The Outsiders

Direct Characterization-Ponyboy “I have light-brown, almost red hair and greenish-gray eyes….my hair is longer than a lot of boys wear theirs, squared off in the back and long at the front and sides…” (page 1) Reveal about character? Propel action? Provo Reveal about character? Propel action? Provoke?

Direct Characterization-Darry “Darry is six-feet-two, and broad shouldered and muscular. He has dark brown hair that kicks out in front and a slight cowlick in the back…He’s got eyes that are like two pieces of pale blue-green ice. They’ve got a determined set to them...” (page 6)

Direct Characterization-Soda “Soda is handsomer than anyone I know. Not like Darry-Soda is movie-star kind of handsome. He’s not as tall as Darry, and he’s a little slimmer, but he has a finely drawn sensitive face that somehow manages to be reckless and thoughtful at the same time. He’s got dark-gold hair that he combs back-long and silky and straight-and in the summer the sun bleaches it to a shining wheat-gold. His eyes are dark brown-lively, dancing…” (page 8)

Direct Characterization-Dallas “He had an elfish face, with high cheekbones and a pointed chin, small sharp animal teeth, and ears like a lynx. His hair was almost white is was so blond, and he didn’t like haircuts or hair oil either, so it fell over his forehead in wisps and kicked out in the back in tufts and curled behind his ears and along the nape of his neck. His eyes were blues, blazing ice, cold with a hatred of the whole world.” (page 10)

Direct Characterization-Johnny “If you can picture a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you’ll have Johnny. He was the youngest, smaller than the rest, with a slight build. He had big black eyes in a dark tanned face; his hair was jet black and heavily greased and combed to the side, but it was so long that it fell in shaggy bangs across his forehead. He had a nervous, suspicious look in his eyes…” (page 11)

PONYBOY Reveals character I don’t care, I lied to myself. I don’t care about him either…I don’t care about Darry. But I was still lying and I knew it. I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me. Reveals character * This shows Ponyboy’s internal conflict about his brother Darry. He feels like Darry doesn’t love him, and tries not to care, but he really does.

CHERRY “Things are rough all over.” Cherry was saying that the Socs had problems too. She wanted him to understand that the Greasers weren’t the only ones who had struggles in life.

PONYBOY Ponyboy points out that the sunset closes the gap between the Greasers and Socs. Even though their lives are different, they live beneath the same sun. Ch 3 “It’s okay… We aren’t in the same class. Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset too.”

Cherry Ch 3 “I could fall in love with Dallas Winston. I hope I never see him again, or I will.”

JOHNNY And Johnny, who was the most law-abiding of us, now carried in his back pocket a six inch switchblade. He’d use it, too, if he ever got jumped again. Nobody was ever going to beat him like that again. Not over his dead body.

“Dally was so real he scared me.” PONYBOY Dally was so real he scared me. Ponyboy is more comfortable with fictional heroes than with real people like Dally who have lost their innocence. Johnny sees Dally as gallant, but Ponyboy can’t. Ch 5 “Dally was so real he scared me.”

Dallas Dally shows a new side of himself. He admits that he once wasn’t a hardened young man. He’s trying to save Johnny from becoming hard-hearted like him. Ch 6 Oh, blast it, Johnny...you get hardened in jail. I don’t want that to happen to you. Like it happened to me...”