The Outsiders Essay: The Hero’s Journey
“Fear has two meanings-forget everything and run or face everything and rise. The choice is yours”(Quotations and Quotes). Johnny Cade chose to forget everything and run, but soon realized running didn’t help him forget the past. In The Outsiders, Johnny goes through the heroic journey by the fact that he faces a harsh reality that brings him to committing an act he never thought he would, which in the end led him to becoming a hero. His story starts with tragedy and ends with it as well. The tragedy he faced, gave him strength.
Reality is a cruel mistress. People are seen as a certain way and categorized by their daily lives. Some never bother to look underneath the many layers that people consist
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In anger and in fear he stopped Bob from hurting Pony(56), that left him with a feeling that distressed him greatly. He says to Pony, “Shut up about last night! I killed a kid last night…. How’d you like to live with that”(74)? This eats away at Johnny and makes him cry- “it took alot to make Johnny cry”(4). When Pony and Johnny go on the run because Johnny killed Bob, they leave everything behind and only stay in touch with Johnny’s hero, Dally. It hurt Johnny even more when Dallas had told him his parents had not asked about him after he ran away(88). He decided to turn himself in and stop running when he saw that it did more harm than good. Johnnycake knew that it wasn’t fair for Pony to be away from his family. On their way back to the church they see that it had caught on fire. Pony and Johnny knew that they had probably started the fire and ran in the church to try and save the children stuck inside. They rushed to get the kids out of the church window as embers fell on them. Though they go through these hard times they end up being heroes when they save the children and learn quite a few things.
The ones that have left this life behind can sometimes teach things that can only be fully grasped when they are no longer in people’s lives. Johnny leaves a gift in the form of a letter addressed to Pony that teaches him that the suffering will end. His death and his gift both purify him in his journey, making him a hero. He stayed in the hospital in critical
In contrast to the removed Johnny shown early on, after the realization that he endangered several children, he boldly rushed to assist. After killing Bob in self-defense, Johnny bolts with Ponyboy to an abandoned church in the countryside. However, after presumably dropping a lighted cigarette, the church ignites in a blaze of fumes. Realizing there are children in the flaming church, Johnny and Ponyboy dart to aid. During the calamity, Ponyboy realizes that, “Johnny had been right behind me all the way” as he slips through a broken window and into the fiery church and notes that, “Johnny wasn’t behaving at all like his old self...That was the only time I can think of when I saw him without that defeated, suspicious look in his eyes” (92).
Johnny got severely injured and rushed to the hospital where, “ The pillow seemed to sink a little and Johnny died¨ (148). This choice impacted Ponyboy because he loses his very close friend. He now feels as though he can't move on in his life, but later learns to appreciate what is most important to him while it is still in his
Acceptance and security. These are the two things that every human being wants. How they gain those two things varies from person to person.But most of us are privileged enough to not worry about these two very important necessities.However there are people in the world who are not so lucky. Those are the people who are failed to be understood by the rest of the world. However a lot of us are asleep to those people and their problems.Sometimes it takes a piece of art or literature to wake us up to those problems and a piece of literature that can do that is the novel written by S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders.In her novel Hinton, writes about two socioeconomic classes, the greasers and the Socs, who live their lives on the two ends of social status, near-poverty and full on rich, respectively.The cloak of money shields both sides to understand the others problems and the society is unable to take off the cloak as well. The novel is also a good eye-opener to how social,emotional,and economic forces can shape a person’s life and how if one can truly understand a person for what they are the world might just be a better place.
When Johnny dies, Dally wants to be dead because Johnny is the only thing he loves. Ponyboy says “I know he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted” (154). After Johnny dies, Dally does not see any good in the world. Since Dally does not see any good in the world, he sees no reason to live. Likewise, Johnny says how he does not mind dying in his note he writes to Ponyboy. Before Johnny dies, he tells the nurse to give Ponyboy Gone With The Wind, and he leaves a note inside. One the note, Johnny writes “Listen, I don’t mind dying now. It’s worth it. It’s worth saving those kids. Their lives are worth more than mine” (178). Johnny wants all of the kids to have a good, long life. Therefore, Johnny places little value on his life just like Dally
The book, and the movie, “the Outsiders” is about a conflict between greasers and socs. Up until the point where Johnny kills a soc, there are mostly only small fights and arguments between the two. The story “the Outsiders” takes place in the 1960’s, when there were two main lifestyles. Greasers and Socs. Greasers are known for greasing their hair. Socs are rich kids who have good clothes, drive mustangs, and always have an argument against the greasers. The main character in S. E. Hinton’s book “the Outsiders” is Ponyboy Curtis. He has two older brothers Darry and Soda. Pony is 14 years old and his best friend, Johnny, is 16 years old. S. E. Hinton wrote “the Outsiders” when she was 17 years old. Her book was published in 1967. The
In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, it's built around the class division between the Socs and the greasers. The kids in the Socs came from privileged and wealthy families while the greaser grew up in a unstable and poor environment, and it shaped who they are and how they act. The novel deals with issues important to urban teens, and the obstacles that are part of their daily lives, showing realism in Hinton's writing. In the article ¨The Urban Experience in Recent Young Adult Novels¨ by Sandra Hassell and Sandy Guild, it discuss the importance of urban teens worlds represented in literature. The article consists of many characteristics that are established in urban youth books such as, the usage of slang, strong sense of community,
Have you ever met someone that you absolutely hate but they actually like you and always try to be nice to you? If you have, good for you! If you haven’t, still good for you.Anyways, on to what the book is about. The Outsiders is about a gang called “The Greasers” that have a rivalry with a gang from the West side called “The Socs”. The Outsiders is told from the perspective of a 14 year old named Ponyboy Curtis (a member of the greasers). Ponyboy enjoys reading and watching movies alone unlike the other Greasers. So, what exactly happens in the novel? Well, one day, Ponyboy comes home late. Darry (Ponyboy’s and Soda’s older brother) lashes out on Ponyboy causing him to run away. That same night, Johnny kills a Soc because he was trying to
Look around at your close friends. You stick together just like a family. Your friends support and know you. Like a family, friends know each other, like each other, and relate to each other. In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, my theme, friends are family, is very present. S.E. Hinton shows that Friends are family like when the greasers stick together because they really know each other and don’t really have family. The theme at the beginning is friends are family.
The Outsiders movie which was released on March 25, 1983, is a American drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola .It is a crime thriller and is adapted from a novel of the same name by S.E. Hinton .The Film was shot on location in Tulsa, Oklahoma and set in 1965 .The story of this movie revolves around the conflict between the two different social groups ,which is the rich and the poor. It is a class versus class conflict which gives rise to a physical conflict between the Greasers and the Socs .I feel there are physical fights throughout the story between the two groups due to enculturation. The native culture that is transmitted from one generation to another among the Greasers is the reason for their limitations.
The Outsiders Essay – Describe an interesting theme from a text you have studied. Explain why this theme is interesting.
Johnny would do anything to save his friends. After Dally drove Pony and Johnny to eat some much- needed food. They came back to see the church that Johnny and Pony were hiding out in on fire. There was a school having a picnic there. Some of the kids trapped inside the church. Without saying anything, Pony jumped out of the car and ran into the burning church with Johnny behind him. Right after saving the kids, Pony described, ‘‘Johnny shoved me out the window. ‘Get out!’ I leaped out the window and I heard timber crashing and the flames roaring right behind me” (Hinton 97). Instead of saving himself, Johnny pushed Pony out the window and saved him. Johnny puts others before himself and is willing to risk his life for others. This act is truly heroic.
The title of the story is The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton wrote it. Dell Publishing published the book. The main characters include Ponyboy, Darry, Soadapop, Dally Winston, Johnny, Cherry, Two-Bit, and Marcia.
You’d better get home” (49). Johnny cares about Ponyboy getting home on time and not being too late. Furthermore, here is another example of how Johnny is a caring person. Johnny rushes into a burning church to save kids he does not even know without hesitating. Pony watched him, “He looked over his shoulder and saw that the door was blocked by flames, then pushed open the window and tossed out the nearest kid” (92).
Your book the Outsiders let me connect like no other book has before. Even though me and Ponyboy’s lives differ. Like my brothers don't raise me and my parents didn't die thankfully. But I still feel like I can connect to The Outsiders. Your book showed me that it isn't just here where there are gangs maybe not the same gangs but everywhere there is always a violent rivalry.
In class we have been reading a novel called ‘The Outsiders’ by S E Hilton. This book was published forty years ago and is still popular because it has an interesting theme and characters as well.