Chapters 3 & 4
In chapters 3 and 4, a lot happens. A very quick and short summary goes like this: Ponyboy and his gang meet some pretty nice socs girls at a nightly double at a movie theatre. They are there alone because their boyfriends wanted to drink. Since the girls, named Sherri (but everyone calls her Cherry) and Marcia, did not like that, they dumped them. After the gang leaves the theater, the girls’ boyfriends show up and want to take them home. It is then that the gang finds out that those same boys beat up Johnny about 4 months ago. When Ponyboy goes home later that night, Darry, who is Ponyboy’s oldest brother, hits him because he is late. Because Darry hit Ponyboy, Ponyboy runs away. They meet Cherry and Marcia’s boyfriends again, but this time they are in the park. Ever since those boys attacked Johnny 4 months ago, Johnny has kept a 6-inch switchblade in his back pocket. With that switchblade, Johnny stabs and kills the boy who is drowning Ponyboy in the nearby fountain. After that they consult Dally. Dally tells them to go to Jay Mountian where there is a old abandoned church. When Ponyboy and Johnny get there the chapter ends.
Now I know that was not very quick, but it gets all the important facts. Here is a list of all the characters, and who they are.
Ponyboy: The person telling the story. Darry and Sodapop’s younger brother.
Sodapop: Ponyboy’s older brother. Darry’s younger brother. Works at a gas station
Darrel: Ponyboy and Sodapop’s older brother. Is called Darry for short. Roofs houses.
Steve: Sodapop’s best friend. Works at the same gas station as Sodspop
Two-Bit Mathews: A wisecracker. Always smiling. Famous for shoplifting. Somtimes called Two-Bit.
Dallas Winston: Called Dally for short. “The tough guy.”
Johnny Cade: Ponyboy’s best friend. Always getting beat up by his folks. Everyone’s kid brother. Somtimes called Johnnycake.
Sherri: Called Cherry by everyone. Ponyboy and gang met her and Marcia at the Nightly Double. Marcia’s friend.
Marcia: Ponyboy and gang met her and Cherry at the Nightly Double. Cherry’s friend.
S. E. Hinton
The Outsiders
The Outsiders is a book by S.E. Hinton. It is also our class’s new novel study book. So far I have read chapters one and two out of twelve, and it has been a pretty good story. Our teacher told us that lots of people tell him that it has been the best book that they have ever read. I guess I will have to see if I can say the same thing.
One of my favorite things about this book so far is the names of two of the characters. The person who is telling this story is named Ponyboy, and his older brother is named Sodapop. (They call him Soda for short) The best friend of Ponyboy is named Johnny Cade, which people call Johnny cake sometimes. Ponyboy, Johnny and some other people- Steve Randle, Two-Bit Mathews (who is always getting his two-bits worth in) and Dallas Winston (Dally) - are in a gang together. They do not do organized crime, but stick up and defend each other.
Ponyboy and his gang are Greasers, which is what all of the boys on the East Side are called.The Socials or Socs for short, are the kids on the West side who are rich. The Socs and the Greasers are enemies and the Socs often jump the Greasers. When you jump someone it means you attack them and steal from them. I think the Socs are going to go to far one day and that will get the Greasers mad. This idea I got from the summary on the back of the book.
Moodle?
Yes, Moodle. Moodle is a private chat site and we (my class and I) just went on there to discuss four questions with the class in Los Angeles we are working with.Today we did a Skype call where groups shared how they answered each question.
Questions
The first question was: Define power. Most groups said that power is a force, and that people use it to control people and things. They also said that power can be bad or good. Only one group defined power as love, money and relationships.
The second question was: How does power effect relationships? Well, all of the groups said that in a relationship, one person has the power and they can use it to their advantage - for good or for bad. Also if you have power in a relationship, you may become greedy for more power and therefore breaks up the relationship.
The third question: What role does power play in a person’s decision making process? Everyone said that someone older, like your parents, has some part in a decision that you make, no matter how small it is.
Final question: Why is having power important to a person? This time every group said that if you do not have any power-any drive to do what you want, you will get lots of people telling you what to do. In other words, they will use you to their advantage.
I agree with everything that I have posted. On the first question, one group said that power is love, money and relationships. I would have never thought of it like that if they had not of said it.
Overall, I had lots of fun doing the Moodle chats and the Skype call. I hope we do it again soon.
The Bet and The Vedlt
If you have not read my recent blog post called The Bet and the blog post called The Veldt, I suggest you do so first.
Anyway, The Bet and The Veldt have things in common, even though it does not look like it at first.
For example, the characters. The parents and the banker both have control at the beginning of both stories. At the end of both stories, the kids and the lawyer have the power instead. The difference in this is that the kids have the power to let their parents live or die, but the lawyer has the power to ruin the banker financially.
Another thing these two stories have in common is that they both have relationships in them. The banker and the lawyer in The Bet have a relationship but it is not very good. In The Veldt, The parents and the children have a shaky relationship, the parents and the house have an okay relationship and the house and the kids just love each other. (they have a really good relationship)
The settings in these stories are the same in some ways. They both involve houses. In The Bet, the house of the banker is the prison for the lawyer. In The Veldt, the house is alive, and does everything for the family.
Differences
The settings in these stories are also different. In The Veldt, they are in the future somtime. The house is really alive. In The Bet, they are in the past in Russia.
Another difference is the vocabulary in the stories. The Veldt has words like ororophonics, superreactionary, supersensitive and sonics in it. Instead, The Bet has words like capital punisment, pampered and liberty in it.
Ray Bradbury - Author of The Veldt
Anton Chekhov - Author of The Bet
The Veldt
The Veldt is a another story that we read in class. Here it is. I am sorry that my last links didn’t work, when I tried them out they worked for me. Hopefully this one will work.
Power and Relationships
Anyway, I think this story is sad. The kids have a relationship with their house, instead of with their parents. The house is taking over the job of the parents. The parents do not get along well with the house or the kids.
At the beginning of the story, the parents have some power over the kids, but at the very end, the kids have the power to let the parents live or not.
Desire vs. Need
We need alot of things: food, clothes, water, shelter. The Hadley’s had all of these things in their wonderful house. But they did not need all of their fancey gadgets like the voice clocks, shoe shiners, shoe lacers, body scrubers and the nursery.
I do not think that we need everything that we want. Remeber the saying in my last post? “Absolute power corupts abosolutly” is what it was. If we got everything we wanted that would happen to everyone.
Needing is what we want but can live without. You cannot live for very long without food water or shelter of some kind.
P.S. If the link doesn’t work, Google The Veldt by Ray Bradbury.
S. E. Hinton
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