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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage is Ponyboy's most honest look at his oldest brother in the whole chapter. Notice how S.E. Hinton uses contrast — 'real popular guy... captain of the football team... Boy of the Year' versus 'work like an old man' — to show us that Darry was supposed to have a very different life. The word 'deserve' is the key: Ponyboy sees the unfairness, even if he does not always see Darry's love.
Darry didn't deserve to work like an old man when he was only twenty. He had been a real popular guy in school; he was captain of the football team and he had been voted Boy of the Year. But we just d...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Narrate Chapter 1 of The Outsiders to someone in your family. Begin with Ponyboy walking home alone from the Paul Newman movie, include the ambush by the Socs and the rescue by Darry, Sodapop, and the gang, and end with Ponyboy and Sodapop talking in bed about whether Darry really loves Ponyboy.
Discussion Questions
- Ponyboy insists, 'I don't care about Darry,' and then admits in the very next sentence, 'I was still lying and I knew it.' What does this double-voiced ending reveal about Ponyboy that a single, honest sentence could not? What in the chapter prepares us to understand why Ponyboy needs to lie to himself about Darry?
- Sodapop tells Ponyboy, 'He's really proud of you 'cause you're so brainy.' But Darry himself only says, 'You don't ever think... not at home or anywhere when it counts.' Whose version of Darry do you believe — Sodapop's or Darry's — and what evidence in Chapter 1 supports your choice?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
To have earned something because of the way you have acted or the work you have done
Item 2
Liked or admired by a lot of people
Item 3
The leader of a team or a group
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Critical Thinking
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