do you think cherry already knew about bob's violence or do you think pony was genuinely the first person who ever told her it straight?
I think she knew enough. Ponyboy was just the first person who forced her to face up to it, because he was the first greaser she ever spoke to, aka the first person she ever spoke to who had been a victim of Soc violence.
She later tells Pony that she knew it was Bob who beat up Johnny based on the description of his rings. She never would have figured that out if she was totally in the dark. She would have thought “hm I know Bob wears a lot of rings, but he’d never do something like that.” She didn’t even say “I wonder if it was Bob” or even “I think it might have been Bob.” She says “I knew it was Bob.” She may not have known every detail or known the full extent of Bob’s behavior, she may have been in denial, or it may have already been something that bothered her and was even a point of contention between them, like Bob’s drinking. But she knew.
