Characters intrigue us, and we are compelled to live our lives by their positive values. S.E Hinton has constructed the character, Sodapop Curtis, in a certain way, so that we see his ideals with a positive approach. She has formed Soda’s character in such a way, that his principles become quite obvious to us. One of Sodapop’s most prominent values is his love of freedom, which becomes evident throughout the novel. As we read ‘The Outsiders’ Soda comes across as someone that values respect highly, and the other characters consider his as someone they can talk honestly to. We realise that the most important things in Soda’s life are his brothers, Ponyboy and Darry, and he would do anything for them. Soda is a gripping character, who the reader can relate to and they can see parts of themselves in him.
Respect is a very important ideal that Sodapop conveys through his personality. Soda is someone who his friends confide in, quite a lot throughout the novel, and we begin to see him as a very wise person, who has a lot of advice to give. There is one incident, where he and Ponyboy are lying in bed, when Soda says, “When Darry hollers at you... he don’t mean nothin’. He’s just got more worries than somebody his age ought to... It’s just because you’re the baby – I mean, he loves you a lot. Savvy?” (Page 18) This is Soda’s attempt to make peace between Darry and Ponyboy, and his advice is a treasured tool that Ponyboy finds very enlightening. When Ponyboy and Darry were fighting one night, Soda got distressed and ran out. Ponyboy then began to think about Soda’s problems and how he had never listened to them, he just talked about his own. He thought to himself “How many times had Soda started to tell me something... He would always listen to me, no matter what he was doing.” (Page 124) This is the point where Ponyboy realised that he took Soda for granted, and never really listened to him, even though Soda would drop everything for him. We learn that Soda is a very...