The End! And Now My Opinions!

Hurray! I have finished The Outsiders and now it's time to say what I think about the book. Also, what I think the theme is. In case you don't know what theme means it is the message of the story, or the moral. For example the theme of The Tortoise and the Hare is, slow and steady wins the race. Anyways in my last post I was around chapter 4 and now I finished the book just yesterday. So overall I really enjoyed the book. To be extremely honest I actually cried, twice. I really don't know why, maybe because I really like the character. My favorite part of the book was when the during the rumble or chapter nine in general. The way they author puts the details makes me create an image in head and I love it when that happens. Also, chapter nine had my least favorite part, when Johnny dies (spoilers!). Johnny was one of my favorite characters in the book and when he died that got me pretty upset. One thing that made me like the book was the detail. I know I've said this a million times, but it's true. The way the author puts them, as you know makes me create an image in my head. And in my head it felt like a movie. And now the main question, what is the theme of The Outsiders. Well, I think the theme is you don't know how much you care for someone until they leave. To support my answer I will use textual evidence (spoilers). First of all in around beginning of the book, we've learned that Ponyboy's parents die. That's evidence one since Ponyboy is 14 he didn't really have a long time with his parents and after they died began to think about them more and compare them to Darry or Sodapop. Evidence two, Johnny. When Johnny dies in the hospital Ponyboy and the rest of the group are upset. Ponyboy is so upset that he tells himself that he is not dead. To prove myself even more Ponyboy says this to Randy when he is at the hospital, "Johnny is not dead." My voice was shaking. "Jonny is not dead." Even Darry got emotional. Which is the third evidence. When Johnny dies Darry was upset like everyone else, but this really effected him. So much that he ended up dying. In the book Ponyboy realizes how much Johnny meant to Darry, he says "Dally risking his life for us, trying to keep Johnny out of trouble." As you can see Johnny did meant a lot to Darry (read the book to understand a little more). In the end the theme can be something else but, its my opinion/what I think. The book was great and I think you should read it to see if you have other opinions and ideas on the book.