Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold. As he lies dying in Chapter 9, Johnny Cade speaks these words to Ponyboy. “Stay gold” is a reference to the Robert Frost poem that Ponyboy recites to Johnny when the two hide out in the Windrixville Church.
“'Oh no! ' My hand flew to my hair. 'No, Johnny, not my hair! ...
“You're a traitor to your own kind and not loyal to us.” S. E. Hinton. Outsiders. ...
“That's stupid, I thought swiftly, they've both come here to fight and they're both supposed to be smarter than that. What difference does the side make?”
"Johnny," Dally said in a pleading, high voice, using a tone I had never heard from him before, "Johnny, I ain't mad at you. I just don't want you to get hurt. You don't know what a few months in jail can do to you.
"I never noticed colors and clouds and stuff until you kept reminding me about them. It seems like they were never there before." Johnny appreciates the point of view that Ponyboy gives him. ...
"I don't want to die now. It ain't long enough. ...
In The Outsiders, Johnny says "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold." just before he dies. These final words are a reference to the Robert Frost poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay," which Ponyboy had quoted as the boys watched a sunrise.
Johnny is dying and is not impressed that the greasers won the rumble: "Useless . . . fighting's no good." He asks to speak to Ponyboy, and, leaning over him, Johnny's last words are "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold."
he found some sort of peace I guess with the idea of death. he pretty much said to himself "it's ok". the real question is what did he want to tell pony. his last words were "pony".
Ponyboy explains that Dally does not love anyone except for Johnny. As soon as Johnny comes to him for help, he immediately concocts a plan to help protect him. Johnny is also the only other Greaser who Dally listens to, and he does not react angrily when Johnny stands up to him.
According to Ponyboy, Dally died because, “Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted” (154). Ponyboy fainted in the vacant lot because of the gash he got on his head during the rumble and the shock of seeing two of his friend die.
“Listen, kiddo, when Darry hollers at you … he don't mean nothin'. He's just got more worries than somebody his age ought to. Don't take him serious…you dig, Pony?” ...
“I don't know. It's just … I can't stand to hear y'all fight. ...
“I am a greaser,” Sodapop chanted. “I am a JD and a hood.
When Ponyboy wakes, he is in an ambulance, accompanied by one of the schoolteachers, Jerry Wood. The teacher tells him that his back caught on fire and that the jacket he was wearing, which Dally lent him, saved his life. He says that Dally was burned but will probably be fine.
At 14 years old, the youngest Curtis brother and greaser. Ponyboy is intelligent and sensitive and has certain un-greaserlike characteristics: he likes to go to movies by himself, does well in school, and appreciates sunsets.
Ponyboy: Nature's first green is gold / Her hardest hue to hold / Her early leaf's a flower / But only so an hour / Then leaf subsides to leaf / So Eden sank to grief / So dawn goes down to day / Nothing gold can stay.
Bob's bloody corpse is nearby. Johnny says, “I killed him,” and Ponyboy sees Johnny's switchblade, dark to the hilt with blood. Ponyboy panics, but Johnny remains calm.
Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold. "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie I only had two things on my mind: Paul Newman and the ride home." Stay gold, Ponyboy.
As we know, Dallas loved Johnny. This is extremely important to not only the book, but this analysis. He fell in love with Johnny when he was too afraid to attach to anything else. The attachment grew so strong that when Johnny died, Dallas wanted to, too.
Ponyboy realizes this truth after Johnny's death. When he tries to make sense of Dally's reaction to Johnny's death, it dawns on him, "Johnny was the only thing that Dally loved."
She finds herself attracted to Dally, who is crass and unrefined but also sexy and charismatic. Despite all her attraction to the greasers, moreover, she is not completely free of group prejudice. She tells Ponyboy that she probably won't say hello to him at school, acknowledging that she respects social divisions.
The policemen kill Dally. After Johnny dies in the hospital, Dally is so upset, he runs away from Ponyboy and robs a grocery store. The police chase him to the empty lot where the greasers hang out. There, Dally takes out his unloaded gun and threatens the police, who shoot him in self-defense.
Before he dies, Johnny tells Ponyboy to "Stay gold." These words are from a Robert Frost poem called "Nothing Gold Can Stay," which both boys read and discussed earlier in the novel. The poem is about how innocence cannot last, as all who grow older must gain experience and become more jaded in their view of the world.
Why does Johnny smile before he dies? Because Dally was proud of him. How did Johnny die? Johnny went into the burning church (to save the children) and a beam fell on him.
Dally pulls out the unloaded gun he carries, and the police shoot him. Dally collapses to the ground, dead. Ponyboy muses that Dally wanted to die. Feeling dizzy and overwhelmed, Ponyboy passes out.
How does Dally die in the outsiders? Dally is shot by police after robbing a grocery store with an unloaded gun. He is cornered by the police, and raises the gun at them. They shoot and kill him.
