Green Eyes

[bambola]

<sup>Why does Ponyboy put so much emphasis on green eyes in the book?

He brings it up in the very first paragraph of the book when he says, "... I hate most guys that have green eyes..." while describing his own.

Something must've happened to him to make him feel this way. Most people don't just randomly hold a grudge against green-eyed men, especially when they themselves have green eyes. (I have a suspicion that Pony's eyes aren't as "greenish-grey" as he portrays them to be to the reader. This is partly because of the fact that he gets rather defensive when Johnny says his eyes are green on pg. 64.)

Then there is the very random "She had green eyes" line at the very end of chapter 8, right after Pony talks to Cherry by the vacant lot. I remember pausing to think about this line for a really long time when I first read it. It was just so out of the blue. Is he trying to comfort himself by saying that Cherry has green eyes like him, so not all green-eyed people are jerks?

Anyways, I'm anxious to get your opinions on this. I'm not sure if this bugged anyone else, but as a green-eyed lady myself it always stood out to me. I thought I might as well bring it up here as this place has been sorely lacking discussion topics lately</sup>

[Nittanylizard]

That's a really good question.

I could be way off on this, but I can see it being an analogy, or parallel theme, to the strong dislike between Socs and greasers.

At the beginning of the book, Ponyboy is describing how much dislike there is between the Socs and the greasers, and it's pretty much based on how much money they've got. By the end, he has started to see (through Cherry and Randy) that there isn't really that much difference between the Socs and the greasers; they're all just people with some of the same likes, dislikes, and fears.

At the same time, at the beginning of the book there's this arbitrary trait - green eyes - that he connects with some people he hasn't liked, and he has sort of generalized it - I don't like people with green eyes. After talking to Cherry, though, and realizing that Socs and greasers aren't so different, he also sees that she has green eyes.

So at the beginning of the book, he mostly saw differences between Socs and greasers, but by the end, he's not only seeing that the two groups aren't so different when you look at them as individuals, but that he shares some of their traits.

The green-eye parallel is that by the end of the book, Ponyboy is seeing that he doesn't hate everybody who has green eyes; that just happened to be a trait that was shared by some people he didn't like as individuals.

[Keira]

Because I started obsessing over the book at a young age, I never realized the randomness... and strangeness... of his hatred. I only ever made the connections when he mentioned himself and other people having green eyes. Now that it's been brought up, it is kind of a funny hatred to have, but I'm sure we've all had things like that before.

I can remember having a thing against men with handlebar mustaches. When I was younger (about 10 or 11 years old) I had a friend's father seriously offended by the way he treated me the day of a classmate's funeral. Over the next year or so, I realized that my best friend's father had a handlebar mustache and I always had the feeling he didn't like me and thought I was a bad influence on his children. Now that I think about it, I realize that most men I've known with that kind of mustache I took to be a bit haughty and thought they automatically didn't like me. Of course, I'm not that way anymore, but for a while I seriously thought that there was something with these people. I realize now that I'm older, that it was just those two men who only ever offended me, and they both happened to share that characteristic.

This makes me curious now as to if Ponyboy and I are the only looneys with this kind of issue, lol.

[murderofcrows]

don't feel alone, keira! i don't like men with moustaches in general...along with other facial hair, it's ok, but just a mustache, and i get the shivers down my spine. *shrug*

[bambola]

^{Nittanylizard: Wow, great parallel there. I never thought of that, but now that you bring it up it makes perfect sense}