How Does Ponyboy Change in The Outsiders: Character Analysis

Introduction

The movie 'The Outsiders' is based on a book by S.E. Hinton. The story follows two gangs in Oklahoma, the Greasers, a low-class gang, and the Socials (also known as Socs), a high-class gang. The majority of the story is based around Ponyboy and Johnny, the youngest in the gang. Ponyboy lives with his two other brothers, Darry and Sodapop; their parents were killed in a car crash. The Greasers gang includes Ponyboy (14), Johnny (16), Darry (20), Sodapop (16), Dally (17), Steve, and Two-Bit. Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally went to watch a movie when they ran into two Soc girls (Cherry and Marcia). Dally began to flirt with the girls but stopped after Johnny told him to. Cherry and Ponyboy started to talk and discovered that they had a lot of similarities, including how does Ponyboy change in 'The Outsiders'. The Greasers wanted to walk Cherry and Marcia to their house so they could drive them home when they ran into Cherry and Marcia's drunk boyfriends, Bob and Randy. The girls went home with their boyfriends, and the Greasers went home (Frederickson & Roos, 1983).

Ponyboy and his older brother Darry gets into a fight and ponyboy leaves the house with Johnny and goes to the park. At the park the Socials are also there and attack Ponyboy and Johnny, while fighting Ponyboy blacks out and wakes up later to find out that Johnny had stabbed Bob to death. They went to Dally who gave them a gun and money, he told them to hide out in an abandoned church in another town. Time goes by and the greaser and the socials decided that to settle things they need to fight it out. Johnny wants to turn himself in, so they leave but as they leave, they see the church is on fire with children on the inside. The boys run inside to save the children when the roof caved in. Dally and Ponyboy only had minor injuries, Johnny was in critical condition with a broken back and severe burns throughout his body. The greasers and socials fight it out, after the fact the boys return to the hospital to see Johnny pass away. Ponyboy blacks out again and Dally robs a store and raise a gun at the cops, they then gunned him down (Frederickson & Roos, 1983).

Microsystem of The Outsiders

The microsystem consists of a childs immediate environment like their home life, the community and school (Marsh et al., 2019). Ponyboy’s microsystem includes his home and community. In the movie Ponyboy loses his parents due to a car crash and lives with his brothers. His older brother is his ‘parental’ figure. Ponyboy does not have a stable home life and the community he is living in is also not stable, both which influence how he acts. They are a low-class family living in a rural area.

Mesosystem of The Outsiders

The mesosystem is about the influence of the surrounding environments of the children (Marsh et al., 2019). In the movie, his brothers and friends influence the way he acts. If his brothers and friends don not like somebody, then Ponyboy most likely will not like that person also. Family and friendships influence socialization and are important factor in a child’s development (Dishion, Mun, Ha, & Tein, 2019). We do not know how his parents interacted with his friends, community, or school life. We do know that he considers his gang members as family. Ponyboy sees how Darry had to grow up when his parents died, so he felt the need he had to grow up to take care of himself.

Exosystem of The Outsiders

In the exosystem, it does not involve the child but can affect the child indirectly (Marsh et al., 2019). He is impacted when Dally decided to flirt with Cherry and Marcia, which caused the socs to come after the greasers. Ponyboy is also impacted when Johnny killed Bob and they both had to run away. Even though Ponyboy was not the one who killed Bob, it still affected him. Both of the boys had to run away from their family in order to not get caught and go to jail. Since Ponyboy is only fourteen years old, running away can affect him in the future like being involved in even more high-risk behavior. (Tucker, Edelen, Ellickson & Klein, 2014).

Macrosystem of The Outsiders

The macrosystem involves cultural and societal beliefs (Marsh et al., 2019). The Outsiders were based in the 60s. In the 1960s gangs were a common thing. Back then gangs were innocent participants of the social trend. Many gangs were formed to protect their neighborhoods. This can apply to Ponyboy, he could have joined the gang because his brothers were in it and also because it was a normal thing to do in the 60s. We do not know why the gangs were created in The Outsiders. The greasers and the socials could have been formed to protect their neighborhoods from each other (Short, 1974).

Biopsychosocial Assessment of Ponyboy

The biopsychosocial assessment is a combination of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors, therapist use this assessment to see if these factors are influencing the client’s behavior. It focuses on their biological, medical, social, spiritual, culture and human aspects that is involved with their development. Biological involved developmental milestones, characteristics or your age. Ponyboy have had a tough life and was forced to grow up after his parent’s death. Psychological is about their mental health. Ponyboy experiences a lot of traumatic events, his parents dying, seeing a dead body, running away from home, and seeing his best friend die in front of his eyes. Seeing Johnny and Dally die affected him the most, he was bedridden and delirious for days. The social part deals with relationships and social support. Ponyboy lives in a rural town and does not have a lot of friends nor family besides his brothers and the gang. Each gang member had their own special way of supporting Ponyboy. There is no known medical issues about Ponyboy. Spiritual and human aspects can be about your meaning in life. At the end of the movie you can see that Ponyboy realizes that family is important and makes up with Darry (Graves, N.A.).

Impact and Empowerment of Ponyboy

The factors in Ponyboy’s has lived a tough life and he is only fourteen years old. In a sense all the things he has been through can make him a stronger person. Ponyboy knows how to take care of himself and can survive on his own. He is a caring person, he always had Johnny’s back and supported everything that he did. He also has a conscious, he feels bad when he do certain things. Ponyboy need parental figures in his life to help guide him. I believe that Ponyboy needs to remove himself from the rural area, by being in a rural area can lead to many factors like aggressive behavior (Bowen & Wretman, 2014). Ponyboy is already surrounded by people that love and support him, I believe that if he surrounds himself with another group of people outside of the greasers, they can help empower him. Maybe they will be able steer him away from doing unlawful things.

References

1. Bowen, N., & Wretman, C. (2014). Rural Neighborhoods and Child Aggression. American Journal of Community Psychology, 54(3-4), 304–315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-014-9673-z
2. Dishion, T., Mun, C., Ha, T., & Tein, J. (2019). Observed Family and Friendship Dynamics in Adolescence: a Latent Profile Approach to Identifying “Mesosystem” Adaptation for Intervention Tailoring. Prevention Science, 20(1), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-018-0927-0
3. Frederickson, G., Roos, F., (Producers), & Coppola, F., (Director). (1983). The Outsiders [Motion Picture]. United States: Warner Bros.
4. Graves, S. (n.d.). 3.3 Lesson: The Biopsychosocial Assessment and the Mental Status Exam. Retrieved from https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/1150897/pages/3-dot-3-lesson-the-biopsychosocial-assessment-and-the-mental-status-exam.
5. Marsh, D. A., K, A., Bianca, Tuukondjele, A., Tuwilika, West, L., … Prescott, J. (2019, July 27). What is Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory? Retrieved from https://www.psychologynoteshq.com/bronfenbrenner-ecological-theory/.
6. Short, J. (1974). Youth, Gangs and Society: Micro- and Macrosociological Processes. The Sociological Quarterly, 15(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1974.tb02122.x
7. Tucker, J., Edelen, M., Ellickson, P., & Klein, D. (2011). Running Away From Home: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Risk Factors and Young Adult Outcomes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40(5), 507–518. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9571-0