Loss Of Innocence In The Outsiders

The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, is an award winning novel about a boy named Ponyboy Curtis and his gang, the greasers, and all of their adventures associated with their enemies, the socs. The novel takes off as soon as the socs attack Johnny and Pon in the park one night after Johnny and Pony run away. As the socs are dunking Pony’s head underwater and threatening to take Pony’s life, Johnny stabs Bob, the leader of the socs, in the back which causes him to eventually die. Due to this, Johnny and Pony have to run even further away than they had planned to. If Ponyboy had to take three important objects to remember his journey, he would take Dally’s jacket, coca-cola, and a copy of Gone with the Wind.

Firstly, Pony would take Dally’s jacket with him. Dally’s jacket had saved Pony from dying in a fire from which they had previously gone into to save children that were trapped. Pony first receives Dally’s jacket when Johnny and Ponyboy tell Dally that they are running away to the country. After the fire, Johnny and Dally are seriously injured while Dally’s jacket had stopped the fire from coming into contact with Pony. A deeper meaning to Dally’s jacket is friendship and protection.

Next, Pony would bring coca-cola. The coca-cola was a drink that Cherry Valance consumed at the movie theater where Cherry had met Ponyboy and became …show more content…
When Pony and Johnny run away to the country, they stop at a church to use as their shelter. In the church Pony reads this book to Johnny which brings them closer together as friends. Gone with the Wind is very important because the book includes the two sides, Yankees and Confederates, while Johnny and Pony are apart of a real version of the Yankees and Confederates; the socs and the greasers. Gone with the Wind was an object that brought Ponyboy and Johnny together yet represents sadness when Johnny dies because it’s one of the only things that reminds Pony of