situation; he worries that his brother does not want to take care of him and constantly fears attacks by the Socs. Things get much worse, however, when he and his friend Johnny go to a park late at night. The Socs attack them there and dunk Pony's head in a fountain, long enough to make him unconscious and almost drown him. When he wakes up, he realizes that one of the Socs is dead, and that Johnny killed him. The two boys run away with the help of their friend Dally, who tells them to go to an abandoned church on Jay Mountain. They hide out for a week, and then Dally comes to find them. Johnny wants to go back to turn himself in, but as they head back to the church they see that it has caught fire. A group of schoolchildren is there on a field trip, and a few of the children remain locked inside the burning church. Pony and Johnny break the window and rescue the children as the fire spreads. Pony is able to climb back out, but Johnny is hit with a piece of falling timber and burned severely. The boys are written up as heroes in the newspaper, even though they are still wanted for murder. Johnny is badly injured and will never walk again, if he lives. Meanwhile the Greasers are scheduled to fight the Socs. The Greasers win the fight, and Dally and Pony go to the hospital to tell Johnny the good news. He dies during their visit. Dally runs off heatedly, and later calls Pony's house to say that he has robbed a store and is being chased by the police. They go to meet him, but watch him pull a gun on the cops and fall back and die as they fire at him. Pony moves on with his life, after being acquitted in the Soc's murder case. He is never the same, however, and the memories of past events still haunt him. Finally, as an assignment for English class, he writes down the story of what happened. Final Analysis: The Outsiders is a story of rebellion, youth, and heroism. It focuses on an endless, senseless conflict between two groups of young peo...
