This week I'm going to talk to you about in my opinion, the most important quote in the book. That quote is "Nothing gold can stay." This quote is from the Robert Frost poem that Pony recites to Johnny when they were hiding out in the church at Windrixville. This line from the poem is saying that all good things eventually come to an end. I think that by the end, the boys relate this quote to the innocence you have in your years of youth, and how you can't be forever protected by the harshness of life. Johnny's last words before he passed were, "Stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold." Referring to the quote above, Johnny was trying to drive Pony into remaining gold/innocent. It was now clear to Johnny how useless fighting is and deep down knows that his best friend is more than the "hood" that others assume he is. He wants him to cling onto the qualities that differs him from the rest of the guys in the gang and makes him so individually unique. That's it for this week.
This week, I'm indroducing you to Steve Randel. Even though he's not a huge part of the story line, I still thought it was crucial to mention him as one of the characters. Steve has been Soda Pop's best friend since grade school, and they both work at the gas station together. Steve is seventeen. He's very tall and quite slim. He's also extremely cocky and is also bright. Steve isn't really favored by Pony either. He considers Pony as a "tag along." Steve isn't really talked about a lot in the story and in the movie. That's it for this week.
This week, I'm introducing you to Johnny Cade, one of the boys in the gang. Johnny is "the gang's pet," he's the quiet one in the group of boys that they couldn't get along without. He's been hurt both physically and mentally, he's kinda like "a puppy that's been kicked too many times." Johnny was badly beaten by the Socs, that's why he started carrying a switch blade around with him and vowed that he would kill the next person that hurt him. Along with the incident with the Socs, he is also always being both verbally and physically abused by his parents. Because of that, going home is the last thing that we wishes to do. If it wasn't for the gang, he wouldn't know how it feels like to have love and affection. Johnny is a bit smaller than the rest. He has these big black eyes that are placed on a dark tanned face. His hair was jet-black and heavily greased and combed to the side, but it was so long that it fell in shaggy bangs across his forehead. He also always had a nervous, suspicious look in his eyes. That's it for this week.
