Post 1--The Dysfunctional Cycle

Molly Walsh

Post 1 (for the Outsiders)

January 5, 2012

            Ponyboy is one of those characters who are just so relatable and so interesting, that it makes the book, The Outsiders, one that I don’t want to put down.  He makes it so easy to dive right into his world and live all of the events of the book as if I was standing next to him.  Not many books do that and that is why I love this one so much.

            While reading, I tried to imagine living the life that all of the Greasers lived.  There would always be threats of fights and craziness constantly.  I thought in some ways it would be interesting to be in their shoes, but it would also be really scary.  Life with the Greasers would always be adventurous and there would never be a dull moment.  But, their lives are not just fun and games, not by any stretch of the imagination.  The boys in the story always had to be concerned for their safety, or else they could get beaten up like Johnny was.  On page 11 Ponyboy describes Johnny being beaten up by a group of Socs.  It seemed that Johnny never got over the attack and that is actually kind of tragic.  I would not want to live a life where I had to constantly watch my back to make sure a Soc wasn’t going to stab me with a switch blade.  The sometimes violent life of the boys seems it would get very tough and not a healthy situation to be in.  The boys seem to be thick skinned and they can handle the mean streets of whatever town they live in.

            Here is a theme I found in the book, there are many more to follow:

Revenge:  From pages 55-56 there was a dramatic and dreadful fight that involved Johnny, Ponyboy and two socs.  Johnny quickly realized that one of the soc boys was the one who almost killed him the last time they met.  Johnny went on to be ruthless towards the soc.  Johnny had a desire to put all the pain he felt from his previous attack into this outburst toward the assailant.  It seemed he had so much rage and so much sadness in him that he needed to get it out and in his desire to get even, Johnny ended up killing his attacker.

            Johnny’s compulsion to get revenge was prevalent and because of his revenge, led to most of the later events of the book.  It also seems that Johnny wasn’t the only one who had feelings of animosity to the socs.  There was a sort of dysfunctional cycle between the two groups that fueled the fire.  Because the socs and greasers hated one another, one group attacked another.  When the attacked group saw the attacking group again, they decided to retaliate and the cycle repeated itself.