Thursday, May 17, 2007

Chapter 1 Questions

1. Describe each of the characters in this chapter and their relationship with one another.
Ponyboy
-is the narrator of the story.
-he has long light brown hair and greenish grey eyes.
-brothers with Sodapop and Darry.
-small for his age
-loves Sodapop more than Darry

Sodapop (Soda)
-16 years old
-different than everyone else in gang
-always smiling
-dropped out of highschool

Steve Randle
-soda's best buddy
-17, tall, thick greasy hair, smart
-Soda's buddy since grade school
-specialty was cars

Darrel (Darry)
-dark gold hair, dark brown eyes
-Sodapop and Ponyboy's brother

Dallas WInston (Dally)
-elfish face, high cheekbones, and pointed chin
-long blond hair, blue eyes
-arrested at age of ten in New York

Keith Matthews (Two-Bit)
-oldest of the gang
-6 feet tall, stocky build
-grey eyes, wide grin
-famous for shop-lifting
-liked fights, and school(junior at 18)

Johnny Cade (Johnnycake)
-youngest next to Ponyboy
-black eyes, tanned face, jet black hair
-small
-father always beating him up, mother ignored him

2. Who are the Socs? Who are the Greasers?
The Socs is short for socials and they are the "cool" ones from the west side that always jump the greasers for fun. The Greasers are the "losers" from the east side in the poor side of town.

3. How do Ponyboy's relationships with Darry and Sodapop differ? Explain.
Ponyboy's relationship with Sodapop and Darry are very different because Sodapop understands Ponyboy and they get along while Ponyboy and Darry are always getting into arguments.

4. Why is the 'gang' important to Johnny?
The gang is important to Johnny because his home life was not good he was always getting beatin by his father and his mother ignored him. If it wasn't for the gang he would have ran away.

5. How does Ponyboy react to what Sodapop tells him about Darry?
Ponyboy is suprised about what Sodapop told him that night because he thought Darry was actually mad at him sometimes, but he was just over reacting.

6. Do you think Darry loves Ponyboy? Why does he treat Ponyboy the way he does?
I think Darry does love Ponyboy, its just that he doesn't know how to show it. He treats Ponyboy the way he does because Sodapop gets better grades than Ponyboy and because I think that he doesn't know how to show that he loves him.

7. What does Ponyboy mean on page 18 when he says, "I lie to myself all the time"? Do you ever lie to yourself? Why?

Ponyboy means that he knows what the truth is he just would hate to admit it to others and himself.
I think I have lied to myself because when have a bad day I know it didn't go well but i don't want to talk about it with other people. People do this because they are afraid that they will get upset by other people knowing.