When the odds are stacked against you, find a way to preserve and fight as your life depends on it. Emmellie Lyon discovers how a young boy did just that.
Imagine this, your parents both are killed in a tragic car accident, leaving you to be raised by your inexperienced, bitter 20-year-old older brother, Darry Curtis. Darry doesn’t care for you very much, making you feel lost, unwanted, and unloved. You feel alone in the world, hurt and confused. Then just one split decision, one punch, and the course of your life changed forever. This is Ponyboy’s story.
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A young man, affectionately known as ‘Ponyboy Curtis,’ faced numerous challenges throughout his life that pushed him to his very limits. Social class wars, family violence, and the death of his best friend are only a few. Despite all the troubles and challenges Ponyboy faced. He faced it all with bravery, loyalty, and courage.
Ponyboy was left in the legal guardianship and care of his brothers after a tragic car accident where both of his parents died. Pony struggled to have the relationship with Darry that he so desperately wanted. He would try to make Darry see how different it could be but Darry would become frustrated and lose his temper. He never laid a hand on Pony. That was until this only time. Pony describes his shock.
'Nobody in my family had ever hit me.” Ponyboy remembers.
Ponyboy runs away from all the troubles and pains. When Darry resorted to violence, he crossed the line, leaving Ponyboy scared to ever return home. Ponyboy needs to run. Run to a place where he can be by himself.
Ponyboy started to run, but they grabbed his arms and shoved him into a fountain. Ponyboy's life just swirled around his head. His lungs filled with water and a red haze filled his mind. The next instant he was coughing out water and unsure of the last few seconds. What just happened? As he gasped for air he turned and saw Johnny with a face as white as a ghost. “I killed him,'' Johnny said, shaking, holding a bloody switchblade. Bob lay beside him, lifeless. Johnny saved him, by sacrificing his own life. He just committed murder.
As Ponyboy was lying on the cold, hard cement, oxygen slowly started to refill his brain. As Ponyboy started to breathe he knew he needed to leave town……..now.
A brotherly relationship is tricky to navigate at the best of times but adds violence into the mix and it is almost non-existent. Even though while they were going on the run from the murder Johnny had committed there was a gnawing feeling in Pony’s stomach. Should he do the legal and right thing and turn his best friend over to the cops, or should he remain loyal to his best friend?
This is a story about loyalty until the end, the very end. Pony always respected and treated Johnny like a brother. Johnny was there until he sacrificed himself by running into a nearby fire to save others.
Death seemed to be looming around Ponyboy everywhere he went. First his parents, then his best friend. How is a fourteen-year-old supposed to cope? Ponyboy never got the chance to turn in Johnny and make things right. Now this will never be an option. All of this was solved just in one court case. This court case was nothing like Ponyboy expected. Ponyboy had to fight to stay with his brothers and to prove that he was not guilty. Even though in those moments he felt worthless, useless, and terrified.
After Johnny's death, Ponyboy discovered a letter from Johnny inside his copy of Gone With the Wind. Johnny always wanted Ponyboy to retain his love of sunsets because admiring beautiful things is a way to “stay gold.' Ponyboy knew that they would not always be tainted by the harder parts of life and that they knew there was still 'good in the world.' The message shows Ponyboy remaining good, true, and just, while remaining courageous, confident, and loyal. As the night becomes darker and the stars come out Ponyboy finally reunites with his brothers and is so happy cause his brothers mean the world and that's all he has. Ponyboy leans in for a big hug and finally can return home feeling loved and Soda tells Darry to lay off Pony.
'We couldn’t get along without him. We needed Johnny as much as he needed the gang. And for the same reason”
Death, poverty, gangs, and broken relationships. How is one teenager caught up in the chaos of this world supposed to make it through with dignity and integrity? It comes down to four words, a heart of gold. ponyboy had this, what Darry and Johnny both saw and what we should strive to do in our day-to-day lives. Stay golden Ponyboy.
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