hiiiii :333

this is something a lot of fandom has debated — i've been going through older blogs and getting posts through and the strain of people saying that cherry owes ponyboy nothing is long and irksome. for one, everyone in a community owes each other something whether that's basic human decency and kindness or simple manners. saying no one owes anyone anything at all futhers isolation and hyper individualism that feeds into oneself and oneself only.

with cherry, she not only owes johnny and ponyboy common human decency of acknowledging that they're victims of a system that enriches her but victims of her boyfriend. that is not say she is responsible for bob's violent actions but that is to say that when directly confronted twice with his actions, she doesn't do anything to truly engage with that reality. at the movie theater it's clear she recognizes from ponyboy's story that she knows bob was involved in johnny's assault:

it's not evident until a reread that she clearly clocks bob for the rings. that's why she's so pale and startled. the "rough all over line" is said by her after this and i think it's interesting people don't acknowledge that as sincere as ponyboy presents the line, it still is cherry trying to shift things away from the fact that bob was involved in hurting someone else. we don't know whether or not she had an inkling beforehand but clearly she knows now.

now to be fair to her: becoming a 'spy' for them is a big deal. but by inserting herself as a spy, i think people have to acknowledge that changes her position here. she goes from just bob's girlfriend to actively engaged and that active engagement with the greasers changes things. she's free to approach them and talk to them and yet she tells ponyboy she won't acknowledge him in public or anywhere else.

which well. you have to square it with their last meeting.

now she does acknowledge it here, and then does what ponyboy acknowledges the newspaper and mainly the adults do, by pushing it onto other things and then pushing forward bob's "good sides." she presses it forward and ponyboy snaps and is upset with her and i understand she's a teenage girl dealing with a lot on her plate.

that still doesn't take away the previous involvement she has or that the act of doing subterfuge is perfectly fine with her as it plays both sides, but when it comes time to her to do something more concrete and in the eye of the public, she doesn't want to do that. and as a reader it also just makes her plain selfish here, self involved which is what teenagers typically are of course yet there were plenty of teenagers past, present, and future who were willing to stick their necks out to cross class lines and color lines. (color lines in particular because this was the Sixties when many social movements were at the forefront.)

that cherry says all this to ponyboy and in the movie — which s. e. hinton wrote and worked with francis ford coppola on every step of the way — shows that even months later, she looks pony dead in the eye and walks on is a heartbreaking reminder that the class liens are never going to fade away quickly. it's also a reminder that a lot of people who have privilege can and will retreat into their towers whenever it's convenient for them.

even though she owes ponyboy more than just these words and a defense of bob, she retreats. that fandom interprets this as her "helping" ponyboy is galling to read too; it's an old thought that's picked up lately and it doesn't hold up. how is she "protecting" ponyboy by not associating herself with him in public? how is she being good to ponyboy by pretending he doesn't exist? it's particularly silly given they would be publicly linked and seen in a trial. a trial that likely made the paper. if she had come out and openly been friends with him after, it would probably make people consider even more that bob was in the wrong.

I now pronounce them bitch boy and wife

The goober with Toymaker belongs to @oddballinonyamama