Sean Pe
ELA
Mrs. Indemaio
Wednesday of the 10th of March
Deviance Theories, Themes, and Symbols Essay
. “Nothing gold can ever stay,” said Robert Frost in his poem, saying that good
things or people do not last. Humans are born innocent but as they grow older become
less innocent and learn to be inhuman to others or deviant. Two books that mainly focus
on deviance are the Outsiders and Night. In Night, the S.S. and the Kapos always beat
the Jews, and in The Outsiders, the greasers and Socs just do what being part of a gang is
all about. In both stories, people acted inhuman to others to feel superior like in Night
where Hitler imprisoned Jews because his race was the “Perfect race,”
Themes in books are always different. In The Outsiders, the theme was that the
world is good. It is shown from Johnny’s note to Ponyboy, that Johnny tells him to stay
innocent. In Night, some of the many themes are evil and cruelty. The most visible theory
is losing hope in the darkest times.
Symbols usually help someone comprehend the theme or theory, by the symbol’s
function. The shack where Darry, Sodapop, and Ponyboy lived, symbolized hope by
being a pit stop when one of the gang has problems with their family. Two-bit’s switch
blade represents how tempting and good-looking deviance can be. Night symbols would
be the “sad-eyed-angel”, because the death of the child made a lot of them lose hope in
God. The knife and spoon that Elizier’s father gave to him was another symbol; how
Elizier’s father lost hope and gave it to Elizier.
Theories are most clearly seen in books about gangs, the Holocaust, or stories
about criminals. The Outsiders has one theory that is very clear; the Conflict Theory. This
applies to the Socs, because they were rich and were criminals, even though they did not
look they were. In Night, a theory is not very visible, but the Control Theory comes
visible when you think about the S.S. Officers. The S.S. was told to do whatever they
wanted, and killed Jews for the fun of it. In summary, The Outsiders has the Conflict
Theory, and Night, has the Control Theory in it.
Two of the most important things that one can learn from reading from these
books are that one, in some situations people can become evil. The second one was that
being sensitive will effect you badly when you are hurt, so then you would become
deviant. In these ways, Robert Frost is right when he said “Nothing gold can ever stay.”