Chapters 9 and 10: Quote Analysis

Quote:“Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs. Sometimes I think it’s the ones in the middle that are really the lucky stiffs.” Pg 117

Context: Randy delivers these lines in Chapter 7 when he tells Ponyboy that he will not be fighting in the rumble.

Paraphrase:  By stating that the members of both groups will always remain in their respective groups, he suggests that it would be impossible for a greaser or a Soc to rise above his current status

Inference: Having grown up in a wealthy and comfortable environment, it would not be difficult for him to imagine himself forever stuck in this lifestyle.

Quote: “You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do.  When you’re a gang, you stick up for the members.  If you don’t stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn’t a gang anymore.  It’s a pack.” -Ponyboy (p.26)

Context: Ponyboy explains to himself after the greasers help him fight off the socs.

Paraphrase: The whole greasers are clearly friends, sticking by each other through thick and thin, caring and defending each other.  

Inference: They all support each other and stick up for another shows that the characters are responsible and caring fr each other. 

Quote: Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.

Context: As he lies dying in Chapter 9, Johnny Cade speaks these words to Ponyboy. 

Paraphrase:  poem that Ponyboy recites to Johnny when the two hide out in the Windrixville Church. One line in the poem reads, “Nothing gold can stay,” meaning that all good things must come to an end. 

Inference: The friendship between Jonny and Ponyboy has become stronger at the church. During this blissful time, the two boys read, talk, and smoke, escaping the adult world of responsibility.