He also tells the boys Timothy Shepard and his gang are looking for Dally, because he slashed Timothy's car tires. After a while Two-Bit shows up and strikes up a friendship with Marcia. Normally Dally would fight anyone who told him to leave someone alone, but Johnny has a special relationship with Dally, instead of fighting Johnny, he just leaves.Ĭherry is grateful to Johnny for intervening and invites him and Ponyboy to sit with her and her friend, Marcia. Johnny, who since his beating by the Socs rarely speaks and worships Dally, tells him to leave the girl alone. These are the boys' real names their father had a unique sense of humor.Īfter a bit Dally returns with Cokes for the girls and Cherry throws hers in his face, he is ready to cause the girl some physical harm, but Johnny speaks up. She starts a conversation with Ponyboy and soon discovers he attends her school and his brother is Sodapop. She sees they are greasers, but they are not like Dally. The girl, Cherry Valance, notices Ponyboy and Johnny. Finally, after the girl turns down Dally's offer of buying her a Coke, he leaves. She threatens to call the police, which has no effect on Dally. She tells him to leave her alone, but he reacts by asking who is going to make him leave. He doesn't get the reaction he is hoping for, so he puts his feet on the back of one of the girl's chair. He starts to talk loudly in a vulgar manner, to see if he can irritate the girls. He moves from where he and the boys are sitting to a seat just behind the girls.
There Dally sees a couple of Socs girls watching the movie and he decides to harass them.
Ponyboy and Johnny meet up with Dally and sneak into the Nightly Double drive-in movie theater. After returning home, Soda confides to Ponyboy he wants to marry his girlfriend, Sandy. Darry allows his little brother to go because it isn't a school night. The night of his attack, Ponyboy agrees to go with Dally and Johnny to the Nightly Double to look for some action. He has most of his classes with the Socs, the Socials, a gang of rich kids from the West side, because his good grades have placed him in advanced classes. They live in a world where they carry switch blades, even to school, and rob stores just for the fun of it.Īt school the greasers are looked down on by the other students, which is hard for Ponyboy. The boys come from poor families and some of them are beaten by their parents. Dally has gone to jail numerous times, while Johnny was beaten so badly by a group of Socs, that he lives in a state of perpetual fear. They include Two-Bit Mathews, Johnny Cade, Steve Randle, and Dallas Winston, Dally. The boys are part of a gang of young men, who are more like brothers than gang members. Darry knows Ponyboy has a chance to make something of himself, so he is intent on keeping the teenager out of trouble. Darry is hard on Ponyboy because he is smart. Darry works hard as roofer and Sodapop works at a gas station. The authorities said Darry, who is 20 years old, could be responsible for his brothers, as long as they are never in trouble with the law. The boys live without the supervision of parents, because theirs were killed in an automobile accident.
This is where the greasers live, the boys who don't cut their hair, the boys who are known for fighting and disobeying the law. The brothers live together in a small house on the poor side of town, the East side. The only person Ponyboy feels comfortable showing his emotions to, is his second oldest brother, Sodapop. He is frightened by the incident and can't show his fear to his oldest brother Darrel, called Darry. Ponyboy is cut and has a bruise on his face, but his real injuries are emotional.
It terrifies young Ponyboy, but he is rescued by his brothers and the rest of their gang. On this particular night 14-year-old Ponyboy is accosted by five Socs, who restrain him on the ground, while they threaten to cut his long hair with a switch blade. The Socs like to pick on greasers to beat them up just for fun. Ponyboy is walking home from the movies by himself, which is a dangerous thing for a greaser to do.