The Key to Life

Authors Note: This piece of writing is going to be about one of the main topics or themes of the story “The Outsiders”.

While walking through the streets of Milwaukee and New York, you see gang members walking all together in a group. They protect and care for each other as if they are a family. Sometimes, the best thing to do is to stick with the ones you care for and that care for you. Just like in the book "The Outsiders", the main greasers in the book are a family; they're not related, but they protect and love one another.

First, Johnny was living in a house with his parents, with his father beating him all the time, and neither one of them caring weather he’s home or not throughout the night. Even though he has a group of friends who consider him as family, he still cares about his mom and dad. “I like when the old man is hitting me. At least he knows I’m there” is a quote from the book that Johnny says to Ponyboy. This particular line is so important because it shows that Johnny wants a mom and dad. They want him to care about him and see that he’s there so he likes when his dad is beating him.

Next, Darry, Sodapop, and Ponyboy are all brothers. For the first three quarters of the book, Ponyboy has always felt that Darry hates him; scolding and picking on him all the time. Ponyboy never saw that Darry always yelled at him because he cared about him. He loved him and would risk his life for him because they’re family and that’s very important to Darry considering their parents died. “The only reason Darry couldn’t be a Soc is because of us” is one of the biggest quotes from this story because it’s

Lastly, Dally has never had his parents by his side since he was young. He grew up without anyone looking after him and that really effected how people see him now: a hard and careless person. The only family he ever had were his friends. Going from one house or apartment to the next because he didn’t have a stable home. The person Dally cares the most about is Johnny. Dally looks after Johnny as if he’s his little brother. When Johnny passed away, Dally took all the anger against himself and gave his life away to be with Johnny because he loved him and cared for him so much.

In conclusion, these are all examples of how close these group of friends are. They all depend on each other and are a big family even though they’re not related. Through the book, there were many more details on how close and caring they were of each other; but these three were the biggest ones.