Examples Of Stay Gold In The Outsiders

Perhaps the most recognized line in S.E Hinton’s coming of age novel The Outsiders, “Stay gold Ponyboy. Stay gold,” was muttered by Johnny Cade whilst on his deathbed to fellow Greaser gang member and main protagonist Ponyboy Curtis. This famous line was a reference to Robert Frost’s poem Nothing gold can stay that Ponyboy recites whilst the two boys were on the run after their deadly fight with a group of Socs, a rival gang. During the course of the novel, it becomes clear that the most important lesson Ponyboy Curtis must learn is to take Johnny’s advice and, “stay gold”. Ponyboy must learn to stay gold through not wasting his innocence on the futility of violence. Ponyboy must also stay gold through learning to decipher that both Greasers and Socs are not that different after all, and that he himself does not have to fit into the Greaser stereo-type.

Throughout Hinton’s The Outsiders, it becomes evident that in order for Ponyboy to learn the important lesson of staying

At the beginning of the novel, it is clear that violence is considered the norm. This is because the narrator of the story, Ponyboy, demonstrates that attacks and fights between rival Greasers and Socs, occur so often that it is of no surprise if someone were to become injured. Also, throughout the novel it is portrayed that the majority of the Greasers take pride and are happy to participate in violence. This is because they believe that beating the Socs will bring equality between the two social classes, removing themselves from being at the bottom. However, it is only after Ponyboy meets Randy Adderson, a Soc, who states, “It doesn’t do anything, the fighting and the killing… We’ll forget it if you win, or if you don’t,” that he begins to realise just how pointless and heart-breaking violence actually is. Instead of Ponyboy’s previous mindset of believing that violence could bring