Ponyboy is the first name of the narrator Ponyboy Curtis in S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.
The novel’s protagonist introduces himself as Ponyboy Curtis, a fourteen-year-old member of the Greasers. He lives with his older brothers Darrel, usually called Darry, and Sodapop after their parents’ deaths. The Greasers are in conflict with the wealthier Socs, creating the novel’s central social divide.
Ponyboy is thoughtful and academically capable, and he enjoys reading and watching films. His perspective gives the story a reflective voice as he processes violence, loyalty, loss, and the possibility of understanding people across class lines.
Readers sometimes mistake Sodapop or Darry for the narrator because both are important Curtis brothers. Dallas Winston is another prominent Greaser, but he is an older friend rather than Ponyboy’s brother. Hinton wrote the novel while she was still a student, and it was published in 1967.