Making Mistakes In The Outsiders
To Being Successful As a human, we are bound to make mistakes and learn from them to avoid repeating them in the future. For example, in a math class, especially students tend to make mistakes with numbers and solving the problem. However, students have an eraser to remove the mistake. This gives people the ability to change what is wrong. Life also works the same way. Humans are given opportunities to become a better person. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton tells a story about a boy named Ponyboy who has made plenty of mistakes during his life and learned valuable lessons from them.
Ponyboy lived on the east side of town which was known to be a poor section of the neighborhood. In this neighborhood, he had a gang called ̈Greasers ̈. Ponyboy learned that people can love you, they can be part of your family and people have a rough time in life. While he was in the hospital, he learned the first lesson about individuals that show a very tough acting exterior may just be the ones that actually care. In church, where Ponyboy and Johnny were living after killing Bob. When the church got on fire, Johnny tried to save the kids, and when Dally pushed Ponyboy out, he was injured. When they arrived in the hospital, his brother Darry came to visit, who was always tough on him. Ponyboy never understood why he was so hard on him. He came to realize how much his brother actually loved him when he saw tears well up in his eyes because his brother was hurt. He knew the truth. Darry does have a heart and does truly have feelings.
He assumed he only cared about Sodapop and not him. When Ponyboy states “Darry did care about me, maybe as much as he cared about Soda, and because he cared he was trying too hard to make something of me”(Hinton 98). Ponyboy comes to the shocking realization that his brother Darry has been working so hard and trying to keep him safe but in a confusing way because he was going through his own personal issues and sacrifices. He also realized that there is hidden love inside of a person. Even people that you wouldn’t think are good may have a side to them that you may not know about or get to see very often. However, when you do it’s really special. Darry is this kind of person. It takes a bit longer to see his soft side and he comes off rough, but in times of need, he is there for Ponyboy. Another realization that Ponyboy came to while on the walk home from a movie, is that he should have gone with the four boys, Darry or Sodapop and he realized that blood is not thicker than water. Ponyboy realizes happened when he states “We’re almost as close as brothers; when you grow up in a tight-knit neighborhood like ours you get to know each other real well”(Hinton 3). He realizes that they have been together for so long, that they have a relationship beyond friends, they are like 7 boys family even though they are not blood-related. He also realizes that he has a family when he needed them and when he was walking alone from the movie and he thought that he could have called Darry to pick him up or other boys to pick him up.
Another way he learned this lesson was by Johnny. He noticed that Johnny family ́s was not exactly stable and it came across as if they didn’t care about Johnny ́s well being. Johnny parents would constantly argue and not act as a family should. He realized that a connection is what makes a family not a bloodline. A family is who turn to in hard times and good times and he realized he ́s had a family with these 7 boys all along. They nurtured and took care of each other as a family should. Ponyboy also learned that other people go through times just as tough as he does and he should not always complain about it. It could always be worse and he should be grateful for what he has. When Ponyboy and Two-bit were walking to go see Johnny and Two-bit, Randy, the Socs honked at Ponyboy to question him.
The questions about why Johnny and himself saved those kids in the church. When Ponyboy came back to Two-bit and when he asked who he was, he said that he was not a Socs, he is a guy. Also, he learned this lesson, when he said ̈Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guys was human too(Hinton 118). He learned that there are people in the world, that have a lot of problems and a rough time but you can’t see them. When he said that he started to realize that Socs were seen as their enemies and rich people, but that doesn’t mean all Socs are like that and they have a problem like greasers too. He, always learn this lesson from Cherry Valance, a Socs who told him, that not all Greasers are nice like you and not all Socs are mean. This shows that people have a problem and you can ́t tell what they are going through until you experience it.
Overall Ponyboy from “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton, needed to learn these lessons to grow as a human being and have more character depth within the story. He learned a lot of life lessons so quickly like family does not have to be blood-related, those that are tough may actually have a soft side and that those that have money have problems as well and to always look at a situation fully before judging. As humans we all make mistakes whether or not we make realizations as Ponyboy did in the end, we must learn from them and fix those mistakes for next time.
