Poneyboy, Static vs. Dynamic

I am writing this because I want to have people know if poneyboy is a static or a dynamic character. A dynamic character is a character that changes throughout the story. They act more differently than how they do from the beginning to the end of the book. Something changes about them. Then there is the Static character. A static character is someone that does not change anything about them as the book goes on. I believe that poneyboy could be called a static or a dynamic character for a couple different reasons.
In the story of The Outsiders a lot of the readers want to know this question. What was poneyboy? Was he a static character, or a dynamic character? In the following paragraphs there will be examples of how he could possibly be both. For starters Poneyboy is a 14 year old part of a gang called the greasers. The greasers as a gang, people think are bad but they really aren’t. They don’t have feelings toward anything or anybody other than their gang. That doesn’t apply to poneyboy. For example at the end of chapter eight Poneyboy is talking to Cherry and it gets to a point where Poneyboy gets upset that Cherry feels sorry for them. He almost makes Cherry start crying. “I started to turn and walk off but something in cherry’s face made me stop, I was ashamed. I can’t stand to see a girl cry. She wasn’t but she was close to.” He felt bad that he was making her cry. In chapter four after Johnny killed Bob the soc Poneyboy felt sick because he is not used to seeing someone die. Poneyboy is one of the softer greasers from beginning to end, he never changes that. That is how he could be classified as a static character.
There are however ways that poneyboy is a dynamic character. Such as in the beginning of the book poneyboy absolutely hates the socs gang. He describes them as rich, and full of themselves, he hates them. He pretty much feels this way about them all the way till the end of the book in chapter 11, where Poneyboy and Randy have a sit down. Randy is a soc. Poneyboy realizes though that not all socs are bad there just people a lot like him. That is something that is different at the beginning compared to the end. The way he thinks of the soc gang. That is a reason he could be thought of as a dynamic character.
I believe that Poneyboy could have been thought as either a dynamic or a static character. He showed ways of being both though the story. He stayed a softy the whole story. But he also changed his opinion of the socs through the story. I believe for the most part that Poneyboy is a dynamic character because of how he changes his opinion about the socs. His change in opinion about them is a big part in the book.

The Definition of a Family

When you look up the definition of a family you will find… “A basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group whether dwelling together or not, the traditional family”. However in the story of “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton it shows that not all families have to be blood related to be classified as family.
The story of the outsiders is about a gang, called the greasers that pretty much don’t have family or anybody to guide them. They have each other. They come from all different backgrounds. For some their parents died for others their parents didn’t care about them. The story problem is the fighting between the Socs and the greasers. Their fighting goes on to the more extreme as the book goes on. Although one thing that never changes in this book is the loyalty and brotherliness that the gang members treat each other with.
For example in the story the main character in the story and the narrator is a young teenage boy named poneyboy. His loyalty is to his gang and his brothers (who are also in the gang). Then there is Johnny, Ponyboys best friend, his parents never cared about him so he decided that his loyalty belongs to the gang, the greasers. In one part of the story Johnny and Ponyboy are being attacked by socs they take Ponyboy and try to drown him by forcing his face in water. Johnny was not known for really being a fighter, but to save his best friend he stabbed and killed one of the lead socs. Johnny killed a Soc to save not only his best friend but a gang member. Johnny stands up for his gang like their family, and to him the Greasers are family.
There were very many times in the story when the Greasers acted like family to each other. One of the times when another Greaser acted like family to another was when Ponyboy and Johnny ran into a burning church to save some people and another greaser by the name of Dally ran into the fire to try to get them to come back. Dally is a pretty rough guy, one of the more ruthless Greasers but in this case you know he cares about them because he ran into a fire to try to get them to come back. If he did not think of those two to be like family to him he would not have risked his life to try to get Ponyboy and Johnny to come back.
I chose this topic because I wanted people to know what the real definition of a family is. When the thought of family comes up most people would think of the perfect all American family where there is a mom a dad and the kids. But that doesn’t have to be family. Family can be anybody that cares about you and is there for you when times are tough. In the story of “The Outsiders” the Greaser gang was a group of kids that got into a lot of trouble they had no blood families to go to, they had each other. They would care for each other, and they would watch out for each other that is what family is.

Response to The Outsiders

So far in the story has been getting better. It has been introducing all the characters and getting to the main plot of things. The main character is poneyboy he is one of the youngest of the greaser gang and he really does not like to be in fights like some of the other greasers. Actually if anything poneyboy tries to avoid fights. His best friend would be Johnny. Johnny is pretty similar in a couple ways. Johnny does not like to fight but he will in the case that he has to. The main plot of this story is the fighting between the two gangs the socs and the greasers. It has actually been really bad, in chapter four poneyboy and Johnny were being harassed by socs and Johnny ended up killing one of the leaders, bob. There are also the other gang members like Dally and Darry.
I believe one thing that might happen in this story is going to be a big part of the soc and greaser fighting. I believe that someone is going is going to end up dying in the greaser gang because of all the characters in their gang, not to mention that they already killed one of their lead socs, so the socs might want revenge on the greasers. However I do not think that the fight will involve Johnny or Poneyboy because those two are already scared as it is because of killing that soc. They decided that they are just going to leave because they don’t want to get in any trouble with the high society socs, who have the money in court also they are also the better people to the court because of their life style. It is not as bad as the greasers. On top of that I’m sure that Johnny and poneyboy are leaving because they don’t want to start anymore trouble for their brothers and the greasers in general. I think that the next couple chapters will have pretty big events in the story.