By dying, Johnny fulfills the prophecy of the poem that “Nothing gold can stay.” But he wishes that Ponyboy would fulfill his own potential by not becoming a convict and using his intelligence to get out of the hood.

“We’re all we’ve got left. We ought to be able to stick together against everything. If we don’t have each other, we don’t have anything.”

Sodapop says this to Darry and Ponyboy in Chater 12

Ponyboy and Darry’s relationship has been strained since their parents died and Darry became responsible for his little brothers. They fight all the time, and throughout the story try to reconcile and come to an understanding. But they never think of how their fighting affects Soda until Chapter 12, when he runs out of the house. When they catch him in the park, he tells them the above quote, pointing out the unity that defines their family now.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold. Keep that way, it’s a good way to be.”

This is an excerpt from the note Johnny writes Ponyboy, which Ponyboy reads in Chapter 12

This quotation is Johnny’s explanation of his own last words, “Stay gold.” Reading this note inspires Ponyboy to write The Outsiders as his semester theme for English class. In the note, Johnny says to “tell Dally” about staying gold, but Ponyboy knows it is too late, since Dally is already dead by the time he reads it. So Ponyboy feels compelled to share what he has learned from his own experience as a Greaser with others, so that the fighting might stop and lives might be saved.

Character Analysis from SparkNotes.com

Ponyboy Curtis

Ponyboy Curtis, the youngest member of the greasers, narrates the novel. Ponyboy theorizes on the motivations and personalities of his friends and describes events in a slangy, youthful voice. Though only fourteen years old, he understands the way his social group functions and the role each group member plays. He sees that Two-Bit is the wisecracker, Darry the natural leader, and Dally the dangerous hood.

Ponyboy dislikes the Socs, whom we see through his subjective viewpoint. The distorting effects of hatred and group rivalry make his narration less than objective. Ponyboy is young enough to have changeable conceptions of people, however, and over the course of the novel he realizes that Socs have problems just as greasers do. He also comes to see that Socs are even similar to the greasers in some ways.

Ponyboy has a literary bent, which Hinton uses to show that poverty does not necessarily mean boorishness or lack of culture, and that gang members are not always delinquents. Ponyboy identifies with Pip, the impoverished protagonist of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, cites the Robert Frost poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” and introduces Johnny to the southern gentlemen of Margaret Mitchell’s Southern epic, Gone with the Wind. With such an awareness of literary protagonists, Ponyboy sees himself as he is, as both character and narrator. He takes on the narrator’s work of recounting events and the character’s work of growing and changing as a result of those events. The novel is not just a story of gang rivalry; it is an account of Ponyboy’s development.

Johnny Cade

Johnny Cade is a vulnerable sixteen-year-old greaser in a group defined by toughness and a sense of invincibility. He comes from an abusive home, and he takes to the greasers because they are his only reliable family. While Johnny needs the greasers, the greasers also need Johnny, for protecting him gives them a sense of purpose and justifies their violent measures. When Johnny, little and vulnerable, suffers at the hands of the Socs, the greasers feel justified in their hatred of the rival gang.

Passive and quiet, Johnny is the principal catalyst for the major events of the novel. He stands up to Dally at the drive-in and tells him to stop harassing the two Soc girls, Cherry and Marcia. Johnny’s intervention on the girls’ behalf pleases the girls, and they talk and walk with the greasers. This interaction between female Socs and male greasers sparks the anger of the Soc boys and motivates them to attack Johnny and Ponyboy. Ultimately, Johnny’s small acts of courage lead to murder, death, and heroic rescue. But Johnny ends by advocating against gang violence, stating that he would gladly sacrifice his life for the lives of little children. Although a gentle boy, he has a profound impact with his startling, persistent demand for peace. His courage in rescuing the children from the burning church and his subsequent death as a result of injuries sustained in the rescue make him a martyr. Ponyboy’s decision to write the story that becomes The Outsiders ensures that Johnny’s bravery will not be forgotten.

Cherry Valance

Before Cherry Valance enters the narrative, Ponyboy paints the conflict between the greasers and the Socs as irreconcilable. The introduction of Cherry, however, suggests that individual friendships can chip away at group hatreds. Cherry gets along perfectly well with some of the greasers. She likes Ponyboy and Johnny because they treat her politely. Dally’s rude antics do not amuse her. Her disenchantment with Dally’s behavior suggests that she talks to Ponyboy and Johnny not because she is slumming and their greaser identity fascinates her, but rather because she likes them as individuals. For a short while at least, she cares more about how each boy behaves than about his West Side or East Side address.

Cherry is not just a sweet, simple girl. She finds herself sexually attracted to Dally, who is crass and unrefined but also sexy and charismatic. Despite all her attraction to the greasers, moreover, she is not completely free of group prejudice. She tells Ponyboy she probably will not say hello to him at school, acknowledging that she respects social divisions. Although Cherry plays a relatively small role in the novel, the ambiguity of her sympathies gives us something to which we can relate. She mirrors our own perspective as someone close to the action who is nevertheless an outsider and who does not always fully understand other characters’ emotions and motivations.

Quotes

Characters:

Ponyboy Curtis, Darry Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, Johnny Cade, Dallas Winston, Two-Bit Mathews, Steve Randle, Bob, Randy, Cherry Valance, Marcia, Sandy.

Themes:

Divided Communities, Empathy, Preserving Childhood Innocence, Self-Sacrifice and Honor, Individual Identity.

Chapter 1 Quotes

When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.