Authors Note: This is my Theme Piece on how family is the most important thing in life, in The Outsiders By: S.E Hinton and Zach's Lie By: Roland Smith
“We’re all we got left. We ought to be able to stick against everything. If we don’t have each other, we don’t have anything.” Sodapop one of the main characters from The Outsiders by S.E Hinton knows more than anyone that family is the most important aspect in life. In Zach’s Lie by Roland Smith, Zach the main character also knows that family is the most important aspect in life even though he is in a totally different situation.
In The Outsiders many of the greasers don’t have stable families, but when you take bits and parts of the broken families you can piece it together like a puzzle and create an invincible family. For example Johnny’s parents beat him, wish he wasn’t alive, and pretend that he isn’t there. Then, once you take Johnny as a puzzle piece and put him with Sodapop, Darry, and Ponyboy you create a stronger family. After that you throw in Dally and even two-bit to add even more strength. Which leads to Zach’s stable but breaking family.
In Zach’s lie you get a family that is living through a lie. Their father is a pilot for the drug cartels. Then when the father gets caught by the government he gets put in jail. A couple of days later the family has an unexpected visit at four in the morning with members of the drug cartel and they threatened to kill Zach’s Family. Then the government finds out of the incident and they put Zack’s family in the witness protection agency. That is when Zach’s family starts to break.
Zack’s family is falling apart they are now in Elko Nevada, forgetting about everything from their old life. In Zach’s new life his family has short fuses. They are fighting a lot and are falling away from each other. They are constantly arguing and yelling at each other. Which then leads to Zach leaving the house on walks trying to blow off steam, with this occurring it may lead Zach into being caught. Then at the end they get there Dad back and are hidden in another part of the USA for the time being.
When Johnny Kills the soc in the park, the strength of the family is challenged. Although the challenge is tough to overcome they know that it will be fine in the end. They give Johnny and Ponyboy money for food and they tell them where to stay for the time being. When the problem is over there is another challenge to overcome which is harder than the first. Johnny gets caught in the fire at the church and he is put in the hospital. Once that happens the family is crushed, but they know they have to overcome what is happening. Little do the boys know that Johnny’s time is running out he is severely burned and is the youngest of the family. The unthinkable happens and Johnny dies. Dally gets angry and does something really stupid which gets himself killed by the cops, the invincible family is set back and sad but they know they just have to live through it no matter how hard it gets.
All in all family is the key. Many people don’t realize it until it’s too late. Family is one of those things that you don’t know what you have until it is gone. People sacrifice themselves for their family and that is just how life is. What really happened in the two stories was love, the invincible family had to of loved each other to stay together and strong, and Zach’s family had to love each other or they would of fallen apart and who knows what else would of happened.
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