The Outsiders
But wait, there’s more.
When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things in my mind, Paul Newman and a ride home.
That was the beginning of the book. The book everybody needs to read in grade 8. This was a project in worldview and how we could be characters, so, being me, I became a lamp post.
At first I thought that this was a normal book report, but I was soon proven wrong, first by starting to learn about worldview, and second, by learning I was going to do a tableau (which is a kind of acting where you freeze mid scene). The worldview part started with making a mind map about worldview, and a survey about it as well. And the tableau started immediately after the book was finished, but before we watched the movie. The tableau part was fun until it wasn’t. At first I was going to be some random greaser, but with a little bit of big brain energy, I managed to convince everyone to let me be a lamp post, (Thus making me the best human lamp post in Canada) I did this by wearing black clothes and yellow dishwashing gloves to simulate the light of a street light (I had a flashlight, but during a rehearsal on the day of the exhibition, I dropped it and it broke, causing a chain reaction of bad feelings). My other group members were Judah, Sofia, Hannah, Owen, and Magnet (That’s what Magnus tells me to call him), and we did not work together well, the first time we worked together was a movie trailer, which had at least 3 major arguments, including Sofia getting mad at Judah, Judah getting mad at Sofia, and Magnet getting mad at everybody. And what did we make
This
Then we made individual posters, which were ok, but nothing special, I made mine include a sunset, as it ties into the romance arc between Ponyboy, and Cherry, as in the book Cherry says something along the lines of “The sunset looks pretty on the other side”.
Then we consolidated our efforts into a very confusing shared Canva document, to make the group poster, which quite honestly, lacked worldview, but, well, it was really a supporting character for the tableau
Eventually can the night of the exhibition on Dec. 15, 2021. At first it was a normal day, until 12:40, my group didn’t need to do too much setup, so I was bored the most of the duration of our time, then came time to eat at 5:00, the email about the exhibition said that the pizza was “all you care to enjoy” and I only enjoyed 1 piece, I was also slightly broken because my flashlight that completed my role was broken. The tableau went well of the first time, and the second, but by 6:00 my group was suffering burnout, but we endured until 7:30, then the cleaning started, it didn’t take long for chaos to rise, and only teacher intervention saved my ears from detonating. After the cleanup I immediately left, went home, and ate spaghetti. In tha order.
But what about our tableau? What was the scene we were representing? What did I do to be a lamp post?
Our tableau was the scene with the death of Dallas Winston where he was shot and killed by police officers. Of course, the streetlight was one of the important scene parts of the setting, as in the book, it states that dally died under the street lamp, so we needed a street lamp, and not settling for a prop, I became the lamp, and donned the yellow dishwashing gloves and flashlight. And then came the twist, we transposed the scene into 2021, instead of dally being shot by the members of the police, they instead attempt to negotiate and eventually arrest him. We made dally’s reaction to the police not killing him be that his brain “collapses” with a catastrophic meltdown.
But what was the driving question?
How can the outsiders teach us about worldview?
By letting us learn about the worldviews of the characters and then confirming the 7 elements of worldview
And if nothing else, it was a good book.
But did the outsiders teach me about worldview?? Yes, it did this in several ways, such as giving details of worldview that would be stitched together to make a bigger picture of a characters worldview, which was what the you vs who character analysis achieved.
Spoilers Ahead
Summary
Pony boy (The main character) leaves a movie house with 2 thing on his mind, and gets jumped by socs (the antagonists), but gets saved by his friends, the greasers. Pony boy and Johnny go to watch a movie and meet a soc, cherry valance. Then, the 2 meet with their friends (The greasers) but get in a confrontation with some socs led by bob sheldon. That night, Johnny and Ponyboy are in the vacant lot, when bob and the socs show up and try do drown Ponyboy, however, they get forced away when Johnny kills bob. Johnny and Pony then go to seek help from dally who gives them 50$, a jacket, and some advice. The 2 renegades then run away to windrixville, and live in an abandoned church, that then burns down when children play with matches. Johnny sacrifices himself to save some children and gets hit by a beam. The Greasers and Socs get in a rumble, and then when they greasers win, they go visit johnny in hospital, who then dies. Then dally runs away and robs a store and is killed by the police. (This is the scene I tableau’d) Then, pony boys grades slip, he starts thinking if stuff for English class to pass, then there is a court trial to see if pony boy can stay with his brothers, pony boy and dally. Then the book ends.
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