Assignment for 6/14

Hinton uses a variety of descriptions of eyes to characterize the figures in the novel The Outsiders. Among all of them I like the descriptions of Soda's and Ponyboy’s eyes best. 

Ponyboy cannot understand and accept Johnny and Dally’s death. And the boy is sent to hospital because of extreme exhaustion. When he wakes, Hinton uses the description of Soda’s eyes to show Soda’s strong willingness to stay with the delirious Ponyboy. The author wrote that, “Yet his dark eyes were still laughing and carefree and reckless.” After staying at hospital with sleeping Ponyboy, Soda has burned himself out, too. But his happy eyes still express his delight when Ponyboy finally wakes up. Dally has gone, and Soda realizes that not only Darry, but also himself bears the responsibility of taking care of Ponyboy. Actually, in the hospital, Soda thinks that Ponyboy means everything in his world. Soda’s “reckless” eyes also exactly reveal that he cares about nothing else. Staying with Ponyboy and making that boy feel better and better are Soda’s top priority. 

For Ponyboy, Hinton only uses one word for his eyes—greenish-gray. Green reflects his pure mind and vulnerable heart, yet gray represents his profound insights. Being a greaser, he is proud of his identity. The boy nonetheless starts to hate fighting as the story folds out. There are actually two waves crashing in Ponyboy’s mind, one is his own “glory” of being a greaser, and the other is everyone’s individuality regardless of which group one is in. Here is an example. Johnny used a switchblade to kill a Soc, Bob, who is trying to drown Ponyboy in a night rumble. That boy initially feels that Bob deserves it. However, when Ponyboy meets with Cherry (another Soc, Bob’s girlfriend), he realizes that although being ferocious in greasers’ eyes, Bob is just such a normal guy who becomes sweet at a time while being insane when drunk. Ponyboy’s insight can also be reflected from his thought toward sunsets, which can both be seen from Soc’s and greasers’ side. He also started to know that both Soc and greasers are both real and common humans. Keeping fighting all along would not improve or make anything. Another example would be that after reading Johnny’s final letter, Ponyboy seems to work out what has been struggling in his mind for a long time, which again, proves his great insight. Despite a huge difference in social status and personal value between Soc and Greasers, they all have plenty of time to realize their dreams, and to do goods. Each one of the two groups is a member of their own clique, but an individual, too. 

I like very much your insight about the green and gray eyes. I think you are exactly right when you suggest the colors were carefully chosen to reflect the two sides of Ponyboy's personality.

There are lots of ways to deepen the characterization and personality of characters. The description of eyes which Hinton did a lot in The Outsider is one of them. Hinton used a lot of this kind of description to depict the symbolization of characters. I think it made characters colorful and emotional.

First, the protagonist of the novel, Ponyboy, had a pair of greenish-gray eyes. I think green symbolize youth and nature. It means a new life. That is Ponyboy, innocent and virtuous. But actually, he wanted his eyes to be more gray. Gray symbolize steady and mature, so maybe Ponyboy wanted to be a grown-up who had an indomitable spirit. Though he was just a fourteen-boy, he wanted to be a real man, and he didn’t want to be bullied by Socs. That’s all because he was just a little greaser. Greasers got jumped by Socs, it seemed a matter of course. Although Ponyboy and his bros were always bullied by Socs and he was almost drown by several Socs once, Ponyboy never wanted to make them die or got lots of hatred on them. And when ponyboy met Cherry and talked with Randy, it didn’t seem a large gap between them, though Ponyboy was a greaser and Cherry and Randy were Socs. I think Johnny got the precise words to describe Ponyboy. In the letter, Johnny told Ponyboy, “You’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn.” I do think Ponyboy was green just like his eyes showed, and his personality was gold-like. Maybe he thought he need a little mature and deep which gray symbolized, but I think green is the best color to represent him, because he was a frank boy. He had a clear stand on what he love or hate. That’s a real Ponyboy.

“He’s not like Sodapop at all and he sure ain’t like me. He’s hard as a rock and about as human. He’s got eyes exactly like frozen.” That was something Ponyboy described his big bro Darry.As for Darry, he always punished Ponyboy, so that Ponyboy couldn’t understand him at all. But actually, Darry was not this kind of people before his parents died. I do think the death of his parents happened accidentally. He used to be a kid who depended on parents badly, but now he had to be an adult as a big bro. He had to play another different role in his family, there were 2 younger brothers that he had to take care of. He was Ponyboy and Sodapop’s big bro and he also was their parents now. So that he must bear a lot in daily life, he couldn’t just consider himself but his two little brothers. When he met troubles, he didn’t have chance to vent his grievances to his mother, he had to swallow it by himself. Gradually, Darry had become fed up with daily life. And ponyboy was the youngest bro in the family, so Darry pin his hope on Ponyboy who could get good grades and didn’t be tired of reading books. So Darry was strict with Ponyboy, but actually Darry was also a kid, he was not able to educate others in a proper way, like his parents. At the beginning, Ponyboy didn’t understand this kind of care which was from Darry. But with the development of the novel, Ponyboy started to understand his big bro from his own feeling and his friends’ words. Meanwhile, Darry started to consider more about the way of communication with Ponyboy, he loved Ponyboy essentially. Later on, Darry’s eyes were not that cold in Ponyboy’s mind. The cold eyes were just the Ponyboy’s view of Darry.

So I think Hinton used a lot of descriptions of eyes in order to symbolize character of every parts and deepen their personality.

Very nicely done. I like the take on the green gray eyes and your take on Darry's "frozen" eyes is spot on in my opinion. Let me know if you want a more academic analysis via e-mail.