Ponyboy had to read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for his English class. He says that Pip, the protagonist of Dickens's novel, reminds him of himself and his family because Pip feels inferior to others who are wealthier and who are considered gentlemen. Also, "the girl," as Ponyboy describes Estella in Great Expectations, disdains Pip. Ponyboy recalls that when he was in biology class, he pulled out a switchblade to do a dissection, and a girl gasped and said that Ponyboy was a "hood." Like Pip, Ponyboy knows what it feels like to be looked down and knows what it's like to want to be something greater than what one is. Ponyboy connects with the literature he is reading; later, he will write down his own story and what happened to his brothers and his friends in the greasers.
The Renaissance is often referred to as the birth of learning because it was like a rebirth or reawakening after the Middle Ages. Artists and scholars looked back to the learning and knowledge of ancient Rome and Greece to increase their understanding of the world.
