How Is Ponyboy Responsible

Since Ponyboy’s parents died, there is not a responsible figure in his life. As a result, there has been many horrible incidents in his life because of his current irresponsible caretaker, his older brother Darry. Because of these incidents Ponyboy should be in the system instead of in his care.

One reason Ponyboy should be in the system, is that Darry hits Ponyboy when he was angry with him. This shows that Darry is still too young and irresponsible to be a parent. In the book, Ponyboy says, “Darry wheeled around and slapped me so hard that it knocked me against the door.” (Hinton, 50). In the story, Ponyboy also states, “I went on walking home, thinking about the movie, and then suddenly wishing I had some company. Greasers can’t walk alone much or they’ll get jumped.” (Hinton, 2) This tells me that ponyboy has to live in constant fear of getting jumped, and is in a bad environment. …show more content…
A couple examples of this are: “Darry’s hard and firm and rarely grins at all” (Hinton, 2), this shows Darry isn’t exactly friendly with Ponyboy. He also says, “And anytime you don't like the way I'm running things around here, you can just get out, ALL RIGHT?” (Hinton, 173) In this quote, Darry is basically telling Ponyboy to leave if he doesn’t enjoy the horrible living conditions he is in. So if he does stay with Darry, he will probably run away. And in addition to that, Ponyboy says, “Me and Darry just didn’t dig each other. I never could please him. He would have had hollered at me for carrying a blade.”(HInton, 13) This means Ponyboy felt he could never impress Darry and they didn’t “dig each other.” Also, Darry wouldn’t let him carry a blade even after he put him in all that danger by letting him into a rumble, keeping the door unlocked at night, and the risk of being jumped by