Young Forever

Author's Note: I am comparing two people who seem alike from two books i read recently.

Nobody really wants to grow up. Everyone wishes that they would stay young forever and be with their friends for the rest of their lives. In two books that I have read recently, there are two characters who have to grow up at an early age. They seem to be a lot like each other, yet completely different. I am talking about Tim from the story My Brother Sam is Dead and Ponyboy from the story The Outsiders. Some of the problems that they face are like each others, but they vary slightly in an interesting way.

In the book My Brother Sam is Dead, Tim lost many people that were close to him when he was young. He lost his brother who was executed in front of him. He lost his father who was kidnapped by the continental army and eventually died of a disease. He also lost his friend who was captured and died of disease on a prison boat with Tim's father. In the book The Outsiders, Ponyboy lost a lot of people close to him, too. He lost his father and mother who both died when he was young. He also lost his best friend Johnny who died in a hospital bed from horrible burns and his spine being crushed by a falling beam.

Even though both of these characters have lost people that are close to them and have grown up the same way, their lives are completely different. Tim comes from a war time where at any moment, a giant battle could take place right in his town. Ponyboy comes from a time where gangs rule the streets and there are gang wars. For Tim, he has to quit school to work at the family tavern because his father is gone. Ponyboy has to go to school and get a good education so that he can get a good job and earn money. Tim can't do that because the only other person who can run the tavern is his mother who can't run it by her self, so he gives up his child hood to help his mother with the work around the tavern.

There might be some differences between these two people, but they both have something big in common. They both had to grow up too fast at a young age. Tim had to so the family could keep the tavern. Ponyboy had to grow up so he and Johnny could survive on their own in the church for the time that they were hiding. They both had to endure a lot of people close to them dying which hardened them and made them tough too fast. Each one of them had to give up their childhood so that they could keep moving on. That is one of the worst possible things to happen to a kid, forcing them to grow up before their time.

Both Tim and Ponyboy lost their childhood when they were too young. Maybe if they grew up at the same time, they would have had more in common, but since they came from such different times their problems and life were so much different. They both seem so alike, yet so different. It's possible that they could have been best friends, or worst enemies. I guess I'll never know.