Outsiders essay

In “The outsiders” novel Darry seems to hate his youngest brother Ponyboy. This ‘hate’ for Ponyboy fell negatively onto the Middle Brother Sodapop, Soda got in the Middle a lot of the times telling Ponyboy ‘he didn’t mean it’ or ‘he doesn’t really hate you Pony’ and telling darry ‘you gotta be easier on the kid’. The meaning of why Darry and Ponyboy have this little feud is because Darry, being the eldest brother just wants to do what he thinks is right for Ponyboy and since Ponyboy is still a child he doesn’t exactly realize this and just thinks Darry hates him. In the Novel this is used to have the reader, read more to see will Darry stop being so hard of ponyboy? Or will Darry ignore Ponyboys feelings and Sodapops opinions. It is quite a clever little technique that Hinton used. This aspect can be compared to if you or a friend are in a feud with another person and someone is in the middle and they don't want to take sides, and the don't want to seem rude to one or another person so instead of taking one side they try to take both sides. Not only does Sodapop seem to get involved in Darry and Ponyboys squabbles but johnny does too in a similar way to how Sodapop gets involved Johnny gets involved because he wants them all to get along but that won't happen if Darry keeps on yelling at Ponyboy and it also won't happen if Ponyboy keeps on thinking Darry hates him. This makes us understand that Johnny doesn’t like violence even when it's only a misunderstanding. This shows that Johnny is the type of person to see further into things rather than just skim the surface, instead if just agreeing with Ponyboy and saying Darry hates him because he yells at Ponyboy he says “he does love you, it's just he wants what's best for you” which is 100% true, because just because it seems like someone hates you, it's not always the case, They may only be tough on you because they want what's best for you. This was done to relate to a lot of other people since if they have someone who seems to ‘hate’ them, they can reference back to this novel and remember, things aren’t always what they seem and then they could look deeper into the situation and find out the real truth if that person hates them or not. This is similar to someone who always seems to look deeper into things and will never accept just a simple answer. Sodapop and Johnny aren’t the only ones who get involved and want Darry and Pony to stop fighting but the rest of the gang too, some of them couldn't exactly care less but a majority wished they wouldn't be so childish and quit acting like children. This shows that in a family you must stick together so no squabbles between people since it rarely if ever helps anyone. This makes the audience or reader feel as if the tension between Ponyboy and Darry is making almost in fire wall in the gang. The purpose was for the reader to understand that there may be rough patches in families or gangs but there will always be those few people who will help as much as they can to fix the fight. This reminds me of some families where a child seems to get yelled at and lectured a lot when the person who yells at them is almost always a lot harder on themselves.
When thinking on this in a deeper level in a way everybody who meets these two could be affected since Ponyboy and Darry could put a bad name on each other or someone could immediately have their opinion settled on the two and then the rest of the people in that area. This makes us understand that even the smallest of mistakes can lead to a ridiculous amount of trouble. The reasoning Hinton would want us to understand this is to make us understand that the smallest things can lead to very big consequences. This can be related to how if you make a small mistake then you could ruin quite a lot from a small plan to a massive plan that could ruin your entire future and you might never be what you want to be or you may never get a good job.