The Unforgettable Words

Author's Note: This is my response to "The Outsiders" for Main Idea/Topic.

“Stay gold, Ponyboy.” Johnny said these words to Ponyboy in his dying breath hoping that he would not lose his innocence. This saying relates back to the poem that Ponyboy recited on page 69 of The Outsiders book,

"Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then the leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.”

 To me this poem shows that eventually everyone loses their innocence.  Johnny knew that he Ponyboy could but he didn’t want him to lose his innocence, he did not want Ponyboy to become the stereotypical greaser, firm and unloving. Dally became this when he went to jail because he everyone in jail is really tuff and firm and it did not allow him to enjoy life anymore. Johnny and Ponyboy were different and Johnny didn’t want him to change. They always thought of other people before themselves as they did when they saved the little boys burning in the church. Johnny killed himself to save little the children, no one else would've ever done this, not on purpose at least. Going back to the original phrase "Stay gold Ponyboy" it makes me realize what the main theme of the book really is; the loss of innocence within the two different cliques. These unforgettable words that Johnny recited to Ponyboy in this devastating moment are one of the many things that he will never forget about Johnny's personality.