Elizabethan Torture and Punishment

There are many characters in the book The Outsiders, most of them fall into two categories. They are either greasers, who are generally poor and live unkempt lifestyles, or socs, who live more opulent lifestyles. Of all the characters in the book a few really stood out. The first character, Ponyboy, is a greaser. Ponyboy was bereft of his parents at a young age. Ponyboy is pliable to what his friends have to say because he is the youngest. He is a good student, and his teachers don't have to reiterate things to him for him to learn. He reads a lot, and he can recite poems and passages verbatim. Although I would not consider him a tentative person, he must walk warily when alone. One time when he was walking alone, a group of socs spotted him and began to gibe at him. They deployed themselves around Ponyboy, beat, and left him there sore and bloody.

Ponyboy's friend Johnny is a year or so older than him. Unless you knew him well, you would have no intimation that he was an abused kid. Although Johnny did kill bob, it was not and insidious plot to get revenge. He killed bob in self-defense. It was Johnny who had the idea to guise himself and Ponyboy after bob was murdered. Near the end of the book Johnny showed great fortitude after he broke his back.

Soda and Darry are Ponyboy's brothers. Darry is the oldest. He has has a dour and stolid personality. When Darry was young, he was an ambidextrous football player, and many gaped in astonishment when they went to see him play. Ponyboy sometimes thinks Darry doesn't like him, but Darry just doesn't want Ponyboy to be adulterated by hoodlums like Tim Shepard. Even though Soda is supportive and helps the family by augmenting the family income.

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Books, 1991

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Sayre, April Pulley. Grassland, New York: Henry Holt, 1994

Silver,

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