Write about the most powerful passage in your novel.
1.) What was the passage/event?
2.) Describe in great detail why you feel this passage/event from the story had a profound impact on you. Be sure to include details and examples from the novel.
I think one powerful part is when Johnny is in the hospital and slowly dying. The way S.E. Hinton wrote it made you feel very emotional and depressed. Throughout the whole book, she really builds up Johnny's character as just a small kid who had made a mistake in life and is struggling to fix it so when the burning church part came he risked his life to save the kids and make up for killing Bob. You can tell that in side, Johnny is really a nice person so when he dies all of his life comes to you and you just feel sad and can't stop feeling melancholy. In a way the whole book was a giant event that led up to this bereaved scene of him dying.
ReplyDeleteThe most powerful part, at least to me, is the death of Dally. Dally is sort of the rock-hard one, the unrepentant scoundrel, the one everyone is afraid of. As the book wears on, chinks in the raging armour of Dally begin to show, and he becomes more and more a tragic anti-hero. When he finally begins to redeem himself, Johnny dies. The poignant portrayal of his pent-up anger and sadness exploding to the surface and culminating to his twisted suicide would have left most readers shocked, stunned, depressed, or a mixture of the above. For me, the fact that he died a devil, so to speak, and Johnny died a saint made the passage more unbearable. The passage was one of the more depressing ones in the novel.
ReplyDelete@Peeta - I thought that the way Dally and Johnny died was really a bit of a slap in the face. Dally was a hero to those children he helped save, but he still died. Dally could have probably turned his life around, given the chance, but he still died.
ReplyDeleteAs for Johnny, he was just a victim of circumstance. Honestly, Johnny really was a lost puppy, always kicked around by the people who were supposed to look after him. He was lost in this criminal world that he really didn't want to be in.
I thought that the two deaths were really powerful.
@Charles- Once again Charles, your post was brilliant. I agreed with the death of Dally. It was very sad. Great job!
ReplyDeletePeeta I'm not trying to copy you, but I felt the same way. For me the scene where Jhonny dies was very sad, touching and depressing. It was like this because the author does a really good job of making jhonny chaaracter seem soft quite and a person who wouldnt hurt a fly. But then boom he kills one of the Socs and runs away with Ponyboy. And when the Church starts burning he becomes a hero risking his life for the children. jhonny died a hero to be proud of. jhonny was my favorite character!!
ReplyDeleteI think that the part when Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally rush into the burning church to save the kids was particularly powerful. I think this because both had rushed in without hesitation to help a few kids, even though Johnny was the weak one in the group and was scared of his own and Dally was the hardened criminal off the streets of New York who beat up a guy in a grocery line. This part is powerful because it shows that just because they’re Greasers, they aren’t necessarily all bad, which is the main point of the book so to speak.
ReplyDelete@ Charles Wallace Murry - Excellent insight!
ReplyDelete@ Everyone - Don't worry about having similar ideas when posting. I know that many of you will have similar points and ideas. As long as your posts aren't 'WORD FOR WORD" what one of your classmates have written, it is totally fine.
I really enjoyed reading all of your posts for this assignment!
@Leonard- I found that scene to be very heroic and powerful like you explained. The only thing is that how do you say that Jhonny is a weak kid??
ReplyDelete@luna - He probably meant mentally and emotionally. Johnny was a bit more delicate than the others, and that often came out in the novel. He was very uncertain of himself. By the way, the novel says Johnny. Why do you persist in writing Jhonny?
ReplyDeleteA powerful piece of writing in The Outsiders is when the kids are stuck in the burning church! Everyone around yells "NO KID DON'T GO IN THERE!" but Ponyboy and Johnny go in and climb through the shattered window. Next Ponyboy is carrying children out slowly but surely because it's so hard to breathe, but then Dally suddenly comes and hits Ponyboy on the back knocking him out and out of the way from the falling beam. But it is too late for Johnny as the burning beam falls on him giving him 2nd degree burns to 85% of his body.
ReplyDelete@Luna- A few spelling and punctuation mistakes but other then that good job.
ReplyDeleteI do not Know why but to me powerful passages are always when someone is dying!
ReplyDeleteI believe that the most powerful death was Johny's at the hospital right after he says that Ponyboy will always be golden. I was just so emotional and I don't really like thing that make me cry like this *snif* *snif* agghhghg!
I always felt as if I was Ponyboy and to see so many deaths as his character in my mind I am wishing that I never thought I was Ponyboy. Even though it is just a book I still fell really bad for him and all other greasers. the sad part was that Johny never liked to fight or be in wars . all he wanted was peace but nobody knew so he had a hard life.I just don't think that it is fair that people have to be treated this why when they cant tell others about there troubles.
Katniss E.
@Charles - Thanks for answering for me, though I could have done it myself.
ReplyDelete@Katniss - Deaths are always powerful because they are, well, deaths. Once someone dies, thats it for them, they'll never come back.