Ponyboys Loss Of Innocence Essay

The novel The Outsiders by S.E Hinton shows the importance of preserving the hope, open-mindedness, and appreciation of beauty that are characteristic of childhood. Ponyboy's daydreams about the country, his appreciation of sunrises and sunsets, and his rescue of the children from the burning church distinguish him from other characters in the novel. These traits show that Ponyboy has the golden qualities that set him apart from his companions. Through experiencing different situations, Ponyboy begins to lose his childhood innocent, in order to gain more experience and to become more mature.

After facing many perilous situations throughout the story, Ponyboy learns to be more aware of the world and becomes more mature about the way he handles his life in general. A pivotal point in …show more content…
The poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” plays an important role in the novel: it offers Ponyboy and Johnny a way to understand their lives; it gives them a framework for the traumatic events that has occurred in their lives; and it likens the inevitable loss of innocence that the boys experience to the wilting of flowers. In the poem, the conditions of existence dictate that everything loses its initial innocence, however, this loss of youth and purity does not have to be devastating. By using a metaphor from nature, Frost suggests that the loss of innocence is as natural as the death of a flower, and both losses must be accepted as an inevitable part of the life cycle. While the poem's message — that all beautiful things fade with the passage of time — forces the two boys to realize that they can't hide from the realities of growing up, Johnny's call for Ponyboy and the greasers to "stay gold" is also a call for them to preserve the hope and optimism of childhood no matter what the world throws at