Coming of age is the transition from childhood to adulthood. A variety of factors can affects a character’s coming of age. This affects a characters personality and morals. In The Outsiders by S.C Hinton, the main character, Ponyboy, has changed a lot from the beginning of the book to the end. His coming of age changed his personality drastically. In the beginning of the book, Ponyboy is quiet and weak. He admits, “I’m quiet around people, even the gang”(pg. 12). He doesn’t even like to talk when he’s with his Greaser friends. He is also very different than the usual Greaser. Greasers were seen as uneducated hoodlums who are rough and tough. Ponyboy is smart, scoring consistent A’s and B’s. He is a pacifist, not wanting to fight the Socs. …show more content…
The death of his two friends causes him to become aggressive. During the fire in the church, Johnny went into the church to help Ponyboy rescue the children trapped inside. After all the chidren were rescued, the church collapses with Johnny inside. He suffers fatal injuries from the crash of the church. Ponyboy blames the Socs for the injuries Johnny suffered. When he is going to go fight in a rumble, he says he wants to win for Johnny. After the rumble, Ponyboy and his friends go to the hospital to see Johnny and tell him about their victory. They get to the hospital and see Johnny die. To pour salt on the wound, Ponyboy’s friend Dally has an emotional breakdown. He robs a grocery store and gets chased by the police. In the end, Dally is shoot to death. After these events, Ponyboy displays more Greaser like traits. He becomes violent. A group of Socs threaten Ponyboy, he retaliates by picking up a pop bottle, breaking it, and threatens the Socs. He starts to do badly in school, from getting A’s in his English class to being lucky if he gets a D. Ponyboy changed a lot from the beginning of the book. I realized that coming of age is difficult for some people, Ponyboy for example. The ongoing feud between the Socs and the Greasers caused Ponyboy to grow up in dangerous conditions. These conditions caused Ponyboy to have to adapt, and the adaptions that Ponyboy went through weren’t exactly
He is smart, and gets good grades in school. This is purposefully mentioned several times within the story, and people tend to be surprised to learn that he is a Greaser. In addition, some Greasers are nicer than people tend to think. When the church burned down, Ponyboy and Johnny run in to save the children without a second thought. They acted with selflessness, putting the safety of the children above their own. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Ponyboy is asked if he and Johnny are "professional heroes". He responds by telling the entire story of how they're Greasers and Johnny is wanted for murder, shocking the man in the ambulance. It is difficult for him to believe that a group of Greasers would do something so heroic. Johnny dies as a direct result of their actions, but neither Ponyboy nor Johnny regretted what they
With his long greasy hair and baggy worn out clothes he looked likes a bad kid, but the way he talked and the way he thought it was a whole different person inside of him. The Outsiders is about two rival gangs that fight and go through so much stuff to just to call the territory their own. It is the Socs versus Greasers. They always have their back up because you can't trust anyone, but at the end of the day is all the rubbles and fighting worth it? Ponyboy one of the greasers has a big character change during the book. In the beginning of the book Ponyboy was getting jumped by the Socs and he was acting all tough and defending himself, in the middle of the book he starts to break while he is in the church, and when the kids were stuck in
The book The Outsiders is the realistic story about this between two very different groups in a town in the United States: the poor Greasers from the east side, and the Socs, whitch is what the greasers call the socials, the richer boys from the other side of the town. Ponyboy Curtis is the narrator of the story, a 14-year-old boy who lives with his two older brothers, Darry and Soda. He is a pretty good athlete and student, but is not treated the same as the richer students at his school. Ponyboy uses to have long hair that he greases back, a symbol of being in the outsider gang. He is unhappy with his situation, because Darry is too protective of him and he always has to be afraid of Socs attacking him.
The book The Outsiders has many dynamic characters. Dynamic Character is a person who changed a lot in a book. Along with the others, Ponyboy was the main one to change. He started off like a rusty metal bar and turned into a shiny gold bar. Gold as in a good child.
He knows that Ponyboy has a chance because he is very smart. How they both reacted to not having parents shaped and effected who they are. “Johnny was high-strung anyway, a nervous wreck from getting belted every time he turned around and from hearing his parents fight all the time(2).” This explains how Johnny was effected by his parents. His parents constantly fighting and beating him made him who he was. A part of him was effected by all the chaos and pain he had to go through every day. “We're poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we're wilder, too. Not like the Socs, who jump greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next. Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while. I don't mean I do things like that. Darry would kill me if I got into trouble with the police.” Social roles are a part of self-image that makes a person who they are. In the novel Ponyboy explains the groups that the Greasers and Sochs were split into. This
Ponyboy was described as sensitive and emotional for many reasons. One example is when Ponyboy, Darry, and Soda find out that Johnny may die. On page 102, Ponyboy says, “I was trembling. A pain was growing in my throat, and I wanted to cry, but greasers don’t cry in front of strangers.” Clearly, this shows that Ponyboy is emotional when it comes to losing people close to him. Another example is when he picks up the pieces of glass from the bottle he broke, to threaten the Socs. On page 171, Two-Bit tells Ponyboy that he is not like the rest of the Greasers, he isn’t hard or tough. Therefore, it shows that Ponyboy is caring and not as mean and hard as the rest of the Greasers. From these examples, it is clear that Pony is sensitive and softer than the rest of the gang.
The book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, follows a horrific part of the life of a boy named Ponyboy Curtis. He is what you might call a Greaser, and has had a rough go at it in his life compared to others. It is difficult, but Ponyboy somehow manages to be himself and has the tenacity to stick through it all. He is in a gang with his friends and family and they are loyal to one another no matter what. A rival gang from the Socs crowd, a richer, more refined group, send him and his pals into a whirlwind of trouble and hurt. This book shows on multiple occasions that perseverance is necessary to get through life .
Your age doesn't determine how or if you are coming of age, Your mindset and mentality to move forward determines that. The Novella “The Body” by Stephen King is about a group of boys who all come from abusive, dysfunctional families and this book is their journey to discover a dead body. They are young and their immaturity makes them excited to see a dead body, but along the way, they begin to realize various things and begin to grow. In this book, the four boys Gordie, Chris, Vern, and Teddy come of age. In this essay, there will be brief descriptions about three of the four of the boys from this novella. Chris came from a bad family and was thought to come out the exact same way as his family and was doubted his whole life. Teddy came from
The Outsiders is a novel by S.E Hinton, that follows a young boy named Ponyboy who grows up in a gang. Johnny, Sodapop and Darry help him find how he fits into the world and without them he would have a hard time finding his own identity. Without having a close group of friends he would have a tough way of life, especially with the Socs. Being in a group that you associate with, that have different values to yourself can lead you to disregard your own ethics and do things you wouldn’t normally do, but at the same time this can assist and reinforce your own values…
Ponyboy doesn’t act like any regular greaser who is tough and likes to pick fights. Ponyboy cares about other people and will do things to benefit others. “I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I just went on picking up the glass from the bottle end and put it in the trash can. I didn’t want anyone to get a flat tire.” (pg. 172) Instead of leaving the
Typically, greasers are depicted as people similar to hoods, as Ponyboy states, "Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while" (Hinton 4). Yet, even though Ponyboy is a greaser, he avoids getting into trouble for the sake of staying together with his family. He explains that, "I don't mean I do things like that... Since Mom and Dad were killed in an auto wreck, the three of us get to stay together only as long as we behave. So Soda and I stay out of trouble as much as we can, and we're careful not to get caught when we can't" (Hinton 4). Alternatively, Pony also enjoys activities such as reading and watching movies. Even simpler things, such as sunsets and clouds, are something he found beauty and enjoyment in. This sets him apart from the greasers because according to Pony, he states that, "And nobody in our gang digs movies and books the way I do" (Hinton 3). Since nobody other than Ponyboy himself shares the enjoyment of these particular pastimes, which is drastically different from pursuits such as shoplifting and fighting in rumbles, Ponyboy is divergent from the standard attributes of the greasers. Therefore, Ponyboy is a thoughtful and dreamy individual who holds different interests and aspirations than the
The Outsiders is about the life of a 14-year-old boy. The book tells the story of Ponyboy “Curtis” and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. Ponyboy and his two brothers, Darrel (Darry), who is 20, and Sodapop, who is 16, have recently lost their parents in an automobile accident. Pony and Soda are allowed to stay under Darry's guardianship as long as they all behave themselves. The boys are greasers, a class term that refers to the young men on the East Side, the poor side of town. The greasers' rivals are the Socs, short for Socials, who are the "West-side rich kids."
Everyone that have ever lived to adulthood, understand that difficulty of the transition to it from childhood. As of right now, I am in the prime of the “coming of age “transition. The overwhelming pressure of our society that forces the adolescence to assimilate the social norms is felt by many. Just as in our first steps, our first words or anything that is expected in our human milestones, coming of age is one of them. It may variety from different societies, religious responsibility or modern legal convention; everyone had to reach this point eventually.
Paul experienced a coming of age moment at the age of twelve years old by giving a really special and thoughtful going away present to his special friend Becky. Sally experienced a coming of age moment at the age of what seemed like her teen years, and she did it by making a mature choice of attending a memorial service. When reaching certain or uncertain points in life one will leave small parts of their youth behind and become more mature as they grow and by doing this they experience coming of age. All will have a youthful mind or young attitude before the process of coming of age. During the process of coming of age, one performs a mature action. After the process of coming of age, one becomes more respectful to themselves and others. To recap, coming of age is when one matures when getting older by leaving pieces of their youth behind, making a mature choice, and by doing this they gain and give
Teenagers often find themselves going through the motions of doing what they are told when they are told to do it. In conforming to societies norms teenagers begin to feel as if they blend in and nothing is really special about them. John Updike was able to write a coming of age story in which his main character Sammy gets shoved into adulthood rather quickly over spontaneous decision. Through Sammy’s thoughts, intense observations, and his actions we are able to see his deep depravity and his longing to stand out from the crowd.