Character Analysis : Darrel Curtis (Darry)

by Heejin Kim

WHO IS DARRY??

FAMILY TREE

Mom ( Ms. Curtis) Dad (Mr. Curtis)

Sodapop PonyboyDarrel

THE ELDEST

* PARENTS DOESN’T EXIST FROM THIS BOOK

RESPONSIBLE

After the tragic death of the his parents ,Dar ry take h is ro le seriously as a the guardian of his brothers. For example Darry has two jobs (one of them is roofing houses and the other is not identified in this book.) to provide thing for Sodapop and Ponyboy. This shows Darry’s responsibility.

PROTECTIVE

Darry could be protective to his brothers. Especially to Ponyboy. For example if you see in the book Darry gets angry at Ponyboy because he came late at night and also becomes more furious when Ponyboy tells him that the reason why he came late is because he fell asleep at the lot without a jacket.

BRAWNY

In the book, Darry is identified as a 20 year old over six feet tall, with broad - shoulders and muscular.

The book states that Darry use to be a intelligent student and also used to be the captain of the football team, which got him a scholarship for college. However he wasn’t able to go to college because the scholarship was not enough for the family to send him to college.

INTELLIGENT

QUOTES

Quote 1.

“ Darrel, who we call Darry, works too long and hard to be interested in a story or drawing a picture ...” ( From Ponyboy p. 2)

From this quote you can see that Darry is busy.

Quote 2.

“Darry is six-feet-two, and broad-shouldered and muscular. He has dark brown hair that kicks out on front and a slight cowlick in the back - just like Dad’s - but Darry’s eyes are his own. He’s got eyes that are like two pieces of pale blue -green ice. They’ve got a determined set to them, like the rest of him. He looks older than twenty-tough,cool, and smart. He would be real handsome if his eyes weren’t so cold. He doesn’t understand anything that is not plain hard fact. But he uses his head.” ( From Ponyboy p.6)From this quote Ponyboy identifies the looks of Darry.

From this quote Ponyboy identifies the looks of Darry.

Quote 3.

“Darry didn’t deserve to work like an old man when he was only twenty. He was captain of the football team and he had been voted Boy if the Year. But we just didn’t have the money for him to go to college, even with the scholarship he won. And now he didn’t have time between jobs to even think anything more, except work out at gyms and go skiing with some old friends of his sometimes”(From Ponyboy p. 16)

From this quote you could see that Darry use to be a intelligent student however wasn’t able to go to college because the family didn’t have enough money to send him to college. Instead Darry now works hard to provide supplies for his brothers.

Quote 4.

“ Oh, Pony I thought we’d lost you .... like we did Mom and Dad ....”

This is the part of the scene when Darry reunites with Ponyboy. After Ponyboy and Darry fought and Ponyboy ran away. From this quote you can see that Darry really loves Pony and was really worried even though Darry always gets angry at Pony.

Quote 5.

“You’re not going to drop out. Listen, with your brains and grades you could get a scholarship, and we could put you through college. But schoolwork’s not the point. You’re living in a vacuum, Pony, and you’re going to have to cut it out. Johnny and Dallas were our buddies, too, but you don’t just stop living because you lose someone. I thought you knew that by now. You don’t quit! And anytime you don’t like the way I’m running things you can get out.” (p.173)

This is a part of a scene Ponyboy refuges to to admit the truth that Johnny and Dally died. So Darry acknowledges the tragedy of Johnny's and Dally's deaths, but he rightly emphasizes to Ponyboy that life still goes on and tells Pony that he has to face and accept the truth.