Stay Gold: a review of The Outsiders

Coming of age within a world of poverty and classism. Your circumstances do not have to harden you to a cruel world. They can make you kind.

This review, while still a review, is also an ode to my mother.

Growing up, my mom would talk a lot about this book. It was one of her favorites as a child, and she and her dear childhood friend used to memorize the poem together. I am happy to say that my mom is still in touch with this friend, and after hearing about this book for so long, I have finally read it!

I read the Outsiders in two days and I loved it.

You can characterize The Outsiders as young-adult fiction. However, per the author's own admission, it is also loosely based on her own life. This gives it additional heart, and makes the difficulties Ponyboy faces that much more gut-wrenching.

Ponyboy is a young greaser, but while The Outsiders is told from his POV, it is not only about Ponyboy-- but all the boys who make up his ragtag gang.

You will follow him as he deals with the difficulties of classism, violence, despair, and familial love. The plot moves quickly, and the book in total is less than 200 pages. You could easily get through it in one sitting.

Knowing in part some of the difficulties my own mother faced in her formative years, I can picture her reading this story and finding solace in an exciting story of another lonely child. Despite the many challenges my mother faced, she grew up to be one of the strongest women I know. She is resilient without becoming hard.

In The Outsiders, Ponyboy struggles against becoming hardened to his circumstances as some of the other boys have. Given the circumstances, it is not an easy thing for him to do. As it relates to my mother, I am in awe of her ability to overcome while remaining kind.

Difficult circumstances needn't define us negatively. It is possible to grow from them and become a softer and kinder person than what is expected. So, stay gold lovely readers. Stay gold like my mother.

"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."

-Robert Frost.