The Outsiders by S.E Hinton
The book tells the story of Ponyboy, a 14 year old and his two older brothers Darrel AKA Darry who is 20, and Sodapop, who is 16 years old. In The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, the brothers lose theirs parents recently in an automobile accident. Darry agreed to become their guardian as long as they behaved themselves.Staying out of trouble is hard to do in their neighborhood. Ponyboy makes every attempt not to participate in typical gang activities because his brother Darry will kill him if he gets in trouble.Gangs are every where and he finds it difficult to avoid gang life.Being a member of a gang can cause emotionally and physically pain. This is exactly what happened to Ponyboy.
Ponyboy almost lost his life one night while walking home alone from the movies. He notices a Red Covair following him and as it pulled up next to him five Socs jump out and surround him. One of them asks, "Need a haircut, Greaser?" and pulls out a blade and starts to beat him up. Ponyboy screams for help and suddenly his brothers and a few Greasers appeared on the scene and run the Socs away. The three brothers lived on the East Side of town, the poorer side of town while the Socs lived on the West Side of town the richer part. "We're poorer than the Socks and middle class.", says Ponyboy. The two gangs were arch enemies, they were rivals. The Socs felt they had an advantage because they were richer than The Greasers, The East Side vs West Side. Gang life almost lead to Ponyboy's death and almost caused Darry to stop letting him live at home.
The following night, Ponyboy, Dallas and Johnny headed to a movie. At the movies they Sherri and Valance who had ditched their boyfriends,Socs at the movies. The gentlemen, Ponyboy and Jonny offered to walk the young ladies home,even though it could cause them to miss their curfew. As everyone was strolling along they ran into The Socs, their rival who wanted to fight The Greasers. Valance stopped The Socs from fighting Ponyboy and Jonny. Ponyboy and his friends were trying to be gentleman but they were being gentleman to the wrong people. Violence always follows gangs. Ponyboy has to live his life everyday not knowing when a violent act will occur. I don't think he knew they were the Socs girlfriends. If Valance was not there the situation could've been worse.
Ponyboy and Jonny didn't have the opportunity to end their night in the company of two pretty girls so they headed to a parking lot to hang out in. They fell asleep there and at 2 a.m. they woke up and realized instantly that they had missed curfew. The boys made a mad dash home. Ponyboy stumbled in late for curfew. Darry was so furious he slapped him. Ponyboy had never been hit by a family member and he storms out of the house and was determined to run away. Jonny and Ponyboy head back to the park to hangout. The Socks found the boys there and they were determined to payback Ponyboy and Johnny for picking up their girls earlier. A Socks grabs Ponyboy and holds his head under the water of a fountain. Ponyboy feels himself drowning and he blacksout.He wakes up to the Socks running away and Bob"s bloody body on the pavement laying near him. Johnny yells "I killed him" and he see Johnny's switchblade covered in blood. Gang life has forced Ponyboy and Johnny into hiding. Ponyboy isn't dead and Jonny isn't in jail for the stabbing but it doesn't mean it can't happen. Now Johnny has to live in constant fear for his life because of Bob's murder and a prison sentence is waiting for him if he is every found by the police.
Trouble followed Ponyboy down every path he traveled during the story. Gang activities leads to a life filled with pain, time in jail and possibly death. PonyBoy felt physical pain in three altercations and emotional pain while he was on the run. What will be next for him? I hope it is not death. Many gang members die from being in a gang while they are in jail because they have a life sentences or someone from another gang kills them.The cycle of violence never ends.
Khalia Parris - 812
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Summer 2014 reading blog
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
When you think of a nice summer day and you and your friends are bored and wanting to make a lemonade stand. This book has nothing to do with lemonade and dosnt even have one thought about lemonade. This book is based on making money to be able to go on with your education.m
La Vaughn was just and ordinary 14 year old girl in high school wanting to go on with her education but knowing that her family can't afford it. She wanted to go to collage so she had to get a part time job while she attends high school. La Vaughn got a babysitting job for a 17 year old girl named jolly. Jolly dropped out of school because she had kids named Jeremy and Jilly the house that they lived in wasn't the most sanitary place out there but atleast they had a place to live.
The children are filthy haves no decent food, no bus trips out anywhere and no home training but besides all of that La Vaughn loves them. Jolly works during the day and La Vaughn babysits from the finish of school until late in the evening. La Vaughn has to look after the children and complete all her homework every night it's pretty hard but she still manages to do it all. La Vaughn really does love Jeremy and Jilly she spends lots of time with them she plays games with them and teaches them things that Jolly wasn't able to teach them. She spends time playing with them and teaching them and cleaning them and comes to love them. While Jolly is working she can afford to pay La Vaughn but it's still challenging because she still has to manage to pay La Vaughn and take care of her self and her two children.
Jolly never went to school much she can barley read. La Vaughn has talked Jolly to go back to school and get her education because she had lost her job and if she goes back to school she can get another job or even a better job then she had before.
La Vaughn was just and ordinary 14 year old girl in high school wanting to go on with her education but knowing that her family can't afford it. She wanted to go to collage so she had to get a part time job while she attends high school. La Vaughn got a babysitting job for a 17 year old girl named jolly. Jolly dropped out of school because she had kids named Jeremy and Jilly the house that they lived in wasn't the most sanitary place out there but atleast they had a place to live.
The children are filthy haves no decent food, no bus trips out anywhere and no home training but besides all of that La Vaughn loves them. Jolly works during the day and La Vaughn babysits from the finish of school until late in the evening. La Vaughn has to look after the children and complete all her homework every night it's pretty hard but she still manages to do it all. La Vaughn really does love Jeremy and Jilly she spends lots of time with them she plays games with them and teaches them things that Jolly wasn't able to teach them. She spends time playing with them and teaching them and cleaning them and comes to love them. While Jolly is working she can afford to pay La Vaughn but it's still challenging because she still has to manage to pay La Vaughn and take care of her self and her two children.
Jolly never went to school much she can barley read. La Vaughn has talked Jolly to go back to school and get her education because she had lost her job and if she goes back to school she can get another job or even a better job then she had before.
When I first read this book I thought that it was going to be about La Vaughn making a lemonade stand because she needed money so that she can go off to collage but then when you read you find that the book wasn't about making lemonade but it was about making money to continue on with your education. This book is very inspiring because it shows kids that just starting a part time job can help you make the money that you need while still staying in school.
-khalia Parris
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