The main character Pony boy in “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton is in a gang called “the greasers” with his 2 brothers and friends. Meanwhile in the 50’s the other gang the socs who is rich South-side boys have nicer cars, the poor North-side boys only have 1 car. Both South-side and North-side boys go to the same school and always causing commotion. One lesson Pony boy got from an older sibling is to “never give up” which means if you don’t get something on your first try or things don’t go the way you want don’t give up.
In the beginning of the story, you can see the violence and tension between both of the gangs. The socs are usually picking on the younger greasers. “Hey grease, were going to do you a favor , greaser. We’re going to cut off all that greasy hair of yours”! This shows that the socs bullied the greasers and pushed them around. Even if the socs push around the greasers the greasers never show weakness towards the socs. On page 33 the greasers stuck up for Cherry and Marcia *socs girlfriends* because the Socs were being mean and rude to their girlfriends. In the beginning of the story when Ponyboy got beaten up his brothers came to make sure he was ok. While the socs rode away in there blue mustang Dallas threw a stick at their car wanting to fight. These plot events show that all the greasers never bowed down to the socs or showed them there weak side and how they won’t give up the fight.
In the middle of the story, a tragic seen happens to Johnny, Ponyboy, and the socs. Johnny and Ponyboy was running away from home. When they were running some of the socs caught them and followed them to the park. When they followed Johnny and Ponyboy to the playground the socs jumped the 2 boys. But Johnny had a weapon on him…a gun! The only way he could protect himself and his friend was to use it , so Johnny shot one of the socs . Some similes that are used are “He got eyes that are like 2 pieces of pale blue green ice” and “Your bleeding like a stuck pig”. This could be an example of ‘never give up’ , this shows that when the two boys fought some socs that they didn’t give up on that fight, but also the fight wasn’t worth killing someone.
In the End of the Story, there is a HUGE fight between the socs and greasers. This is when the socs and greasers meet up and fight each other, and when one team runs and gets in their cars the other team wins the rumble. At a point Johnny and Dallas got hurt really bad in the story and Dallas always wanted to fight in the rumble. So he wasn’t letting anything get in the way of his big night. Dallas left the hospital and helped out his best buds with the rumble. Not only that Ponyboy was in it to…. And he’s the youngest one out of the whole rumble. But that didn’t stop the greasers…then you see all these socs running to their cars and the cars driving away. THE GREASERS WON THE RUMBLE! This supports the main theme because even though they have 1 injured person on the team and 1 younger person it didn’t stop them from beating the socs. And they never gave up and accomplished what they came there to do.
Some people might say that Johnny did give up at points. I think he never gave up , first he has parents that constantly argue and he never stays home. Second, the socs jumped him and Ponyboy and he fought back because his best friend and him were getting beat up BAD. Third Johnny and Ponyboy saved kids in a church fire, but while Johnny was saving the kids he got trapped himself. An ambulance came and took Johnny to the emergency room. Johnny had severe burns all over his body. He fought through that pain for a whole week, then he passed away. Johnny was a fighter and he never gave up.