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How does Ponyboy react to being stereotyped as a Greaser?

Ponyboy hates the fact that society judges him as a bad person simply because he dresses like and hangs out with Greasers. In Chapter 1, Pony mentions that he felt like Pip from the novel Great Expectations because of the way he was marked lousy because he wasn't a gentleman. Ponyboy understands that it isn't his fault that he was raised in a lower-class home and suffered traumatic experiences. Initially, Ponyboy embraces his Greaser image out of spite for society. Later on in the novel, the boys are preparing to fight the Socs in a big rumble. Ponyboy's friends put excessive amounts of grease in their hair, and Ponyboy mentions that the Greasers had their reputations to uphold. Ponyboy then comments,



"I don't want to be a hood, but even if I don't steal things and mug people and get boozed up, I'm marked lousy. Why should I be proud of it? Why should I even pretend to be proud of it?" (Hinton 113).



Ponyboy essentially feels helpless in his situation. He knows that regardless of his character, society will unfairly judge him. Ponyboy is not proud of being a Greaser and simply goes along with it because he feels that he cannot change society's perception of him. 

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