The Hero's Journey Within Ponyboy Curtis

Welcome back everyone. You know lately I have been re-reading The Outsiders for this second blog and something I realized is that a really notable in the book is a term called Disillusionment and how The Hero's Journey openly relates to it. S. E. Hilton uses these ideas the most proudly in Ponyboy. Ponyboy goes through the Hero's Journey the most notably.

 The journey starts off with the memorable scene of Darry smacking him and then running away with Johnny. 

 His journey continues and this is where Ponyboy reaches the second main step 'Initiation'. The way I see it, is Ponyboy goes through two initiation. First, is when Ponyboy and Johnny talk about Robert Frosts poem. To me it is the starting of the change with-in  Pony's character. His personality is like the last line of the poem , "Nothing gold can stay". His innocent golden personality cannot stay. The second part of his initiation is of course is courage convincing him to go and save the children stuck in the church . 

 The final part of his journey is his return. Ponyboy returns to where he started but is not recognizable both in how he looks and acts. The true ironic element of his return is when Two-Bit shows him a newspaper, where he is dubbed 'hero'. "How do you like being a hero, big shot.".

 His anguished journey is the way in which he is truly disillusioned in his book. After his journey-like most who go through it-he can back changed from his disillusionment and you can tell he is impacted in how he acts in the remainder of the book. "You get back in your can or you'll get split.. I mean it... I've had about all I can take from you guys.".

 I leave you today in hopes you remember this and think about it more. If you want more knowledge on how S. E. Hilton used psychology types and conditions in the Outsiders please follow and comment. Have a great day and don't forget to look for the the golden hues of life.