The Outsiders Quotes About Family
“…I could have gotten one of the gang to come along, one of the four boys Darry and Soda and I have grown up with and consider family. We’re almost as close as brothers; when you grow up in a tight-knit neighborhood like ours you get to know each other real well.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 3
“You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you’re a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don’t stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn’t a gang anymore. It’s a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering park like the Socs in their social clubs or the street gangs in New York or the wolves in the timber.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 2, Page 26
“They had threatened him with everything under the sun. Johnny was high-strung anyway, a nervous wreck from getting belted every time he turned around and from hearing his parents fight all the time. Living in those conditions might have turned someone else rebellious and bitter; it was killing Johnny.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy Curtis), Chapter 2, Page 33
“It ain’t fair!” I cried passionately. “It ain’t fair that we have all the rough breaks!” I didn’t know exactly what I meant, but I was thinking about Johnny’s father being a drunk and his mother a selfish slob, and Two-Bit’s mother being a barmaid to support him and his kid sister after their father ran out on them, and Dally— wild, cunning Dally— turning into a hoodlum because he’d die if he didn’t, and Steve— his hatred for his father coming out in his soft, bitter voice and the violence of his temper. Sodapop… a dropout so he could get a job and keep me in school, and Darry, getting old before his time trying to run a family and hold on to two jobs and never having any fun—”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy Curtis), Chapter 3, Page 43
“We couldn’t let our parents see us with you all. You’re a nice boy and everything…”
“It’s okay,” I said, wishing I was dead and buried somewhere. Or at least that I had on a decent shirt. “We
aren’t in the same class. Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset too.”~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Cherry Valance and Ponyboy), Chapter 3, Page 46
“My mother was golden and beautiful…
“Ponyboy”— Johnny was shaking me— “Hey, Pony, wake up.”
I sat up, shivering. The stars had moved. “Glory, what time is it?”
“I don’t know. I went to sleep, too, listening to you rattle on and on. You’d better get home. I think I’ll stay all night out here.” Johnny’s parents didn’t care if he came home or not.
“Okay.” I yawned. Gosh, but it was cold. “If you get cold or something come on over to our house.”
“Okay.”~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Page 48
“Since I was dreaming, I brought Mom and Dad back to life…”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Page 48
“He should never yell at Soda. Nobody should ever holler at my brother. I exploded. “You don’t yell at him!” I shouted. Darry wheeled around and slapped me so hard that it knocked me against the door. Suddenly it was deathly quiet. We had all frozen. Nobody in my family had ever hit me. Nobody. Soda was wide-eyed. Darry looked at the palm of his hand where it had turned red and then looked back at me. His eyes were huge. “Ponyboy…”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 3, Page 50
“You sure you want to go back? Us greasers get it worse than anyone else.”
Johnny nodded. “I’m sure. It ain’t fair for Ponyboy to have to stay up in that church with Darry and Soda worryin’ about him all the time. I don’t guess…”— he swallowed and tried not to look eager— “I don’t guess my parents are worried about me or anything?”
“The boys are worried,” Dally said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Two-Bit was going to Texas to hunt for you.”
“My parents,” Johnny repeated doggedly, “did they ask about me?”
“No,” snapped Dally, “they didn’t. Blast it, Johnny, what do they matter? Shoot, my old man don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter. That don’t bother me none.”
Johnny didn’t say anything. But he stared at the dashboard with such hurt bewilderment that I could have bawled.”~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Dallas Winston, Johnny Cade, and Ponyboy), Chapter 6, Page 87
“Dally cussed under his breath and nearly tore out the transmission of the T-bird as we roared out of the Dairy Queen. I felt sorry for Dally. He meant it when he said he didn’t care about his parents. maybe that lost puppy look and those big scared eyes were what made everyone his big brother. But they couldn’t, no matter how hard they tried, take the place of his parents.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as the narrator about Dallas Winston), Chapter 6, Page 88
“No wonder Johnny was hurt because his parents didn’t want him”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as the narrator about Johnny Cade), Chapter 6, Page 88
“The nurses wouldn’t tell us anything about Johnny and Dally, so Darry got hold of the doctor. The doctor told us that he would talk only to the family, but Darry finally got it through the guy’s head that we were about as much family as Dally and Johnny had.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 7, Page 102
“Our front door is always unlocked in case one of the boys is hacked off at his parents and needs a place to lay over and cool off.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 7, Page 105
“He’s dead— his mother has had a nervous breakdown. They spoiled him rotten. I mean, most parents would be proud of a kid like that— good-lookin’ and smart and everything, but they gave in to him all the time.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Randy to Ponyboy), Chapter 7, Page 116
“His parents let him run wild— because they loved him too much or too little? Did they hate us now? I hoped they hated us, that they weren’t full of that pity-the-victims-of-environment junk the social workers kept handing”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 11, Page 162
“My parents are dead. I live here with just Darry and Soda, my brothers.” ,,, “That’s what’s worrying me. If the judge decides Darry isn’t a good guardian or something, I’m liable to get stuck in a home somewhere. That’s the rotten part of this deal. Darry is a good guardian; he makes me study and knows where I am and who I’m with all the time. I mean, we don’t get along so great sometimes, but he keeps me out of trouble, or did. My father didn’t yell at me as much as he does.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy Curtis), Chapter 11, Page 164
“I tried to write that theme when I got home. I really did, mostly because Darry told me to or else. I thought about writing about Dad, but I couldn’t. It’s going to be a long time before I can even think about my parents. A long time. I tried writing about Soda’s horse, Mickey Mouse, but I couldn’t get it right; it always came out sounding corny. So I started writing names across the paper. Darrel Shaynne Curtis, Jr. Soda Patrick Curtis. Ponyboy Michael Curtis. Then I drew horses all over it. That was going to get a good grade like all git-out.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 12, Page 172
“Hey, Ponyboy”— Soda gave me a tearful grin— “don’t you start crying, too. One bawl-baby in the family’s enough.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Darry to Ponyboy), Chapter 12, Page 176