Nothing Gold Can Stay

        “I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man, do I have fun!”     

      I think it is fair to say that I am a fan of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. I have read through the book more times than I can remember and seen the film more than once over the years. Though it seems as though every generation or so we have a new story written about the up and coming struggling youth, The Outsiders still stands out to me as one of the best. The book gets people, understands the way that they think, and actually manages to show both sides of the story without being either condescending or preachy. And that is not an easy thing to do.

           Because I love the book so much, I'm going to take a look at some of the life lessons that I learned from it. Because even a little 200 page story about greasy hoodlums in the late fifties/early sixties can teach you some good stuff. These are 10 Life Lessons from S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders.

1: Carpe Diem - Life Is Short, So Seize The Day

            No this isn't a message board for all that YOLO crap. Being needlessly reckless and stupid is not the way to seize the day! You only live once, so make sure your life means something. That's not an excuse to do whatever you darn well please, but it is an encouragement to make the most of the time you've been given. Don't spend so much time fretting about the future that you forget to enjoy the here and now. No one knows if they're even going to live to see tomorrow, so leave it to worry about itself. Plan ahead and be smart, but don't fritter your life away with nail-biting and hand-wringing. What's going to come will come whether you worry about it or not, so as long as you've prepared yourself to the best of your ability you have nothing to brood about. You only get one life, don't waste it. As Johnny's life starts to slip away, he observes to Ponyboy that for all the times he thought about killing himself he doesn't actually want to die because sixteen years is too short a time. He hasn't done everything he wanted to do and he just isn't ready to go. The boys spent so much time worrying about their lives and fighting with the Socs that they never really had the chance to appreciate life for what it was. "Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the things you want to see."


2: Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover
       One of the strongest things pushed in The Outsiders is the idea that you can't know someone just by looking at them. People looked at Bob and saw a slightly flighty kid on the right track. Yeah he drank and ran around with his buddies after dark...but they're just kids! But then people would look at a kid like Johnny and see the greased hair, shabby clothes, and rough upbringing and make sure that the burglar alarm under the counter was working. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bob was the hoodlum that went slumming just to beat up unfortunate greasers he happened to catch alone while Johnny was the kid just trying to survive an abusive home and less-than-privileged situation. And in the end, it was Johnny who sacrificed his life to save a bunch of kids he didn't even know from a burning church. "...southern gentlemen had nothing on Johnny Cade!"


3: Things Are Rough All Over

         See that kid with the greasy hair and torn jeans? He's working to support a drunken father. See the young man with dirty nails who lives in the slums? He's running two jobs to keep his little brothers at home. See the boy with the banged up lip and bloody knuckles? He just watched his best friend get gunned down by grief. See that posh guy with the Madras shirt and shiny car? His parents don't even care he exists half the time. And the girl with the polished shoes hanging off his arm? She's afraid of being disowned by her family. No one has a perfect life. This book is really good at setting up prejudices through the eyes of Ponyboy and then ruthlessly tearing them down as the story goes on - Darry does care, Dally can break, Socs aren't all jerks, the West Side life isn't always perfect. It's an example of 1st Person Unreliable Narrator done right, but it also teaches us some important lessons about assumptions. Life is complicated and nothing is ever as it seems. You can't just assume that because you can't see a person's problems their life is perfect. Everyone's got issues and we all have struggles we have to go through.


4: Nothing Lasts Forever
          The Curtis brothers are especially familiar with this one. When we join them in our story their parents have been dead for just over a year (killed in a tragic automobile accident), the eldest brother Darry is working two jobs to keep custody of his younger brothers, and the middle brother Sodapop dropped out of school to help contribute to the family coffers and keep the youngest, Ponyboy, in school. Greasers are no strangers to hardship and loss, but they also seem to have the mentality that they are young and tough and the world may be out to get them but it can never win. That's where they're wrong. Nothing lasts forever and, much as we don't want to waste our lives worrying about 'maybes', we also shouldn't foolishly bury our heads in the sand and gain the mentality that we are invincible.


5: Everyone Has A Breaking Point

          "You've been actin' awful tough lately/Smoking a lot of cigarettes lately/But inside you're just a little baby!" (Marina & The Diamonds 'I Am Not A Robot') Just because you act all rough and tough and ruthlessly repress your emotions to keep from being hurt doesn't mean that you don't feel at all. It's safer sometimes to appear as if you don't care...because then people will think that you can't feel pain. But that doesn't mean you actually don't feel anything. It's only possible to repress and internalise for so long before the wall comes falling down and you feel the heat so hot that you crash and burn. No man is invincible, not even a hardened hoodlum like Dallas Winston.


6: It's Not About Money

           Smarts or importance are not determined by how much gold you have in your coffers. Neither should your character be judged by that fact. The characters in The Outsiders get caught up in a gang war between the two main classes of people in Tulsa. On the one side you have the Socs - the privileged, moneyed upper crust that seems to live for little more than partying and golf. On the other side are the Greasers - the kids from the wrong side of the tracks who have too much grease in their hair, wear jeans and leather, and own little more than their clothes and rattlebang cars. Both groups hate and mistrust each other, but the only real difference between them is their money. The sunset can still be seen as well from the West Side as it can from the East and they all bleed equally when sliced with a switchblade.


7: Family Is Everything

             Darry gives up his college scholarship to work two dead-end jobs and keep his younger brothers out of the Boys' Home, Sodapop quits school to go to work and make sure Darry doesn't make himself sick, both elder brothers strive endlessly to keep the youngest Curtis boy in school and to give him the best shot at life he can have. And the rest of the gang is no different. Though they squabble and fight and occasionally get into trouble together, their hearts are all in the right place - with family, whether that be through blood or through the bonds of friendship. They know where their loyalties lie.


8: Baloney Is Disgusting

             Life needs variety. As Ponyboy and Johnny discovered during their stay in the Jay Mountain church, you can't live off of baloney and poker games. The same goes for anything you might do in life. No matter what it is, if you get too much, it will soon begin to leave a sour taste in your mouth and a sick feeling in your stomach. Too much of anything is a bad thing. That includes money, television, fame, or even just plain food. And yes, baloney in and of itself is pretty disgusting too. Blech!


9: Don't Lie To Yourself

            Ponyboy openly admits within the book that he has lied to himself about why his eldest brother is so hard on him. He felt like Darry hated him, never realizing just how much the older boy had sacrificed for and worried about him. He ignored Soda's advice and just helped to make the situation worse. And of course we all know that if Pony and Darry hadn't been fighting Pony wouldn't have run with Johnny to that park, Bob wouldn't have been murdered, and the whole mess with Dally and Johnny would never have happened in the first place. Whenever you lie to yourself you may think that you're not hurting anyone else, but as those falsehoods fester inside of you they will start coming out in your actions and will ruin things for other people as well. No one lives on an island.


10: Sometimes Bad Things Will Happen To Good People

             Yes this one should be a no-brainer, but it's amazing just how many of us don't really comprehend the reality of it until it's too late and real life slaps us in the face. The Greasers thought that, though their lives were crap, they were invincible. They were young and energetic and drunk on their own tuffness. They never even considered that something could happen to one of them, not really. Sure maybe it crossed their minds from time to time...but never as more than a fleeting vague possibility that was swiftly dismissed. But this world is messed up and no one, no matter how tough or how innocent, is exempt from the possibility of death. What does this teach us? It teaches us that even as we acknowledge the need to live in the hear and now...to stop and smell the roses from time to time...that we also have to keep our eyes fixed on our goals and to be prepared for everything. Savor life, appreciate your family/friends, and never, EVER take anything for granted because you never know whenever your time will run out.