An important relationship in the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton was that of the
Curtis family. Their relationship is important because it shows the importance of loyalty,
love and that “broken” families can be complete.
The Curtis family is incredibly loyal to each other. Prior to the novel, Ponyboy’s mother
and father are killed leaving his older brother Darry to look after him and Sodapop. Darry
gives up a lot to do this, he had a scholarship to go to university but he decides to stay
home and look after his brothers instead so that they don’t get sent to a juvenile home.
Hinton says “Darry worked on two jobs at once and made good at both of them… we
shouldn’t be separated after we worked so hard to stay together.” Even though the boys
go through some rough times, they will do anything to stay together, even if they have to
sacrifice some of their own happiness to do so.
The Curtis family also teaches us about love. At the start of the novel Ponyboy thinks that
Darry doesn’t love him because he is always yelling at him and being hard on him. But
towards the end he realises that Darry is like this because he cares too much about him.
Darry loves Ponyboy and wants the best for him. Ponyboy realises this when he comes
back from Windrixville and he says “That was his silent fear then - of losing another
person he loved.” Darry can’t bear anything bad happening to Ponyboy and even though
he may not always show it, his love for his younger brother goes deep.
Finally, the Curtis family could be called a ‘broken’ family, yet that doesn’t make them
any less of a family. They lost their parents and have no adults looking after them. But
they have managed to make it work for themselves and Ponyboy even comments that
Darry was even stricter than his real parents and that he was barely allowed to leave the
house on weeknights. The Curtis family gets along without their parents and by doing so
they teach us a lot about resilience and sticking up for each other
In conclusion, the Curtis boys’ relationship is a very important one beause it teaches us
that you don’t need to have the perfect family to show love and loyalty. Though they go
through rough patches, they are always there for each other and this is a truly admirable
family.