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Characters:
- Ponyboy Curtis: He is 14 years old, has very good grades at school. He got put up a year in grade school. He likes movies and books, not so as his friends. He has light brown - almost red - hair. They are long at the front and sides and he is very proud of them.
- Soda Curtis: He is 16 years old. He does never drink alcohol, although nearly everyone in the neighbourhood drinks. He dropped out of school. He isn\'t as strict to his little brother as Darry is.
- Darrel Curtis: He is 20 years old, but he looks much older. His nickname is Darry. A lot of people think that he is grown up too fast, because when their parents died in an accident, he had to care for his smaller brothers. He left school, although he would have been able to visit a college and a university, because they needed money and he wanted a better future for Pony. He cares especially for him - maybe a little bit too strict - because sometimes Pony thinks that Darry doesn\'t love him. Now Darry works at two jobs.
He is broad-shouldered, muscular and about six-feet-two high. He is very proud of his muscles.
- Steve Randle: He is 17 years old, tall and lean. He has thick greasy hair, which he kept combed in complicated swirls. He looks cocky and smart. Steve is Soda\'s best buddy since grade school. His speciality are cars. He is able to drive everything on wheels.
- Two-Bit-Mathew: He is the oldest of the gang, about 1,8 meters, stocky in build and very proud of his long rusty-colored sideburns. He always grins - he is famous for his wide grin. Life is one big joke to Two-Bit. He is also famous for shoplifting and for his black-handled switchblade. He is always making jokes on the cops.
He likes fights, blondes and school, although he is very bad (He was still a junior at the age of 18. He never learned anything, he just went there for kicks.).
- Dallas Winston: His nickname is Dally. He is the real character of the gang. He spent three years on the West-side, the wild side of New York. He got arrested at the age of ten. He is tougher, colder and meaner than the rest of the greasers. He is sorry that in the South-West is no gang rivality and that organized gangs are rarities. For that reason he has no specific thing to hate, no rival gang, except the Socs.
The police has a file on him at the police station. He hates to do things the legal way: He had been arrested, he got drunk, he rode in rodeos, lied, cheated, stole, rolled drunks, jumped small kids, a.s.o.
- Johnny Cade: \"If you can picture a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you´ll have Johnny.\" He is 16 years old. He is smaller than the rest of the gang with a small build. He has always a nervous, suspicious look in his eyes. He is the gang´s pet, which means that he is everyone\'s brother.
His father always beat him him, not only when he was drunk, and his mother ignored him or she yelled at him.
Once he got beaten down by four Socs so hard that he looked quite terrible and fainted. One of the Socs - his name was Bob - had some rings, which scarred him, also in the face. One scare he will never lose. Since that time he always carries a switch blade in his pockets and everyone is sure that he will use it if some one wants to beat him.
Dally is Johnny´s big hero and Johnny \"worships the ground Dallas walks on\".
- Greasers: Most greasers have long, greasy hair. They are poorer than the Socs and the middle class. They are like hoods. Greasers steal things, drive old cars, have fights and rumbles once in a while and so on.
Their dirve-ins are \"The Dingo\" and \"Jay´s\".
The gang´s like a family for its members. Everyone cares for everyone, the older especially for the younger.
- Socs: Socs think that they are more worth than the greasers and other South-West gangs. They drive in their expensive cars (mustangs,...) into the territory of the gangs and look for people they can beat down. But they only fight, when they are sure to win. They always fight in an unfair way. They are from the East-side.
Their drive-ins are \"The way out\" and \"Rusty´s\".
Contents:
Once Pony, Johnny and two other members of the gang go to the cinema. There they get to know two good looking girls. The one´s name is Cherry Valance, who is Bob`s girlfriend - but the greasers don´t know that - , and the others called Maricia. They have a lot of fun and Pony tells Cherry that Johnny once got beaten down. She recognizes that this was Bob with his friends, but she doesn´t say anything.
After the cinema Two-Bit, Pony and Johnny want to bring the girls home, when a blue mustang passes them and comes back. Bob and five other Socs are in this mustang and they are very angry, because their girls talk with greasers. Bob wants the girls to come with them, but they refuse, because the Socs are drunk. Two-Bit wants to help the girls and suddenly Bob threatens him, because they are six and the greasers are only three. But this doesn´t matter to Two-Bit. He snatches up an empty bottle, busts off the end and gives it to Pony and flips out his switchblade and says :\"Try it, pal!\" But the Socs leave the greasres, because Cherry and Maricia go with them.
After that Two-Bit goes to a party and Pony and Johnny decide to watch the stars, but they fall asleep. When they wake up, it´s 2 a.m., but Pony should be at home at midnight. He runs home and Darry is very angry - because he was very afraid, but he doesn´t show this - and shouted with Ponyboy. Soda sticks up for his brother and then he yells at Soda. But Pony can´t stand that Darry shouts with Soda and cries at him. For that Darry beats Pony so hard that it knocks him against the door. Nobody in his family has ever beaten him. Pony runs away, altough Darry says that he is sorry and didn´t mean so.
Pony runs to Johnny and then both run away without any direction. Later Johnny is able to persuade Pony to go back through the park to cool off and then go home.
In the middle of the park there is a fountain with a small swimming pool for little kids. Suddenly the blue mustang with the Socs appears and everyone of them is still drunk. The Socs are very angry, because the greasers have picked up their girls. They are looking for a rumble.
When Pony and Johnny realise, that the Socs are looking for a fight, it is too late to hide. First Bob only calls them names, but when Pony shouts back, he hits Pony and he shoves Pony\'s face into the water. The hand in Pony\'s neck is very strong and he can\'t hold his breath any longer and then he faints.
When he wakes up, he is lying on the ground and the Socs are gone, except Bob. He is lying next to Pony. \"I killed him!\", Johnny says to Pony with his blade in his hand. He also says that he didn\'t want to kill him, but otherwise Pony would have bitten the dust and that the Socs ran away after he attacked Bob.
Both don\'t know what to do, especially Pony fears/dreads that they\'ll put Johnny on the electric chair for killing Bob. So they go to Dally, because he kows best what to do.
Dally gives them 50 bucks and a loaded gun. He wants them to go to Windrixville, where an abandoned church on the top of Jay Mountain is. Dally tells them to stay there until he will arrive there, too. Then they disappear in the darkness.
The church is old, spooky and spiderweby. Johnny buys something to eat, cigarettes, matches and \"Gone With The Wind\". They cut their hair and Pony\'s hair gets bleached. There they read the book and play Poker.
One morning they watch the sun-rise and admire it. They never recogniced this phenomen in town. Pony remembers a poem:
\"Nature\'s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf\'s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.\"
After five Dally comes and he first goes eating with them, because both lost a lot of weight. The police think that they went to Texas, because Dally got hauled into the station and he let slip over that they were going to Texas.
He also tells them that Bob was a famous Soc, who had a lot of friends all over the town and now those friends beat every greaser they can find. For that reason you can\'t walk alone, except you want to die. He informs Pony and Johnny that there is a big rumble against the Socs tomorrow night - a fair fight, only skin against skin.
When they are driving back to the church, Johnny tells them that he wants to turn himself in, but Dally advises/warns him against doing this, because he was there and doesn\'t wish anyone of his friends to go there, because being in a jail makes you hardened. Another reason is that there happen a lot of ugly things. In prison he saw more drugs than in his whole life.
When they arrive at the church, they notice, that it\'s burning. There is also a school-class and Pony gets to know that there are still five kids in the burning church. He and Johnny run towards it and climb through the window, although Dally shouts they shall come out and leave the kids alone, because the roof will break down, because of the flames.
But both don\'t notice the danger in which they are. They take the crying kids and put them through the window. All kids get saved, but Pony\'s back is burning when he climbs through the window. Dally pulls Johnny outside, because he faints, when a burning timber falls on his back.
At the hospital a man thanks Pony many times for their selfless/unselfish help. Pony tells this man the whole story. He promises to help them.
Johnny is still unconcious, has burnings the third grade, a broken back and is in critical condition. Dally has only a burned arm and will be able to leave the hospital in some days.
Suddenly Darry and Soda arrive. They got informed by the man whom Pony told the story. Darry begins to cry, because he fears to have Pony lost like his parents. This shows Pony that Darry really loves him. They drive home.
Next day Randy, Bob\'s friend tells Pony that he would let have the kids die in Windrixville and that he sick of all this fighting and that he won\'t fight in the evening. He gives up fighting, but Bob wouldn\'t have done the same as he does...
In the evening there is only a skin rumble. The greasers can be sure, that the Socs will not break the arrangement, because Cherry is their spy. She stands between both groups.
Before the rumble Pony is reflecting, why his friends are fighting:
- Soda fights for fun,
Steve for hatred,
Darry for pride,
Two-Bit for conformity,
and he ... he doesn\'t know, maybe he fights for self-defense.
There are Tim Shepard\'s gang and Brumly\'s gang, which are organized gangs, have a leader, and have a strict discipline. They are used to fight with what the can get (bicycle chains, knives, bottles, chains, bottles, guns, stones, pipes etc.). The greasers, who aren\'t organized, only use knives - and sometimes bottles - as a weapon, but they carry them mostly just for looks.
The Socs look all the same, when the arrive at the rumble. The Socs have one fighter more than their opponents.
There is a hard fight and finally the Socs run away. After the fight Pony and Dally, who run away from hospital to stay in the rumble, drive to Johnny. His condition got worse. They tell him that the drove the Socs out of their territory. Johnny is glad they won, but then he says:\"Useless ... fighting\'s no good.\" and to Pony:\"Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.\" After that he dies. Dally run away.
At home Dally calls them that the police is after him, because of a robbery. They meet him in the park. When the police arrives, he takes his unloaded gun and the police shoots him dead, because they don\'t know that his gun is unloaded. It was a kind of suicide, because he wanted to be dead, maybe in heaven with Johnny. Johnny was the only person who he really loved.
Some days later there is a hearing at the judical office. Pony believes that Johnny still lives and that he has killed Bob. He wants to make this clear at the hearing.
The judge has to make the decision, if Pony shall go to the reformatory or not.
There are all the other guys, who saw how Bob got killed, and they get questioned about this night. They tell the judge the truth, but to Pony\'s point of view they lie. When it is his turn he only gets questioned about his relationship to his brothers, especially Darry, about his grades a.s.o. The judge decides that he must not go to a reformatory or a home.
Some days later 3 Socs want to beat Pony after school, but he busts the end of a bottle and tells them to leave him. He would have really hurt them, but he would never have acted like this bofore Johnny died.
Another negative effect which is caused by Johnny\'s death is that he gets bad marks.
One day the Curtis-brothers, especially Pony and Darry, are cheating, when Soda suddenly breaks down crying:\"...Darry yells too much and tries too hard and takes everything too serious, and Ponyboy, you don\'t think enough, you don\'t realize all Darry\'s giving up just to give you a chance he missed out on. He could have stuck you in a home somewhere and worked his way through college. ...\" After this they realize that they have noone else except themselves and they decide not to fight anymore.
At home Pony finds a letter he got from Johnny. He wrote that Pony should give his best to reach his aims and that he was thinking about the poem they read in Windrixville. \"...you\'re gold when you\'re a kid, like green. When you\'re a kid everthing\'s new, dawn. It\'s just when you get used to everything that\'s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That\'s gold. Keep that way, it\'s a good way to be. ...\" Further he wrote that it was worth to die for those kids, because their lives are more worth than his.(- they have more to live for -)
Then Ponyboy Curtis decides to give his best in school for Johnny, Darry, Soda, and hisself.
He sits down and begins to write this book ....
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