Grief In The Outsiders

In S.E. Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders, It first takes the reader to the 1960s in an unsafe neighborhood in Oklahoma, where a teenage boy called Ponyboy, who is raised by his two brothers lives. The novel shows the dynamics of two groups, the “Socs” and the “greasers”, as it goes through Ponyboy dealing with the harsh realities of life, loss, and other emotions he must march through. Hinton shows that when faced with grief and hate, it can be hard to regulate emotions until its accepted. One case that shows what the instability of ones emotions can do comes with Dally’s reaction to Johnny’s death. Dally is one to keep everyone an arms length away from him, except Johnny, which makes his reaction of grief very extreme. This results in Dally

Hinton shows Ponyboy’s denial from Johnny doing anything wrong, and how Pony also denies Johnnys death at all. This shows most when Randy has an encounter with Pony short after Johnnys death. As Randy restates Johnny was the one with the knife, Pony says “I had the knife. I killed Bob” (Hinton 165). By attempting to pretend that Johnny is still alive and Johnny never killed anyone, it causes him to live in hatred of the people he blames (the Socs) and himself rather than to believe the truth. The fear of reality is what causes Pony to take so long to be able to open Gone with the wind again (the book Johnny would read), and when he reads the note that fell out of it of Johnny wanting Ponyboy to tell Dally its worth it, its already too late. Pony says, after reading the note, “Tell Dally. It was too late to tell Dally” (Hinton 179). Ponyboy tries to alter the truth to make it seem as Johnny never did anything to deserve what he got, but all it causes is hatred and regret upon everyone. If Ponyboy had been able to see the truth for what it is, maybe Dally would have still been alive, and maybe Pony wouldn’t of taken so long to be content