The Outsiders

About a month ago, my friend gave me this book called The Outsiders. Plot? It's the 1960's. There are greasers and socs. In a small town in Tulsa, Ponyboy Curtis's gang is the greasers- his brothers Darry Curtis and Sodapop Curtis, his best friend Johnny Cade, Steve Randle is Soda's best friend, Dally Winston is the tough guy and Two-Bit Matthews the wise crack. The gang is like a family and sticks together no matter what until one night when Ponyboy and Johnny meet these Soc girls at the movies, their boyfriends get mad and later that night confront them at the park. The one soc, Bob, tries to drown Pony in the fountain but Johnny stabs him and accidentally kills him. They turn to Dally for help and he tells them to hide up in an old church. After Pony and Johnny spend about 4 days there, Dally comes and takes them to Dairy Queen to eat something. They return to the church to get their stuff when Johnny decides to turn himself in but right before they leave, the old church catches on fire -one of their ciggs werent put out right- and there were a group of kids who had ran in there while they were gone. So Pony and Johnny run in there and try to save the kids, in the process, Johnny gets very badly burned and just as Ponyboy gets out, the church collapses on Johnny. They take him in to the hospital and he has sever burns. When Pony returns home that night, the socs and greasers had planned a rumble for the next day (a rumble is a fight). After alot of fighting the next night, and Steve's broken ribs, the greasers win the rumble. But soon later, Johnny's burns are so bad and his lungs have so much debris in them that he dies in the hospital. Everyone is devastated. Not long after that, Dally cant stand the pain of Johnny being gone and lets himself get shot and killed. Ponyboy's life is never the same after that. His school grades go down,he and his brothers fight alot and its like he lives in a small bubble, confined from the world around him. Until his language teacher makes him write about something significant and he writes down this story. The end. Its a very moving book. I almost cry everytime i read the part that Johnny is about to die and tells Ponyboy "stay golden, Ponyboy...stay golden". There's also a movie to it that i want to watch really badly. It was made in 1983 (the book was written in 1967). C.Thomas Howell plays Ponyboy Curtis,  Ralph Maccio plays Johnny Cade, Matt Dillon plays Dally Winston, Rob Lowe plays Sodapop Curtis, Patrick Swayze plays Darry Curtis, Emilio Estevez plays Two-Bit Matthews, and Tom Cruise plays Steve Randle. I love the outsiders. Pictures? I think so!

(left to right) top row: Darry, Dally, Sodapop

bottom row: Two-bit, Johnny, Ponyboy and Steve