Short Story ‘Funeral’ and ‘The Outsiders’ Connections

                    I chose the short story ‘Funeral’  written by Ralph Fletcher and I found that the novel ‘The Outsiders’ written by S.E. Hinton has a common theme to ‘Funeral’ Theme is that nothing goes as plan and everything is rough all over, but it’s important to stay gold and to stay strong for the things that hold us down and to always get back up again  . A quote that I have found in ‘Funeral’ connects to ‘The Outsiders’,
”What’s going on?” I asked
“We’re having a funeral,” Andy replied with a solemn face.
“For who?”
“You,” Steve explained.
“A funeral!” I laughed. “Hey, I’m moving. I’m not dead!”
“You’ll be dead to us,” Larry pointed out.”
To me this quote means that Ralph’s friends are having a funeral for it to be a way to say goodbye, since they’re not going to see him again, this connects to the Outsiders because Ponyboy knows that he won’t see Johnny or Dally or Bob ever again so he decides to finish the book Gone With The Wind for Johnny and write a theme for his English class about what had happened when he lost 2 of his friends and for other people to know they’re side of the story of the The Outsiders AKA The Greasers.

Another quote that I have found in ‘Funeral’,
”We entered Ale’s woods on a path I’d run down thousands of times. I knew every rock and mushroom and pine tree by heart.”
This connects to The Outsiders because In the beginning of the book Ponyboy describes each group member from the Greasers, Ponyboy describes their personalities by heart which shows that they’re more than just friends, they’re family, they’re brothers.
Another quote that I thought that connected to ‘The Greasers’,
” I would,” Steve said. “Ralph Fletcher was a good friend. Last year I had to do summer school. He came by every day to walk me home.”
“He was a good friend,” Larry agreed. “About a month ago, John Berkowitz tried to beat me up, and Ralph told John, ‘You’ll have to be me up first.’ So, John Berkowitz punched him instead. He was a brave friend. Stupid, but brave!”
Everyone laughed, including me
“He was a good friend,” Andy began, then stopped. I lay on the pine needles, eyes shut, smelling the mix of piney smell and the good, rotting earth underneath. I waited for Andy to continue, but he didn’t say anything. Then he whispered: “ He was the brother I never had.”
“He was a member of the Four Stooges,” Larry said in a husky whisper.
Then they all said together: “We’ll never forget him.”
My eyes started to water. I tilted my head so they wouldn’t notice, and stayed quiet. Nobody spoke. I thought of all I’d done with these guys.
Staying up late listening to the radio while the DJ counted down the top ten. Blowing off M-80s in Mr. Oxeners cornfield. Eating raw sweet corn. Going to the Marshfield Fair every summer. Arguing about which girl in our class was cuter-Lisa Kennedy, Pam Coyne, or Beth Byers. Fishing for crappies and sunfish. Trading baseball cards, card tricks, dirty jokes, scars, stories,snacks, swears.”
This quote connects to The Outsiders since Ponyboy would remember what Dally had done good in life and the note Johnny had left Pony after he had died, Johnny wanted Pony to tell Dally that there’s still good in the world even when Dally thought there wasn’t and which is the reason he was the coldest meanest one from the group, this quote also connects to Ponyboy thinking about what it would be like without Johnny and Dally and how the gang needed both of them and how it was when they were in the gang.

Another quote from ‘Funeral’,
”For a long time moment it stayed quiet. Finally I opened my eyes. They were gone.
Usually I hated when my friends ditched me,but this time it felt different. In a strange way I was glad they were gone. For a while I just laid there, looking up at the trees.”
I say this quote connects to The Outsiders since Ponyboy would always try to reject the memories he had when, why, and how Johnny and Dally died, but then he sees the book and decides that he wants to read it and he finds the note that Johnny had left him he starts to accept that Johnny and Dally are dead he knew it even when he was denying the truth.

Another quote I found that connected to the ‘The Outsiders’,
”I knew I’d never forget that place. Then I stood up and stepped into my new life, whatever that might be.”
To me this quote connects to the Outsiders since everything was different now that Johnny and Dally were gone, and it has always been different for The Curtis brothers since they had lost their mother and father in an accident and also Dally was the toughest, coldest, bitter and meanest of the group, Johnny was the pet of the group, he was the reason who would make everyone get along and they needed them in their gang, and now that Darry has custody of Pony, and Pony And Darry had promised Soda not to fight anymore, they wouldn’t forget everything that had happened, but now they’re starting a new life.

To me I found so many connections between the short story ‘Funeral’ written by Ralph Fletcher and the novel ‘The Outsiders’ written by S.E. Hinton. I personally loved the book, it was very detailed and it sometimes left you with a cliffhanger in each chapter which I love when that happens because it makes you have ideas and thoughts for what the next chapter is going to be about, I also like the characters and what their personalities and identities are and how it was told by first person's point of view which was told by Ponyboy. I would like to re-read the novel again someday in the future because it’s such a great book for adolescents, I would rate it 5 out of 5 (5 being the best) I also liked the short story ‘Funeral’ written by Ralph Fletcher, for me it's a heartwarming short story, and it talks about a group of boys having a “funeral” for their friend (Ralph) who is moving away, the reason they would call it a funeral is because it’s a way for Ralph’s friends to say goodbye and because “Ralph would be dead to them”, but later in the short story there’s a heartwarming quote that Andy (Ralph’s close friend) says to say their goodbyes to Ralph. It may be a weird way to say goodbye to your best friend who is moving away, but for the group of  friends it’s easier to express their true feelings for their Best friend Ralph which is the heartwarming part of the short story, I would recommend other people to read ‘Funeral’ and ‘The Outsiders’. If I could rate both of the story’s, my rating would be 5 out of 5 (5 being the best).