Dally comes back and offers a Coke to Cherry, but she throws it in his face. Dally tries to put his arm around her. Dally stalks off, and Cherry and her friend Marcia invite Ponyboy and Johnny to watch the movie with them. Tim Shepard is the leader of another greaser gang. Cherry and Ponyboy go to get popcorn, and Ponyboy tells her about the time the Socs beat up Johnny. The leader of the gang that beat him, Ponyboy says, wore a fistful of rings. Cherry looks distressed and assures him that not all Socs are violent like the Socs that beat Johnny.
She also tells him that Socs have problems just as the greasers do, but Ponyboy does not believe her. The novel begins by detailing the differences between the poor greasers and the rich Socs and sketching the treacherous world in which they live. When the Socs jump Ponyboy in the opening chapter, it suggests that Ponyboy lives in a place where even an innocent walk is fraught with danger.
Hinton defines her characters as she thinks people should be defined in life—not according to the group to which they belong, but according to their individual characteristics. For instance, she introduces Ponyboy not as a tough street youth but as a boy who likes to read and watch sunsets.
Ponyboy is something of an anthropologist, a natural role for a narrator, and he observes and records the group dynamics and individual traits of his fellow greasers. Darry is presented not as the natural leader of the gang, but as a struggling young man who has had to forgo an education so that he can support and raise his two younger brothers.
Hinton suggests that greasers, despite their exclusion from the mainstream, have moral grounding and sense of decency as strong as—or stronger than—the kids from the privileged classes.
Hinton shows the constant conflict between the greasers and the Socs, but she also shows that the two groups are not as different as they initially appear. After meeting faceless, cruel Socs, we meet Cherry Valance, a Soc who is also a sympathetic, warm girl. The theme of loyalty recurs throughout the book: When characters do not show loyalty, chaos ensues. Two-Bit explains the logic of a fight between two greasers.
Dally has slashed the tires of Tim Shepard, the leader of another greaser gang, so Shepard will have to fight Dally. Loyalty is presented as a point of pride for the greasers throughout the novel.
Ponyboy reflects on the surprise he felt when he realized Johnny followed him into the burning building to help save children who were trapped inside. It says that Johnny believed his death was "worth it," since the lives of the children he saved "are worth more than mine.
Zaineb Sauerland Pundit. Why does Johnny go after Bob what is the result? Johnny goes after Bob , and kills him for trying to drown PonyBoy. Why does Johnny react so violently to the Socs? Johnny reacts violently to the socs because they were trying to drown PonyBoy. Justice Heneghan Pundit. Why is cherry helping the greasers? Cherry helps the Greasers for a few reasons. She doesn't think the fighting is right, and wants the fighting to stop. Secondly, she has a huge crush on Dally.
Her feelings for Dally motivate her to do what she can for the Greasers. Mountaga Ubric Pundit. What does the country symbolize in the outsiders? What does the country symbolize? The country symbolizes a place to escape in which there are no stereotypes, and there is much peace.
It is the ideal place for the character Johnny to live in, where he is free from his parents and the Socs. Cheick Kaltenegger Pundit. What does ponyboy fear in the outsiders? That information causes Ponyboy to feel some guilt because he isn't sure if he had asked for Darry.
Ponyboy fears that Darry will think Ponyboy doesn't care about him. Something in his tone of voice made me look at him. Mostly for Soda. Dmitrij Bensinger Teacher. Why does Johnny think Dally is a hero? Cherry asks whether he watches sunsets, and Ponyboy answers that he does. She admits that she enjoys watching them, but that she hasn't had much time for it lately. A sunset, which they both can watch from their respective homes, represents their outlooks on life.
To Cherry, a sunset is the fading of daylight, when the sun drops below the horizon. It takes away a day and signals the beginning of another, a fresh start. Cherry has, at this point, apparently given up and accepted the rat race: "We're always going and going and going, and never asking where. To Pony the sunset signals that everyone now is in the dark, one cannot escape the sunset no matter how rich or poor they may be.
It is the great equalizer, and it gives everyone a second chance. Ponyboy realizes that "maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset. Ponyboy and his gang are not the only outsiders; Cherry is an outsider as well.
She feels trapped in her world and from her perspective can only see Ponyboy and his friends as unattainable, a realization that saddens her. Her comments about Dally justify her irrational admiration for him: "I could fall in love with Dallas Winston. I hope I never see him again, or I will. Ponyboy's fellow gang members internalize differently the premise that life isn't fair.
However, Two-Bit appears to accept his place in life good-naturedly. On the other hand, Johnny, having been pushed to the brink, vents his frustration and foreshadows his future when he says, "I can't take much more.
At this point, Ponyboy's character is the only one that the reader can actually perceive to be growing in understanding. But readers must remember that Ponyboy is narrating this tale; his views are being related.
0コメント