The Outsiders
...The ‘Socials’, (Socs) the stuck-up, wealthy kids from the West side of town, and the ‘Greasers’, the poor, misunderstood hoodlums from the East side of town. Darry (Darrel Curtis) a tough-looking Greaser who was thrown into parenting at the age of 21, changes greatly throughout the course of the novel. As Darry gathers information about his past, the gang and how he has changed, he develops better relationships with other characters. As a result, his thoughts about them change greatly.
Darry is a very important part of the gang. Others in the group often say that he is too smart to be a greaser, and the only thing stopping him from being a Soc is the gang. The gang needs Darry, seeing that he gives the gang a powerful, effective leader. Yet Darry doesn’t need the gang all that much, as he is smart enough to sustain himself through life. Darry could have had a well-paying job, and an excellent life, though he gave all that up by quitting school to be the guardian of his two brothers. This shows that Darry loves and cares about his two brothers more than they think.
Initially, Darry’s history has been growing up with his parents and his two brothers Ponyboy and Sodapop. However when their parents died, Darry’s only family was his two brothers. At the age of 21, he was given the responsibility of taking care of his brothers, a task he had never undertaken before. Darry has always been a greaser, and he doesn’t have to be one, but he was born a greaser, and will always be a greaser. Ponyboy says at the start of the novel “Darry’s gone through a lot in his twenty years, grown up too fast”. Here, Ponyboy is talking about how Darry is usually hard and firm, but he is that way because he has gone through so much in his twenty years. Darry’s history changed him quite significantly for better and worse, events such as his parents dying changed him for worse, since...
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