The absolute gutpunch reveal to find out that he is Darry Jr. near the end of the book. First we learn he looks like his old man and how they could be brothers. Pony remembers at the hospital how close they used to be… then the reveal when he’s writing their names.
He bares his father’s name, I imagine with all the tension between him and Ponyboy it weighs over his head like a sword. He’s not their father and he should quit trying to be— not that he ever started— but the comparison is there. God is it there and he can see it in his brothers eyes. The weight of that comparison, the knowing he couldn’t be as patient or as laughter filled as his father and Sodapop the—- ough
This could probably be pages of a study but it’s just, it stuck out to me re-reading
