The Outsiders, Chapter 12 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What is the outcome of Ponyboy's court hearing?

   • He is placed in foster care
   • The case is postponed indefinitely
   • He is found guilty and sentenced to juvenile detention
   • Correct answer: He is acquitted and allowed to stay with his brothers

   The judge asks Ponyboy about living with Darry, school and grades instead of Bob's death, then says he "was acquitted and the whole case was closed."

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2. 2

   Question 2. Who tells the judge about the night Johnny and Ponyboy were jumped?

   • Correct answer: Randy and Cherry
   • Ponyboy and Dally
   • Darry and Sodapop
   • Two-Bit and Steve

   Randy is questioned first, and the Socs "stuck mainly to the truth" about that night; Cherry tells what happened before and after Johnny and Ponyboy were jumped.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What signs show that Ponyboy is not himself after the hearing?

   • He becomes silent, quits the track team, and destroys his drawings
   • Correct answer: He quits eating, keeps losing things, and lets his schoolwork slide
   • He refuses to attend school and avoids every one of his friends
   • He cries uncontrollably and refuses to leave the house at all

   After the hearing Ponyboy keeps "running into things" and losing things, quits eating because "Everything tasted like baloney," and is lucky to get a D on an English composition.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does Ponyboy do after threatening the Socs with a broken bottle?

   • He hurls the broken bottle at their car as they accelerate away
   • He hurries back inside the grocery store to find Two-Bit and Steve
   • Correct answer: He picks up the broken glass so no one gets a flat tire
   • He pursues their car down the street, still brandishing the bottle

   After the Socs drive off, Ponyboy calmly picks up the glass from the broken bottle and puts it in a trash can: "I didn't want anyone to get a flat tire."

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why does Sodapop run out of the house?

   • He intends to locate the Socs who threatened Ponyboy at the grocery
   • He is expected back at the gas station for another evening shift
   • He is anxious the judge could still separate Ponyboy from his family
   • Correct answer: He cannot stand being in the middle of Darry and Ponyboy's fighting

   In the park Soda explains, "I can't stand to hear y'all fight," and says he feels like "the middleman in a tug o' war" being split in half.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What happened with Sandy's letter that adds to Sodapop's grief?

   • Sandy's parents intercepted the letter
   • Sandy wrote that she was getting married
   • Correct answer: Sandy returned his letter unopened
   • Sandy asked him never to write again

   Darry picks up the envelope Soda dropped: "It's the letter he wrote Sandy," returned unopened. That is what had been bugging Soda all afternoon.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does Sodapop say to his brothers in the park?

   • "You're living in a vacuum, Pony, and you're going to have to cut it out."
   • Correct answer: "We're all we've got left. We ought to be able to stick together against everything"
   • "And anytime you don't like the way I'm running things you can get out."
   • "Listen, with your brains and grades you could get a scholarship"

   In the park Soda begs his brothers to stop fighting and stick together. The other lines are Darry's, said to Ponyboy at home before Soda ran out.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Where does Ponyboy find Johnny's letter?

   • Correct answer: Inside Johnny's copy of Gone with the Wind
   • In a sealed envelope delivered by the hospital nurse
   • In Johnny's jacket pocket
   • Under Johnny's hospital pillow

   When Ponyboy finally opens Gone with the Wind, "A slip of paper fell out on the floor" — Johnny's note, which begins, "I asked the nurse to give you this book."

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9. 9

   Question 9. According to Johnny's letter, what does 'gold' represent in the Robert Frost poem?

   • The greasers' loyalty to each other
   • Wealth and material success
   • The bond between friends
   • Correct answer: Childhood innocence and idealism

   Johnny writes that the poet "meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green," when everything is new, and he tells Ponyboy to "Keep that way, it's a good way to be."

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does Johnny say about saving the children in the burning church?

    • He regrets entering the burning church now that he is dying
    • He wishes Dally had rescued him from the burning church sooner
    • Correct answer: It was worth dying, since the children's lives are worth more than his
    • He did it only so the newspapers would celebrate him as a hero

    Johnny's letter says he doesn't mind dying: "Their lives are worth more than mine, they have more to live for."

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does Ponyboy decide to write about for his English theme?

    • Soda's horse, Mickey Mouse, and why Soda loved the animal so much
    • Correct answer: Everything that happened — about greasers, Socs, and the cost of violence
    • His father's life and the experience of losing both of his parents
    • A report on the greaser gangs and the history of their neighborhood

    After reading Johnny's letter, Ponyboy decides "Someone should tell their side of the story" and begins his theme with what happened to him, Johnny, Dally and Bob.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What is significant about the last line of The Outsiders?

    • Correct answer: It is the same as the novel's opening line, creating a circular structure
    • It reveals that Ponyboy and his brothers move to a different city
    • It describes Johnny's funeral, with the whole gang standing beside his grave
    • It sets up a sequel by introducing another rumble with the Socs

    Ponyboy begins his theme, "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house" — the novel's first line, so the story circles back to its start.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What Robert Frost poem is central to Chapter 12's themes?

    • Correct answer: Nothing Gold Can Stay
    • Fire and Ice
    • The Road Not Taken
    • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

    Johnny's letter returns to the Robert Frost poem Nothing Gold Can Stay, which Ponyboy recited earlier. Johnny writes that the poet "meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green."

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