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Color Symbolism - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The physical features of characters in the novel explains their past experiences and how their identity has been shaped as a result.
        
        The physical features of Sodapop, especially his golden hair, represents how as Sodapop has grown up and has slowly lost parts of his innocence, he has still remained innocent through his youthfullness.
        
        When Ponyboy describes Sodapop, he makes him out to be a kind, charismatic person who enjoys everything life has to offer and still has partial innocence which has remained as time has passed.
        
        Ponyboy states, "He's got dark-gold hair that he combs back—long and silky and straight—and in the summer the sun bleaches it to a shining wheat-gold" (8).
        
        The gold color of Sodapop's hair represents his youth and how his childhood was green because it was full of goodness unlike Dally's, which explains why his hair is almost white. Sodapop still has parts of his innocence because there are still aspects of his identity that remain unshaped by his experiences. The gold color of his hair tells the reader that Sodapop is still a playful and genuine person who lives life to the fullest.
        
        The perspective in which Ponyboy perceives his mother and his childhood while she was alive offers the idea that when he was raised by his mother, he was still innocent and he was allowed to enjoy life without worrying.
        
        After Cherry chooses to go with Randy and Paul once they show up in their Mustang and want Marcia and Cherry to come with them, Ponyboy reflects and think about a place where social class doesn't shape a person's life. He thinks about the country and begins dreaming about what his life could have been if his parents hadn't died.
        
        Ponyboy narrates, "My mother was golden and beautiful..." (48).
        
        Ponyboy's mother is gold because she represents the goodness in Ponyboy's childhood. When Ponyboy's mother was alive, he had all of his innocence because nothing that would take away part of his goodness would occur. Ponyboy's mother is golden because she was full of goodness and was an extraordinary person in the way that she represented happiness.
    - - The poem written by Robert Frost proposes the idea that gold is never permanent and in time, it always fades away and the goodness is lost.
        
        The purpose of the poem in the novel is so that the reader can fully understand the connection of gold to the characters in The Outsiders. The poem explains that gold is short-lasting and never stays.
    - - Johnny's letter to Ponyboy proves that when you're young, everything is new, but once you become old, your innocence is lost in pieces yet good still partially remains.
        
        "I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy who wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn" (178).
        
        "You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There's still lots of good in the world" (179).