Sunday, February 3, 2019

How is family important to Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darry in The Outsiders?

Family is of vital importance to Darry, Sodapop, and Ponyboy, three brothers whose parents have died. After the deaths of their parents, Darry, who is twenty at the time of the story, is responsible for keeping what remains of the family together. He gives up going to college and instead works himself to the bone so he can support the family. As a result, he is sometimes overly tired and does not how to appropriately show his concern for Ponyboy, his younger brother. At times, Darry seems overly critical of Ponyboy, but he is really just being protective.
Darry urges Ponyboy to stay in school so that Ponyboy can have a better life than he has; Darry sacrifices his happiness and wellbeing for that of his younger brother. Sodapop and Darry also spend so much time in the hospital when Ponyboy is hurt during a rumble that the doctor thinks that they might wind up hospitalized. They do everything they can to stay together and to convince the judge that Ponyboy should remain in Darry's care. Family clearly means a great deal to the Curtis brothers.


Family is important to Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darry in the novel The Outsiders. The Curtis brothers had lost their parents in a tragic car accident and Darry was forced to work two jobs to support his younger brothers. As a young man, Darry sacrifices an opportunity to go to college on a football scholarship in order to keep his family together. Sodapop is the middle child and acts as a mediator between Ponyboy and Darry. At the beginning of the novel, Ponyboy struggles to get along with Darry and feels like Darry views him as another mouth to feed. As the novel progresses, Ponyboy matures and develops an appreciation for his oldest brother. Toward the end of the novel, Sodapop explains to Pony and Darry that they are all they have in the world and he is sick of them fighting. Pony and Darry then agree to stop arguing and promise to treat each other with more respect. Similar to most of their close friends, the Curtis brothers have a difficult home life. However, their love, respect, and appreciation for each other keeps their small family together. The Curtis brothers learn to not take each other for granted and are willing to go to great lengths to live in the same household.


Family is extremely important to the three brothers in The Outsiders. Darry, the oldest boy, has custody of his brothers and together they are involved in The Greasers, a gang which is like an extended family for them. Without each other, they would have nothing, as they do not have parents anymore since they died in a tragic car accident. Sometimes, they show that family is the most meaningful thing to them in different ways. For example, there is one powerful point in the novel when Johnny kills the Soc that had been trying to drown Ponyboy, demonstrating that family is not just for blood relatives, and that family would do anything to save one another. Darry, on the other hand, slaps Ponyboy at one point in the book, but he does this because he cares about him and has a different way of showing it that the other "brothers" do. Ponyboy understands this, and knows that sometimes family isn't always perfect, even though it's something worth fighting for. Sodapop is the sensitive one, and shows his love through writing, such as when he writes Ponyboy a letter. There is also another poignant part in the book when Ponyboy is getting jumped and his brothers come to his rescue. Afterward, they take him home and care for him; this part really shows the strength and bond of the brotherhood that they feel for one another. 

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