Comparing Themes

Comparing Themes

Author’s note: This is a 5 paragraph essay about the similarities and differences of the theme of April Morning and The Outsiders.

Do you remember when you were a child? When you could just run around without worrying about anything at all? One thing that you have when you are a child is innocence. Innocence is basically just the state of when you are innocent. It is something that mainly children have because when you are a kid you can’t really do very many things that would be that bad. In both April Morning and The Outsiders, the characters lose their innocence, before they should.

In April Morning, the main character Adam, signs up to fight the British in the local militia. Now, you might think that he lost his innocence because he shot someone. I think that Adam would have felt better if that was why because, he was prepared to take the life of a man, however, he was not prepared to lose his father. That is why he lost his innocence. Because in one day, he went from a boy to a man due to him watching his father die and realizing that he will now have to get used to living without him. In April Morning Father says “Yesterday he was a boy, tonight he’s not.” In The Outsiders, the two characters Ponyboy and Johnny lose their innocence as well. When Ponyboy is about to be drown by the hands of some kid Johnny steps in to save him and by doing so, takes the life of the other boy. That is how Johnny loses his innocence but Ponyboy loses his because he goes along with Johnny on the run hiding from the cops.

These situations are similar also because; both the main characters lose their innocence not purposely. Ponyboy didn’t choose for his friend to kill someone, and Adam didn’t choose or his father to be killed by the British. In these ways both stories, characters, and themes of these two books are the same.

The one way that the theme is different is that when they lost their innocence, for one it was through his own actions and for the other it was not. For Johnny in The Outsiders, it is his own fault that he lost his innocence. Johnny admits killing him to Ponyboy when he says “I killed him Ponyboy”. He killed that boy and so it was him and him only to blame. For Adam though, it was the fault of a British soldier that his father died, not his. This is the one way that the themes of these books could be considered different. In April Morning, it says “A redcoat soldier raised his musket, leveled it at Father, and fired.” meaning that it was purely the fault of the British soldier.

With all of those main points in mind, they prove what was said previously; in both of those books the main characters lose their innocence. Although, in both The Outsiders and April Morning, there are differences in theme, they are both similar in some ways. In the two books, the main characters lose their innocence before they should.