Ponyboy's Innocence In 'The Outsiders'

No!" I screamed at him. "I'm fourteen! I've been fourteen for a month! And I'm in it as much as you are. I'll stop crying in a minute... I can't help it.” the main character in this book “The outsiders,” Ponyboy Curtis has the innocence and immaturity of a young fourteen-year-old. but as we continue to read we soon see when he reaches the point of no longer being “gold” or is forced to mature causing him to lose his innocence. We quickly learn that Ponyboy wants to understand why the Socs and Greasers fight, why his brother is overworked, but yet they have so little money. We first begin to imagine Ponyboy’s innocence in chapter one when we discover that he is not like the other greaser gang members, He says “I make good grades and have a …show more content…
They soon realize that they are outnumbered as five Socs climb of the car, Including Bob and Randy, Cherry and Marcia’s boyfriends. These Socs threatened Two-Bit, Johnny, and Ponyboy earlier in the evening when they found them walking with Cherry and Marcia. Johnny pulls his switchblade, but a weaponless Pony is grabbed before he knows it and shoved face first into a chilling fountain. In fear, Pony gasps for air but realizes too late that he is sucking in water and drowning. When Ponyboy awakens on the pavement gasping for air. He was sitting next to me, one elbow on his knee, and staring straight ahead. …show more content…
"I killed him," he said slowly. "I killed that boy." When Ponyboy says “Bob, the handsome Soc, was lying there in the moonlight, doubled up and still. A dark pool was growing from him, spreading slowly over the blue white cement. I looked at Johnny's hand. He was clutching his switchblade, and it was dark to the hilt. My stomach gave a violent jump and my blood turned icy” This shows how scared ponyboy is when he hears what Johnny has done. This is another detail showing how Ponyboy’s innocence fades throughout the story.
“Johnny,” I managed to say, fighting the dizziness, “I think I'm gonna be sick.”
“Go ahead," he said in the same steady voice. “I won't look at you.”
I turned my head and was quietly sick for a minute. Then I leaned back and closed my eyes so I wouldn't see Bob lying there.
This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be…”
“Two friends of mine had died that night: one a hero, the other a hoodlum. But I remembered Dally pulling Johnny through the window of the burning church; Dally giving us his gun, although it could mean jail for him; Dally risking his life for us, trying to keep Johnny out of trouble. And now