The key aspect discussed in The outsiders By

The key aspect discussed in The outsiders By:S.E. Hinton what does Johnny mean when he says stay gold to Ponyboy right before Johnny dies. What Johnny is trying to say that good things don’t last long because the harsh realities of life he wants ponyboy to stay strong don’t go down the wrong path. Ponyboy listened to what Johnny says because now he pays more attention to school and trying to get to college rather than doing robberies. Johnny wrote a letter to dally and ponyboy to tell them if he dies to stay gold stay strong.
Gold can mean something else besides wealth it can mean to stay pure. For example, “…he meant you’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn.” This quote means that you can’t stay gold forever it starts when your young and innocent but when you get old you see the harsh reality of the world and lose that innocence. Another example, ” But only so an hour then leaf subsides to leaf so eden sank to grief.” This quote proves that paradise place like eden sank to grief meaning that innocence and staying pure does not last forever. For instance, in page 148 johnny says “Stay gold Ponyboy Stay gold…..” This quote proves that Johnny want Ponyboy to stay gold as long as he can but the good things must come to an end. Another example, Johnny says stay gold to Ponyboy only because Dally is already cold and hard Ponyboy is still young and innocent Johnny wants him to stay this way. Many people believe that gold means to stay true to yourself. This view makes sense because Ponyboy never lied to himself had faith in himself. However, gold mostly means to Stay pure and innocent.
Gold can also mean you have to stay strong and stay innocent. For example, in the poem it says “Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold”. This proves that it’s hard to stay yourself as Dally grew up he lost faith in himself. Also, Ponyboy and Johnny wanted to stay gold they felt guilty that cause of the cigarettes the children might die despite Dallys warnings. This proves that they did not listen to dally because they know he doesn’t know how to stays gold. Even after ponyboy toughened up from the bad events he stay had gold in himself he didnt full listen to dally’s advice.