Chapter 11 Summary

  • Ponyboy stays in bed for seven days and doesn't really like being inactive. He reads and draws.
  • He's looking at a yearbook when he sees a familiar face, but can't quite place it.
  • It takes him a minute to realize that the Robert Sheldon in the picture is Bob and, for the first time, Pony wonders about Bob's life.
  • He wonders about the Bob who Cherry loved and who was Randy Adderson's best friend.
  • He wonders about Bob's family.
  • While looking at the yearbook picture, Pony "could begin to see the person we had killed. A reckless hot-tempered boy, cocky and scared stiff at the same time" (11.3).
  • Darry comes in and tells him that Randy is here to see him.
  • Pony says to send him in.
  • Randy tells Pony that his father wants him to tell the truth about what happened that night. He feels bad for putting his father through this.
  • Randy tells Pony that "it's the first time [he's] felt anything in a long time" (11.20).
  • Pony thinks that the only thing he's been feeling is fear. He's especially afraid of the upcoming hearing.
  • When Randy asks how Pony's parents are dealing with the situation, Pony tells him that they're dead. He says he's worried that the courts will take him away from his brothers.
  • Randy tells Pony that none of this is his fault. It was Johnny, after all, who killed Bob with a blade.
  • Pony says, "I had the knife. I killed Bob" (11.23).
  • Randy says this isn't true. He saw that Johnny, Pony's dead friend, did the stabbing.
  • Pony says, "Johnny is not dead" (11.30).
  • At this moment Darry comes in and tells Randy he should leave now.
  • Pony hears him tell Randy not to talk about Johnny to Ponyboy because he's still recovering. He isn't able to deal with it yet.
  • Pony thinks that Randy is just a bad guy, like all Socs, trying to say Johnny killed Bob.
  • It's not true. It's a lie.