Discussion Topic
The role and content of flashbacks in The Outsiders
Summary:
In The Outsiders, flashbacks serve to provide background information and deepen character development. They reveal past events that shaped the characters' current situations and relationships, such as Johnny's traumatic experience with the Socs and the bond between Ponyboy and his brothers. These flashbacks help readers understand the motivations and emotions driving the characters' actions throughout the novel.
How does the flashback in Chapter 2 of The Outsiders impact the current plot?
The flashback of Johnny’s beating is relevant because the same boys threaten them again. The flashback foreshadows the reappearance of the car.
Johnny and Pony make friends with some girls at the movies. There is nothing unusual about this, except that these are greaser boys and Soc girls. The girls know that their boyfriends will be jealous and angry if they see them with greasers.
Pony flashed back to Johnny’s condition after he was jumped because this is what he thinks of when he thinks of Socs and greaser. Bob and his friends once jumped Johnny, beating him badly. It traumatized Johnny. He was already sensitive, but the experience left him even more fragile.
"There was a whole bunch of them," Johnny went on, swallowing, ignoring Soda's command. "A blue Mustang full... I got so scared..." He tried to swear, but suddenly started crying, fighting to control himself, then sobbing...
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all the more because he couldn't. (Ch. 2)
When the girls see the blue mustang, they know there could be trouble. Johnny recognizes this blue mustang too. Johnny, Pony, and Two-bit get ready to fight. Two-bit hands Pony a broken bottle, and Johnny fingers his switchbade. Seeing the car makes Johnny go into a panic.
Johnny was breathing heavily and I noticed he was staring at the Soc's hand. He was wearing three heavy rings. I looked quickly at Johnny, an idea dawning on me. I remembered that it was a blue Mustang that had pulled up beside the vacant lot and that Johnny's face had been cut up by someone wearing rings... (Ch. 2)
Cherry temporarily defuses the situation by telling the boys that they will leave with them. That is the end of it for then. Unfortunately, the Socs are still cruising later that night when Johnny and Pony are in the park, and they attack. Johnny kills Bob.
What is the flashback about in chapter 7 of The Outsiders?
Ponyboy tells Darry that the night before, he had a bad dream, like the one he had the night of their parents' funeral and for weeks afterwards. Ponyboy flashes back to what happened that night, summarizing for the reader the effect it had on Darry, who is frightened when Ponyboy mentions that he had a similar night. Though Ponyboy can't remember what happens in the dreams, they are traumatizing; Ponyboy screams or wakes up in a cold sweat when he has these dreams, terrifying his brothers who can do nothing to help him.
Ponyboy also describes the explanation given to them by the doctor he saw back when he first experienced these dreams. He explains that the doctor believes he has too much imagination and prescribes a more active life to ensure that Ponyboy is too tired at night to dream anything at all. It is unclear if the doctor has convinced Ponyboy of the cause of his problem; Ponyboy himself notices that he has these dreams when something particularly difficult or upsetting happens to him.
There is only a very short flashback in this chapter. It comes around the middle of the chapter when Ponyboy has just found out about the fact that he and his brother Sodapop in a boys' home. The flashback has to do with a time after his parents died.
In the flashback, Ponyboy talks about how he dreamed every night after his parents died. He talks about how he could never remember the dream, but that it was the same dream every night and it was terrifying.
It is clear to us that this dream was caused by stress and loss. This is why Ponyboy has it again when the threat of being taken away from his brothers arises.