Aidan Zhang

June 13, 2022

English 8

Ms. Jayne

Theme: Violence does not solve all conflicts.

In society, violence eventually leads to more violence. Therefore, we need to lean

towards different solutions and learn from our mistakes. The socs and greasers have been in

conflict for a very long time. They always choose violence to solve their issues, but instead

they make it worse. As Johnny and Ponyboy make the same mistake in the story, they later

learn their lesson. S.E. Hinton develops the theme that violence does not solve all conflicts by

having Johnny kill a kid to save ponyboy and the socs and greasers fighting and killing to

solve conflicts.

Time may have been tight, but Johnny did not need to kill a kid to save ponyboy from

drowning. The conflict broke loose when S. E. Hinton wrote, “ He was sitting next to me… ‘I

killed him,’ he said slowly. ‘I killed the boy’.” (56) This reveals that Johnny did not have

much time to react and did not think his thought process through. It is obvious he could have

gone another direction without violently killing a kid. Instead, he could have moved, punched

or picked the kid up so Ponyboy could release himself. A metaphor “his eyes were hunger” is

also used to describe Johnnys pain and guilt when he murdered the kid.This clearly means

that johnny realized what he had done - make the situation work with violence Therefore,

there were many alternate decisions Johnny could’ve made but he did not think it through.

The socs and greasers have been in conflict for a while but they always choose

violence to solve it. After a verbal conflict and tension arises they decide to round up and
fight when Ponyboy says, “They moved in a circle under the light…I don't hate the socs

anymore… they shouldn't hate…” (143) This reveals that they all don’t want to fight, but

they are pressured to under circumstances such as hatred. Ponyboy reveals this when he says

he wants this to be over and he can’t do this anymore. It can be inferred that they have fought

multiple times now and the issue has not been solved as it is obvious they all know each

other. Therefore, they always use violence to solve their issues. This shows their issue has

never been solved because they always resort to violence. They could try different forms such

as a discussion or a debate.

We can also see that violence does not solve all conflicts in If by Rudyard Kipling.

The poem states “Don’t give a way to hating”. (Kipling) It can be inferred from the poem that

hating is connected to the thought of violence. Rudyard Kipling states for you not to give a

way to hating which could be fighting or killing. Later in the poem he states to talk wise

which clearly states that violence is not the answer. This could be based on the author's own

experience as he may have chosen the violence path and discovered that it did no good so he

wrote this poem to tell us. Therefore, Rudyard Kipling states that violence does not solve

conflicts and there are better ways such as talking it out.

The characters in The Outsiders learn that violence is never the solution to a conflict.

This is precisely shown when Johnny experiences heavy guilt when murdering a child from

the socs, and when the socs and greasers brawl. This shows that our society needs to learn

more about how scrimmaging and fighting doesn't solve conflicts. If nobody uses violence,

then our world will be a more peaceful place. Violence never solves problems - instead it

leads to more problems.