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CW: discussions of suicide/suicidal ideation

Scorching hot take about to come in, but I think that Darry’s line about Dally killing himself because he “gave up” actually does fit the character that the musical made Darry into. I’m not saying it’s a good way to view the situation or even a message that should be imparted at the end of the show, but I think that specific perspective of what suicide is aligns with the Darry we got to know.

You don’t have to agree, but let me explain🙏

There are a few ways that a viewer can interpret Darry’s character. In my opinion, suicidal is one of them. Darry equates suicide with giving up because it’s what he would do if he ever gave up, if he ever lost Pony and Soda the way Dally lost Johnny.

But I also want to say that just because he equates the two in his head doesn’t mean they actually are synonymous. I mean, Darry’s not exactly someone whose word you take at face-value for a lot of the show when he’s talking about his feelings, save for a few vulnerable moments.

When he is being vulnerable and you know that these are his core feelings, undisguised by the need to be strong, it’s during “Runs in the Family” (very sparsely, but there are small clues), and “Throwing in the Towel.” Especially in TITT, he expresses what can be perceived as suicidal ideation, which we’ll get to very quickly.

Because it’s one line in RITF, I can’t really harp on it as much as I’d like to, but Darry says “I don’t know what them boys would ever do without me, and what would I do on my own?” Obviously we never find out what Darry thinks he’d be doing on his own, so you can really only make loose, debatable inferences. Because of that, you can take the fact that Darry is a very goal-oriented person, then take the fact that he knows he would not have anything to work for if his brothers were gone, and combine them to say that Darry might very well just give up.

Darry’s suicidal ideation comes out the most in TITT. He literally says “Maybe you’d be best without me.” He never specifies what “without him” looks like, he leaves that up for Soda (and the audience) to interpret, but three ideas stick out to me:

1. Him giving Soda and Pony up to a boys home

2. Him having never been born at all

3. Him removing himself from their lives permanently (suicide)

Whether he feels one, two, or all three, two out of the three express either ideation or blatant suicidal thoughts.

It also explains why Darry is so insistent on Pony just snapping out of his depression following Dally and Johnny’s deaths. He’s seeing his brother go through the same tired, despondent motions that he did in the beginning of TITT, on the road to giving up.

What Darry doesn’t understand is that Pony truly giving up looks different than Darry truly giving up (I have a feeling that Pony would turn towards drugs and addiction if he hit rock bottom, but that’s another convo for another time), and because Darry is projecting his own version of giving up onto Pony, he’s terrified of his youngest brother doing something so drastic and permanent. Even if that’s not the reality of the situation, it’s what he believes, so it’s what he talks about.

#did i cook #darry stop being the most tragic character to analyze challenge failed #the outsiders #the outsiders headcanons #the outsiders analysis #the outsiders thoughts #outsiders thoughts #the outsiders darry #darry curtis #the outsiders musical

Thinking about Johnny Cade on the first day of school

how he’d still trust people fairly easy, how he wouldn’t know quite how different he is, how hopeful and excited he is

Johnny Cade who’s mom made sure he knew what bus stop to get on/off at, Johnny who still knew what it was like for his mom to care, who still had good memories of his parents

Johnny with his speech impediments, but not knowing what that means for him, not knowing how the other kids are going to react, not knowing when he gets older he’ll feel safer when he doesn’t speak

just…Johnny too young to know the world

#johnny cade #the outsiders #the outsiders headcanons #the outsiders hcs #johnny cade headcanons #the outsiders novel #the outsiders musical #the outsiders 1983 #outsiders thoughts

Petition for Cherry’s name to be changed in the Broadway show to Cherry Pittman…Emma Pittman plays her….Cherry pit

#get it?#the outsiders #cherry valance #cherrypittman #the outsiders musical #the outsiders broadway #broadwaynerd #broadway #outsiders thoughts

Thinking about the way both Dally and Darry have slow, screeching violins playing underneath their most volatile moments in the show, right before they’re about to do something drastic, driven by their breaking point.

Darry’s starts playing in “Runs in the Family (Reprise)” at around 1:46 when he starts shouting at Pony. All of his anger, frustration, and grief accumulates into him ultimately hitting his brother, an unconscionable action that he spends the rest of the show regretting.

Dally’s starts in “Little Brother” at around 4:01, right before he starts his final verse. It’s a decision made the same way Darry made his, only this time, it’s at the end of the show. It’s final, it’s absolute. There’s no going back, there’s no more time to spend on regret.

The only difference is that Darry’s violin plays underneath dialogue and yelling, giving off a sense of disorientation among all of his boiling emotions. He doesn’t know what he’s doing when he slaps Pony. Dally’s is different. There’s silence when his starts up, indicating that a choice has just been made with stark clarity, yet it’s one that never would have been made if he wasn’t experiencing overwhelming grief over losing Johnny. Neither action was committed by a person of sound mind.

It’s funny that these two characters share such a devastating, important orchestral motif since they’re two characters who spend a good chunk of the show at odds with each other. Despite that, they’re connected by their fierce devotion to Pony and the other greasers, they could just never see eye to eye in regard to how their shared circumstances should be perceived and acted upon.

#i like thinking about them #they should be thought of more often #the outsiders #the outsiders analysis #the outsiders musical #the outsiders thoughts #outsiders thoughts #the outsiders darry #darry curtis #the outsiders dallas #dallas winston #the outsiders ponyboy #ponyboy curtis

in the book we learn what the brother's personalities are like from ponys pov and after they just had this super huge tragedy. but, before they died what do you think they were like? like how would the curtis parents describe each of the brother's personality?

I’d say that Darry is the only one of them who went through a major personality shift following the Curtis parents’ deaths. Although I feel like Soda was the type of guy who’d be staying out all night, just hanging at bars and parties and going on joy rides with Steve and some buddies. After the accident, he just stopped doing that, realizing that Darry couldn’t take it having to worry about both Soda and Pony at night. Soda definitely grew up quickly after losing their parents, just in a more subtle way than Darry.

Pony meanwhile just got a little more spacey in his own head, seeing things he didn’t quite notice before in the people he passed.

Darry was going THROUGH IT though. Enough that even Pony called attention to it (if I’m remembering that right, I could have sworn he mentions the fact that Darry was not always “like that”). So generally, Darry was more laid-back and confident rather than anxious and controlling. It just came along with having to raise and protect his two younger brothers.