In Her Words- Addy Rose

In Her Words features Ashley Hall students’ academic work. This month's feature is a paper written by Lucy David '28, based on the novel The Outsiders.

Although the novel The Outsiders is told from the perspective of Ponyboy, Pony’s brother Sodapop also lives in a world of chaos. His parents died in a car crash eight months ago. He is now legally in the custody of his older brother which must be really weird. He walks by a Soc he could get beaten up. He dropped out of high school to work at a gas station for extra money so he can help support his family and so his younger brother Ponyboy can go to school. He is very good looking so girls are constantly swarming him. He is so sweet and kind, and he feels like he always has to be happy for everyone and listen to their problems even though no one really listens to his--or even believes he has any. This passage is Sodapop’s cry for help. He says, “It’s like I’m the middleman in a tug of war and I’m being split in half, you dig?” (175). It’s very compelling to me that Sodapop is in the position of being the middleman and all that it entails and it is compelling to me that he is rather a forgotten character until he stands up for himself and reminds the reader that we all have been taking him for granted. That we all have thought of him as being okay when he was most likely the character in the greatest pain of anyone. Unlike Johnny, who could voice his sadness and be listened to, or Dally who could punch it away, or Pony who could go into a world of imagination, Soda bore it alone and in sadness. It is those of us who are like Soda, who look the most together and successful, those of us who put on the happiest face on to the world, who could be in the most pain and feel the most alone because nobody feels we could possibly be in pain or could possibly need help.

The middle of the passage that I chose shows the moment that Darry and Pony realize that Soda has feelings that are just as valid and real as theirs. I believe that it was no accident that S.E. Hinton named him Sodapop. He is always bubbly and happy and carefree and seems to have no problems. He is movie star handsome and has a great job and is so much fun he makes green pancakes. But being happy and there for your friends and family all the time can take its toll. Being so upbeat can make it so that people don’t even think you have any problems. Ponyboy finally gets this when he says,

"But when I looked at Soda I stopped. His face was white, and when he looked at me his eyes were wide with a pained expression……

Darry picked up the envelope that Soda had dropped. ‘It’s the letter he wrote to Sandy’, Darry said without expression. ‘Returned unopened.'"

So that was what had been bugging Soda all afternoon. And I hadn’t even bothered to find out. And while I was thinking about it, I realized that I had never paid much attention to Soda’s problems. Darry and I just took it for granted that he didn’t have any” (174). I think the imagery of the letter Soda wrote to Sandy being “returned unopened” is so interesting because it is a letter to her about how he feels about her,and she doesn’t even pretend to look at it. The phrase also symbolizes how it is for Soda with everyone whenever he tries to say his feelings. No one bothers to even pretend to listen to him. Later in that passage, Darry says to Pony,

“I thought he told you everything.”

“Maybe he tried” I said. How many times had Soda started to tell me something only to find I was daydreaming or stuck in a book.

He had always listened to me no matter what I was doing.” (pg 174). Pony figuratively returns the envelope unopened every time Soda tries to tell him anything.

Later in the passage, Soda finally stands up for himself. He opens up and is listened to by the two most important people in his life, Darry and Pony. Soda says,

‘I can’t stand to hear y’all fight…. . It’s like the middleman in a tug o’ war and I’m being split in half, you dig’

Darry gave me a startled look. Neither of us had realized what it was doing to Soda to see us fight. I was sick and cold with shame. What he said was the truth. Darry and I did play tug of war with him with never a thought of how much it was hurting him.

Soda was fiddling with some dead grass. ‘I mean, I can’t take sides. It would be a lot easier if I could. But I see both sides.’(175) First of all, Sodapop doesn’t get enough credit for being a great therapist. Soda says he feels like he is in a tug of war. That is compelling imagery. In a tug of war, the rope has to go wherever the most force is and no one cares if the rope gets torn in half as long as they win. Soda is the rope here. He doesn’t know if anyone would care if he got torn in half because they are so busy with their own problems it feels like nobody cares.

Finally, I believe that S.E. Hinton made Soda so good looking because it goes more to the idea that Soda doesn’t seem to have problems. Good looking people don’t have as many problems as average looking people do. Soda is very necessary to the story because he is the one who gives advice to Pony and the one who Pony can be totally honest with. He is the fun and lightness in the novel and eventually holds the reader to account when we don’t take his pain seriously enough. How many times have we all seen somebody who is good looking and has a great job and a seemingly perfect life and thought, “They have no problems. What kind of problems could they possibly have? Soda reminds us all that everyone is a vulnerable human being and that everyone has problems whether it seems so or not.

As my Mom was reading over this paper she reminded me that my Grandpa John says that “the only thing in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillos.” That perfectly describes the tug of war that Soda is in but it also describes the world we are in today. In this world where we can get into online arguments over a topping on pizza that generate pages and pages of insulting comments, we need to stop and think that the person on the other side of the posts has actual feelings. When you’re a person who sees both sides, who understands why you would like that topping but also why you wouldn’t like it, you can get eaten alive in this world. Everyone is arguing so much, and it tears apart the people like me. The people like Sodapop, who do see both sides – who are told that if they don’t dig in their heels and say their opinion and fight, they don’t care. Instead, maybe the people who see both sides are the smartest and the wisest and maybe they are actually the ones who ultimately care the most.