"Stay Golden Ponyboy"

The Outsiders, directed by Francis Ford Cappola, is a 1983 drama film that was an adaptation of the novel written by S. E. Hilton. In the film, there are two rival teen gangs, the Greasers and the Socs, who have great conflict with each other. The Greasers consist of low-income, working class teens while the Socs consist of wealthier kids who live on the other side of town.

            The conflicts between the two gangs begin when Dally (a Greaser) tries to pick up Cherry (one of the Soc’s girlfriends). While they are at the drive-in, Dally repeatedly flirts with Cherry even after she angrily tells him to stop. When Ponyboy and Johnny (the two youngest Greasers) see Dally being inconsiderate to Cherry, they both interrupt and try to get him to stop. Cherry and her friend thank Ponyboy and Johnny and begin to walk home with them. Bob and the other Socs find the four of them walking together and pull over to the side of the road and begin to argue with Ponyboy and Johnny. Cherry ends up leaving with the Socs to prevent a brawl.

            When Ponyboy finally gets home, his older brother Daryl—who has been taking care of his two younger brothers since their parents died—begins to scold Ponyboy for being out so late. They keep arguing until Daryl hits him and Ponyboy runs off to find Johnny again. The two boys go to the local park where the Socs find them and jump Ponyboy. Scared that Ponyboy is going to die, Johnny pulls out a switchblade to stab Bob (the Soc jumping Ponyboy) and accidentally kills him. Everyone flees the scene so they don’t get caught. Johnny and Ponyboy run to Dally for advice on how to skip town and avoid the murder. A few days after they run away, Dally goes to find the boys. While driving, they all see a group of kids trapped inside of a burning building. Each of them went in to rescue the kids and were then named town heroes; unfortunately, Johnny was severely burned and eventually died in the hospital from a broken back. Before he died, Ponyboy and Dally went to see Johnny to tell him that they won the big brawl against the Socs. Johnny tells them that fighting doesn’t solve anything; his last words were “Stay golden Ponyboy.”

            Although there were many conflicts between the two gangs, the Greasers also had interpersonal conflicts. For example, Dally always has a guard up due to his bad past and relationship issues. Ponyboy and Johnny share a lot of the same interpersonal conflicts. They both have family relationship issues and avoidant problems.  Ponyboy’s family issues come from all the hardships that came after his parents’ death. It’s hard on his oldest brother to take care of him and Soda Pop so there always seems to be problems in the house. Ponyboy avoids these problems by running away after each argument. Johnny’s family relationship issues come from a lifetime of parental arguments which took their attention away from him. He avoids those issues by never confronting his parents and telling them how he feels. Both of them avoid the murder at the park by skipping town as well.

            If Dally, Ponyboy, and Johnny tried to improve these interpersonal conflicts by using dialogue, better listening skills, aggressive and collaborative systems, etc., they would have had different long-term outcomes. For example, Dally wouldn’t have died because he would have been able to talk to someone about how he felt after Johnny’s death. Ponyboy would have a better relationship with his brothers and wouldn’t run out after arguments. Johnny wouldn’t have died because he never would have killed a Soc; instead he would have had a non-violent discussion with the gang. If the Greasers would have taken HCOM 214, their lives would have been much better off.