Reflect on Ponyboy's words on p.141: "..half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all the grease, and from what I've heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean - but people usually go by looks." Do you agree? Why or why not? Be specific.
12 comments:
I agree because many people judge by their appearance or actions. If you slouch when you walk, people may assume you were not in a very good neighborhood. If you don’t dress properly and look clean, you might look like someone you aren’t. Socs normally dress in shirts and pants, whereas greasers dress in jeans and t-shirts. People will assume that just because Socs dress better, they are better than the greasers.
I agree because, well people do go by looks; my sister’s friend used to like this guy who was super handsome, but he was a total jerk. He had no respect whatsoever, but we all envied his looks. Ponyboy says the greasers are decent, but just because some greasers do bad things, and they look the same, they are marked as the “bad guys”. The socs., however, have it off easier, because they have money. But they get boozed up and such, thus they may be regarded as crazy, insane and psychopathic one night and the next morning receive an award, so everyone seems to view them as good guys. The socs. who show up at the rumble, “could just as easily have been going to the movies as to a rumble”, so if the socs. look like they’re going somewhere else, it would look like greasers trying to take down the socs., whereas it’s a rumble. The reason people blame greasers, is they have a reputation. Plus, branding everyone who looks like a hood as “bad” is stereotyping all too common in the world, especially in the 60’s. The way the world is going like this, it’s no wonder Pony is always dreaming and aching for something better. Sorry if it's too long.
Yes, I agree because most people judge a person’s personality by their looks and actions. An example can be Bob, who was usually drunk. Though he was usually drunk, he still had a good side, because he was a nice person but just wanted the love from his parents. When Ponyboy was beat up by Bob and his gang, near the beginning of the book, he assumed that the Socs were mean people who jumped greasers for fun. Later in the book, when he talks with Randy, he realizes that Bob started drinking to force his parents to say “no”. When Bob’s parents never say no, and blame it to themselves, Bob feels as if his parents don’t care what Bob does. When they never say no, Bob loses control over his addiction to drinking. Looks can be deceiving, Ponyboy thought that Bob was a cruel man, but he wasn’t. He was just an innocent man searching for a person to say no.
-Galen C.
I kind of agree, but not fully. When meeting others for the first time, many people will judge a person on how they look- for example, if someone was wearing tattered jeans and a ripped up T-shirt, others might not have a very good impression of that person, though the person herself/himself might be very caring and nice. On the other hand, someone could be wearing expensive, fancy clothes and look very nice, but in reality, they are really mean (Like the Socs). Then again, they could be dressed in rags and be malicious, or look nice and act nice. So it’s really hard to tell from looks. Once you really get to know the person, though, it doesn’t matter what type of clothes they wear. If they’re nice, you’ll want to stay friends with them, even if they look like a hobo. Unless the person is the type that only chooses friends that are good-looking. Many people will judge each other on how they look, but not everyone does.
I agree with Ponyboy completely because I have seen incidents in which people usually go by looks. One time, in my class, we were getting into groups. The way people were choosing their team members was by the way they dress and their popularity. I was in the group that didn’t have the people who cared about the way they dress, and it turned out that they were all the nicest people I had ever met. Every other group was having problems getting along, but my group got along just fine.
It’s the sad truth, but often times people only like someone or want to hang out with them because they are “in style” and hang around with the popular people.
In Ponyboy’s case, it was about greasy hair and jeans versus ski jackets and madras. When people see a person dead, they immediately point a finger to the closest greaser around (which you can tell from the way they dress and their hair). It’s only because greasers have a reputation for this, and Socs are the rich kids who could never murder someone.
Yes, i do agree, becuase i believe we as people judge by looks. If we see people on the street with tattos all over and earings we get the idea that the person is scary or did something bad once in their life. Or if we someone with who looks cheery we believe that the person is going to be nice. We don't take the time to actually understand that the person might not be what we exepected, or could be way different than our initial judgement. Getting to know people that you judge at first is something that we should all probalby do but do not. Looks and judgements though, is something that i agree we will still all go by.
I agree with Ponyboy on his quote about appearances for several reasons. First off all, I’ve had personal experiences with this. For example, last summer I attended a week long leadership camp. In my group was a boy that I thought looked kind of scary at first. By the end of the week, we were great friends, and he turned out to be the nicest person I’ve ever met. I think that this experience goes well with the quote “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” It means that you should never determine what a person is really like just by appearance, because how you look isn’t always equivalent to who you are as a person.
Second of all, Pony’s quote reminds me of many things that have happened in history. The one that most strongly comes to mind is slavery. Americans needed someone to do their jobs for them, and when they saw the African Americans, they automatically thought of them as the perfect slave. It didn’t matter how kind a person was, so long as the color of their skin was different. Just because of their different appearance, African Americans were looked down upon for years. Lastly, Pony’s quote has a lot of supporting evidence from the novel. You can easily see how decent people in Ponyboy’s gang are. Darry, with his incredible likeness to Socials, Soda, with his ability to understand others, and Two-bit, who has a great sense of humor. They’re still looked down upon in society, no matter what they do. The Socs on the other hand, are appreciated by society on any account. Some Socials are incredibly mean and unfriendly, and stoop low enough to get drunk and jump greasers. This lack of ability to see through appearance is never ending. People are ignorant, and it’s simply easier to trust what you see, rather than get to know what someone’s like in reality.
In The Outsiders, Ponyboy says that people judge others by looks. I agree with that statement, since most people judge by major stereotypes, like race and clothing. People assume that all African-Americans are gangsters, Indians like curry, and that all Asians are geniuses. These are not necessarily true. An African-American student can be making the honor roll, some Indians hate curry, and there are average Asians. If you don’t wear brand names or designer clothing, others think that you are unfashionable or too poor to afford it, when the case might be that you just don’t buy things like that. In my opinion, people are influenced by what they see around them, and gradually they think that is what everybody who acts, dresses, or looks like that is like.
I agree with Pony. Unfortunately, I think that many people judge others based on their appearance. Just because Pony wears jeans and has long hair, others may assume that he is just like all the other greasers. Without getting to know Pony it is likely that one’s initial impression of him would be that he is a hood who steals and breaks the law. When Pony and Johnny run to Windrixville to avoid being caught by the police, it is partially because they are scared and partially because the police are not likely to believe him. The Socs are considered an asset and just because they have a clean-cut appearance the police officers are most likely going to blame Johnny. Since Johnny looks like a hood and police are used to dealing with trouble caused by hoods they will probably make the assumption that it was Johnny’s fault.
During the beginning of the book Pony also judges others based on their appearance. He dislikes people with green eyes. As the book goes on, Pony matures and realizes that just because someone has green eyes is not a good enough reason for him to dislike that person. However, not everyone matures and some others will go the rest of their life making judgments based on one’s appearance.
I think that it is clear that since greasers look like they are up to no good most of society will not believe that they are decent guys. As opposed to Socs who may get into all kinds of trouble but are considered as an example so that the mistakes they make go un-noticed.
agree with Ponyboy with his quote. I say this because I can kind of relate to this, people always expect the people with the less money to be the bad kids and the people with the more money to be perfect However because they have more money (so they have more options open for themselves) they view themselves above the greasers. They are better than everybody else. Also because of this they are, I guess, you could say the “popular group” so people recognize them a whole lot more than a greaser. When some people think of a Soc, perfection comes to mind, a goody-two shoes. Those same people view a greaser as a wreck, and someone you wouldn’t want your kids to be around. So I know for a fact that no matter who bad or good you look, your attitude will vary. Sometimes too much money can make you rotten and sometimes too little without being taught manners also. So it really all depends if you have been taught or not.
I think that what ponyboy says is true because there are examples of this everywhere. Like slavery for instances the African Americans were judged by the whites because of how they looked not by what they were which is humans. This comparison is the same in the book because like the slaves the greasers are rejected by the community because of who they where they are from and what they look like. I also agree with this since the socs are well dressed you can assume that they are respectable because they wear formal or semiformal clothes. This gives them an aura of reliability and honesty like the socs. The greasers on the other hand dress with dirty looking clothes and gang like, they also slick their hair back which gives them the looks of hoods. So ones appearance says a lot but not everything. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
I do agree that people do judge some others by their looks, but I’m not saying that that’s a good thing. Most of the time when people are having conversations they will always notice the other’s looks, if the person has today’s stylish hair, or if he’s cool on the outside or not. It shouldn’t be that way. When you look at a person you should look at them from the inside for who they truly are, but in today’s world it’s all about looking cool, fitting in, wearing the most stylish clothes. Nobody actually tries to look beyond the outside. It shouldn’t even be about the looks, not about what they wear, or even their social status. Every person is equal to each other. The word popularity is just what others imagine what a person is. So when you’re talking to a person try to get to know them from the inside before you start looking on the outside. This is what is happening between the status of the Socs and the Greasers.
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