"I really couldn't see what Socs would have to sweat about—good grades, good cars, good girls, madras and Mustangs and Corvairs—Man, I thought, if I had worries like that I'd consider myself lucky. I know better now." Ponyboy is a Greaser. He wears his wavy hair long and slicked back and his shirts tight to show off his muscles. Sometimes he carries a knife, but it's usually just for show. He lives on the wrong side of the tracks with his older brothers Darry and Sodapop. Even though his parents died in a car accident, Ponyboy gets to live with his brothers—as long as they behave. So Ponyboy stays out of trouble as much as he can, and is careful not to get caught when he can't. Sometimes Ponyboy wishes he lived someplace where he didn't have to worry about walking alone at night, or that the Socs might jump him and do to him what they did to his friend Johnny. Would he always be looking over his shoulder, always afraid, always an outsider?