![the outsiders chapter 1 the outsiders chapter 1](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/65/29/cf/6529cf8643f75fac2bcc4e342cf59fc0.png)
Soda is handsome, like Darry, but he is a warm, happy, lovable person. Pony sometimes thinks that Darry is cold and unfeeling. Pony knows Darry doesn't mean to hurt him, but it bothers him just the same, because Darry always hurts him by accident. Darry pulls Pony to his feet, asking him urgently whether he's okay, and shaking him. He nearly passes out, then hears people running all around him. The Socs beat him to the ground and hold a knife against his throat. The Socs tease him, asking him if he needs a haircut, then saying, "How'd you like that haircut to begin just below the neck?" Chapter 1, pg. Pony just stands there, trying to think of what to do. Johnny came from a rough home, and he was used to beatings, but the way the Socs beat him had made him break down and cry. Pony thinks about how his friend Johnny was attacked by Socs. When he is almost two blocks from home he sees a Corvair following him. Pony gets good grades and everyone thinks he is smart, but sometimes Darry gets frustrated with him because he doesn't have common sense. Darry would be furious if he misbehaved, and he knows it. His parents were killed in a car crash, and he is only allowed to stay with Darry and Soda if they all behave. For Greasers, however, crime is more of a way of life: they steal things and have gang fights. As he walks, Ponyboy starts to get nervous: greasers get beat up by the Socs if they are caught alone on the street. Darrel, or Darry, is always yelling at Ponyboy and never seems to try to understand him. Ponyboy likes Sodapop because Soda tries to understand him. His sixteen-year-old brother Sodapop doesn't care about books or movies, and his twenty-year-old brother Darrel works too hard to be interested in anything. He can't go to the movies with his friends because he likes to get lost in the story, and no one else he knows does that. He walks alone because he is coming home from the movies.
![the outsiders chapter 1 the outsiders chapter 1](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fsCCX3NehgI/maxresdefault.jpg)
He calls himself a greaser-one of the poor, tough gang of boys who fights with the Socs, ("Socials") a gang of rich, violent boys. He wears his hair long, like most of the other people from his neighborhood. Ponyboy Curtis, the narrator of the story and a fourteen-year-old boy, is walking home alone, wishing he looked handsome and tough like Paul Newman.