Muhe Qian

Doris

G9 ELL

Oct. 11

Factors that change life

In much the same way that the gang members profiled by John Eligon in “Bored, Broke,

and Armed” are a product of their surroundings, ​character Dally in ​The Outsiders and Gordie in

Stand by Me are trapped by the world in which they live and have no chance to change their

direction in life​.

First, the overall living conditions like economy situation and people surrounded are

factors that affects the way people act. The gangs in “Bored, Broke, and Armed” are all from

low-income families and all of their neighborhoods are poor too. They are bored every day, so

they just hang around. The gangs from the other gangs cause shooting events. Their friends get

hurt so the other gang members revenge to the other gangs. There is another character in ​The

Outsiders called Dally. Dally was wild in New York in a gang that fights a lot. He is arrested at

the age of ten. The gangs that he was in always fight with other gangs. Dally get drunk really

often. He lies and he jump young kids. The results is that he is now a bad-tempered person and

he still likes to fight. Both of the characters are reflecting that the environment affects people's

behavior.

Education form a person’s thoughts and behavior. One of the gang members is called

Kaos. “Boys, with little supervision, money or education, formed cliques. They hung out

socially, and got into fights and other petty trouble”( John Eligon) is the description to the gang.
He hardly ever goes to school when he was young. So now he sells drugs, participates in

shootings. He hangs out with the gangs and always cause trouble. Character Ponyboy in ​The

Outsiders ​is in a very opposite situation. He is always going to school and having an education.

He also likes to study. He read lots of books and seen many movies. He learned a lot from it.

Ponyboy also live with the gangs, but because of his knowledge, “ hard to be interested in a story

or drawing a picture, so I'm not like them. And nobody in our gang digs movies and books the

way I do” is how he describes himself, he becomes a quiet person that doesn’t like to fight like

all the others in the gang.

Lastly but not least, family shape people’s thoughts. Family is the place where people

first start their life. The people who take care of them at first is their parents. Ponyboy has a good

family. He has two brothers in his family that loves him. The brothers take care of him very well.

He likes his brother and in his mind he thinks he is a fine kid because of his brother’s

encouragements. Gordie in ​Stand By Me’​ s family is very different. His father doesn't like him

and his mother ignores him. His brother died too. In his dream his father said it should have

been you. This reflects how he thinks. Because his father always acts in the way that he doesn't

like him, he doesn't feel confident in himself and his father and brother become a shadow to him.

Therefore, the overall environment, education and family can affect a person’s

personality and behavior. People could not change it in any way because this is how they live.