Summary
The boys walk home. Two-Bit talks about how beautiful the girls were, and looks at the phone number Marcia gave him, which he suspects is a fake. As they arrive at Johnny’s house, a fight can be seen in silhouette through a lit window. Two-Bit picks up a silly hat that he finds on the ground, as a female figure appears in the doorway of the house, screaming at a man to get out. Two-Bit breaks off, and Johnny tells Ponyboy he wants to go to the lot, because he hates when his parents fight. In the lot, Johnny lights a small fire, and the boys sit beside it, Johnny comforting Ponyboy about Cherry’s cold goodbye. He says, “Might have hurt her reputation or something, that’s all,” as Ponyboy looks up at the night sky. As Johnny talks about how tough the Socs car was, Ponyboy abruptly becomes upset, getting up to throw things into the fire. As Ponyboy stares at the fire, Johnny becomes more and more upset, saying that he’s getting fed up and that he wants to kill himself. Ponyboy slides next to him, putting his arm around him and comforting him. The two boys look up at the sky, as Johnny cries and tells Ponyboy, “It seems like there’s gotta be someplace without Greasers and Socs. There must be someplace with just plain, ordinary people.” The camera zooms in on Ponyboy, who tells Johnny that “it’s like that out in the country…away from all the big towns…I miss going there with my folks…”
The scene shifts to the silhouette of a man and woman—presumably the Curtises—getting out of a car as the sun sets, and the music changes to a pleasant song. The man takes things out of the trunk of the car, and we see faint images of Ponyboy’s parents’ faces, when abruptly the car is shown getting hit by an oncoming train; Ponyboy is dreaming about his parents’ death. Having fallen asleep next to their fire, Ponyboy is shaken awake by Johnny. Groggily, Ponyboy gets up to go home, but Johnny tells him he is going to sleep the whole night outside to avoid his parents’ fighting. Ponyboy offers for Johnny to sleep at his place if he gets cold and runs off, worrying about what Darry will say about how late it is for him to be getting home.
Ponyboy arrives at his house and walks up to the front door, seeing Darry, his oldest brother, on the phone with someone—presumably in search of Ponyboy—through the window. When Ponyboy enters, Darry is furious, hanging up the phone. Ponyboy tells him the story, that he fell asleep in the lot talking to Johnny, but Darry becomes even more threatening, insisting that he can’t even call the cops, because then he’ll have to send Ponyboy to a boys’ home. Darry is livid, and will not let up on Ponyboy, yelling that Ponyboy is careless and constantly giving excuses. When Sodapop tries to stand up for Ponyboy, Darry snaps again. Ponyboy gets angry that Darry is being cruel to Sodapop now, and speaks up on his behalf, but this sends Darry over the edge and he wrestles Ponyboy to the ground. Ponyboy immediately gets up and runs out the door, and Darry quickly becomes remorseful about his sudden burst of violence.
Ponyboy runs out the front door and back to where Johnny is sleeping, as his two brothers watch from the porch. He finds Johnny lying on the ground and wrapped in newspaper blown about by the wind. He trips onto the ground near Johnny, and waking Johnny, tells him they are running away. Once they get a little ways away, Ponyboy begins to cry and Johnny tries to get him to calm down, with Ponyboy asking for a cigarette. Ponyboy explains that Darry hit him, and that their relationship has been strained since the death of their parents. Johnny admits that he prefers when his father hits him to when his father ignores him because “at least he knows I’m there.” Lighting a cigarette, Ponyboy says they should walk to the park and back so he can “cool off” and eventually go home. They walk through a field, and nearby we see a car slowly drive down the road, as ominous music plays.
Ponyboy and Johnny continue to walk through fields, when they notice a nearby car of Socs driving slowly by and looking at them through the window. Ponyboy and Johnny climb to the top of a jungle gym and light cigarettes, looking at the car on the adjacent road. “Uh oh, look what’s coming,” Ponyboy says as the car drives onto the field. Bob and Randy get out of the car, visibly intoxicated, as the camera closes in on the frightened face of Johnny. Johnny notices Bob’s flask and the rings on his finger, and alerts Ponyboy that “it’s that guy with the rings.” Here, it is explicitly revealed that Bob is the Soc that cut Johnny’s face with his rings. Johnny reaches for a knife in his back pocket. Slurring his speech, Bob says, “Aren’t these the Greasers that tried to pick up our women,” and we see Ponyboy. Johnny threatens the Socs that they’re on Greaser territory, but Randy talks back, as Ponyboy puffs on his cigarette, and the two boys climb down. Bob menacingly says, “You know what a Greaser is? White trash with long greasy hair,” and throws some alcohol from his flask in Ponyboy’s face, as one of the other Socs laughs.
Remaining calm, Ponyboy has a comeback ready. He says, “You know what a Soc is? White trash with Mustangs and madras,” and spits in Bob’s face. This really sets Bob off, and the Socs immediately begin chasing the two boys as suspenseful music plays. They grab the boys, kicking Johnny to the ground and attempting to push Ponyboy into a nearby fountain. As all the Socs descend on Ponyboy, pushing him into the fountain, Johnny watches from the ground nearby and pulls out his knife. Ponyboy struggles with the Socs, managing to pull the drunken Bob into the water with him. The Socs start to drown Ponyboy and pour alcohol on him. We see Ponyboy’s face pushed under the water, as he struggles to breathe. The sound simulates what he hears underwater, the muffled cries and laughs of the relentlessly cruel Socs hazing him. Johnny stands, holding his knife, and the camera cuts to a close shot of Ponyboy’s head underwater. A wave of blood closes in over his face and the shot fades.
The scene shifts to show several figures from a bird’s eye view, lying beside the fountain, which is now filled with blood. The shot closes in on the sleeping face of Ponyboy, He slowly awakens and sees Johnny, shivering and crying beside him. “I killed him, I killed that boy,” Johnny says, holding up his bloody knife. Ponyboy looks over to see Bob, dead in a pool of his own blood on the ground nearby. Ponyboy rushes over to vomit on the ground, while Johnny explains that he had to kill Bob to save Ponyboy. Johnny then explains that the other Socs ran off, and we see Bob’s corpse on the ground behind him. Johnny looks frightened, shivering in the cold night air. A distant train whistle blows and the boys sit there, terrified and alone.
The scene shifts to a bar next to the train tracks, and we see Johnny and Ponyboy running up to the door. When they knock, an older gentleman answers it, bathed in red light. He asks what the boys want, and they identify themselves and ask to see Dally. Even though the boys are quaking from the cold, the man shuts the door in their faces. They sneak over to the window and peek into the red light of the bar to see a shirtless Dally walking towards the door followed by the bar owner. When Ponyboy tells Dally that Johnny killed a Soc, Dally looks mildly exasperated, but says, “well good for you,” before inviting the boys into the bar to brainstorm how he can help them. They walk into the bar and Ponyboy starts going towards a room with a pool table, but Dally ushers him upstairs where they can dry off and clean up. They run upstairs to Dally’s room and he tells them to warm up, while he grabs a gun from his drawer and hands it to Johnny, telling him it’s loaded. Ponyboy cries and wraps a towel around his shoulders, as Dally hands Johnny $50. Dally tells Ponyboy that he doesn’t want to have to tell Darry about what happened and gives him a shirt. Dally gives instructions to the boys: he tells them to hop a 3:15 freight train to Windrixville and hide in an abandoned church on top of Jay Mountain, with enough food for a week, and stay there in hiding. He tells them that he will pick them up when everything seems to have settled down.
The boys go downstairs at the bar, passing an expectant looking girl, maybe a prostitute, and going out the front door. We see the boys sneak onto the freight train, a short distance from some train workers. Having heard some noise, the workers check the cars for impostors, but don’t find the boys. As the whistle blows, the boys sit and begin their escape. Dramatic music plays as the train chugs along and the scene shifts to show the sun rising over the horizon. The scene shifts to the abandoned church, and the boys approach it, finally feeling calmer about their situation. They have arrived in the country, the place they always dreamed of—though they're there under less-than-ideal circumstances. They walk into the church, the camera at the level of their feet, revealing a small deer lying under a platform in the church. The boys examine the interior of the church, which is filthy and covered in cobwebs. An owl screeches from a beam above, and the boys lie down on the ground. Ponyboy asks Johnny if he’s alright, but Johnny is already asleep.
Ponyboy awakens to the sound of barking dogs and footsteps. As he hears a whistle, he looks up, and has a vision of Darry making breakfast and urging him to get up, but it is just a hallucination. Calling for Johnny, Ponyboy eventually looks down and sees that Johnny has written “Be Back Soon” in the dirt nearby. Ponyboy walks into the other room to find Johnny unloading groceries. Amongst the bread, peanut butter, and bologna, Johnny also picked up a paperback copy of Gone with the Wind for Ponyboy, a book he knows Ponyboy has always wanted to read. Johnny suggests that Ponyboy read it aloud to kill time. Ponyboy is confused and surprised to find a bottle of peroxide, and Johnny insists that they have to cut and dye their hair. Ponyboy resists, saying he won’t cut his hair, but Johnny insists that they have to. Ponyboy finally agrees, and Johnny cuts his hair with a knife, which hurts him. Ponyboy asks if he can see the progress, but Johnny insists that they have to bleach it first.
Analysis
The scene in the field between Johnny and Ponyboy reveals more about their respective struggles. They are both very young, but they face hardships that would try an adult. While Johnny’s parents appear to have a violent and contentious relationship, one which makes him feel abandoned, Ponyboy has recently been orphaned, his parents having been killed in their car by a train. Thus, both boys feel lost and abandoned by the world, and they seek solace in the pseudo-familial structure that the gang provides. As the two youngest members of the Greasers, Johnny and Ponyboy rely on one another for mutual support, warming themselves and falling asleep next to an outdoor fire they made together. For all of the structure that being a Greaser gives them, however, they both dream of a better life, away from the violence, somewhere in the country, where they believe “ordinary” people live.
In this section we learn more about Ponyboy’s home dynamic, which is tumultuous and unstable. While Sodapop, his older brother, is understanding and supportive, Darry, his oldest brother, is a mean and strict taskmaster, who berates Ponyboy for never measuring and always being careless. In the absence of parental figures, Darry has become a dictator, stressed by the pressure placed on him as head of the household, and concerned for his younger brothers’ futures. Ponyboy resents Darry, and indeed Darry is cruel and needlessly critical, eventually pushing his youngest brother to the ground violently. The world of gangs and poverty have had distinct effects on the Curtis brothers after the deaths of their parents. The pressures the orphaned family face are intense and dramatic.
Abandonment and loss are established as major themes in this section of the movie. While Darry is providing for his brothers and acting as the head of the household, he is also emotionally abandoning his brother in key ways, exemplified by his physical violence towards Ponyboy. Additionally, we learn that Johnny is abused by his father, and in an especially sad revelation, says to Ponyboy, “I think I like it better when the old man’s hitting me. At least he knows I’m there.” For Johnny, the pain of abandonment has gotten so bad that even physical abuse is better than being ignored and abandoned. These are the sad states of these adolescent boys’ lives.
In addition to the turmoil the boys face at home, there is a constant threat of sadistic violence from the Socs. In this section we see the lengths to which the Socs will go to establish dominance over the poorer Greasers. It is in this section that Bob is confirmed as the Soc who gave Johnny the scar on his face. His rings, symbols of his affluence, are also weapons. Indeed, the violence of the Socs rests not only in the fact that they are gang members and prone to fight, but in the fact that their fights are all about the power and dominance that their wealth gives them within the community. While Bob and his friends abuse Johnny and Ponyboy, calling them “white trash,” when the same insult is leveled at them, they become enraged and ruthless, attempting to drown a 14 year old boy. The violence of the Socs is made all the more brutal and reprehensible because it is based in their own fragility—they are expert bullies, but when Ponyboy attempts to hold a mirror up to their own pomposity, they become aggressive, and cannot handle it.
In the wake of Johnny’s violent act, director Coppola employs different visual techniques to heighten the suspense and add to the emotional landscape of the killing. When Johnny stabs Bob, we do not see the act, only Ponyboy’s face underwater and the blood pooling around it. When the scene shifts, the camera looks down on the scene from above, detaching the viewer from the violence, and showing a trio of young bodies lying next to a bloody fountain in a park. By taking a bird’s eye view, Coppola shows the violence from a distance, which also gives the effect of portraying the helplessness of the young gang members. As Ponyboy awakens, he turns over to see Johnny. The camera spins as if from Ponyboy’s perspective, moving from a lying down position to upright. In Ponyboy’s line of vision is Johnny, quivering and crying about the murder he committed. In the pale light of the moon, Johnny is just a helpless orphan who was driven to violence to save his friend, but we know that his act will not be so easily understood by his community.
On the run from the law, the boys must hide their identities and strip themselves of the symbols of their old lives: most notably, they must take the grease out of their hair and cut it. Their long and greased hair is a symbol of their pride in their background. While they might not have money, they are tough and resourceful, and the grease in their long hair symbolizes this. When Johnny commits murder, he must strip himself of his pride and his self-protection, and so must Ponyboy. They leave behind their old lives and old selves, at least for the time being.
