Ponyboy is different from his friends. There is a gang culture in his town and rivalry between the Socs who "jump Greasers and wreck houses" and the Greasers who "hold up gas stations and have a fight once in a while" (ch 1). He is a Greaser and tries to stay out of trouble so that he can stay with his brothers and not be taken into care because both their parents died in a car accident. Ponyboy knows he is "smart... with a high IQ" but admits that "I don't use my head." Johnny Cade who "has it awful rough at home" is his best friend and Ponyboy talks about how any other person may have become "rebellious and bitter" but not Johnny, although his family situation is "killing him" (ch 2). Ponyboy and Johnny "understood each other without saying anything" (ch 3).
After a fight with the Socs, Johnny and Ponyboy have to get away because Johnny has murdered a Soc who was trying to drown Ponyboy. The boys catch a train on Dally's instructions so that they can hide out and again Ponyboy dreams of his ideal place again and is poetic in his descriptions of the dawn. He keeps hoping that his reality is a dream and that he will wake up at home because reality is too harsh but Ponyboy knows he has to "quit pretending" (ch 5) and calm his "over-active imagination."
