Wednesday, June 15, 2011

In The Outsiders, what did Cherry mean when she said,"Things are rough all over"?

In Chapter Two, Johnny tells everyone what happened the night four Socs beat him up. It is an emotional moment for Johnny, and Pony relates that the beating has left Johnny habitually nervous in his daily life.


After Johnny finishes his story, Cherry pipes up that not all Socs are as indiscriminately violent as the ones who beat up Johnny. She implores Pony to believe her assertions, proclaiming that Pony would be surprised if he knew the real state of affairs. She maintains that, even though the Socs come from the well-to-do West side of town, they have their own problems to deal with, problems that Pony would never even guess at. This is when she pronounces that 'things are rough all over,' meaning that each community has its own set of problems, no matter which side of town it's situated in.


Later, in Chapter Seven, Pony finally comes to understand what Cherry's words mean when he converses with Randy, a Soc. In the conversation, Randy admits that he is tired of all of the fighting and killing that occurs between Socs and Greasers. He contends that the fighting will never solve anything in the long term. In an emotional confession, he divulges that Bob's mother had a nervous breakdown after her son's death. Randy relates that Bob needed his parents to set limits on his behavior and to hold him accountable for his actions when he was alive. However, his parents never rose to the occasion; they were too afraid that they were to blame for their son's incorrigible behavior.


Randy maintains that Bob might still be alive if his parents had laid down consistent boundaries. After Randy's anguished confession, Pony realizes that wealth doesn't erase the very human challenges individuals and families face in their respective communities; life is rough no matter which side of town one resides in.

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