#darrel curtis character analysis

[darrys-laundry]

i’m so sorry, someone sent me an anon and i accidentally deleted it.

i was trying to do far too many things at once while i was at work, but i did read what you said! and i have thoughts!

darrel curtis’ self-flagellation is so important to me, because he loves his brothers. he does.

there’s a stretch of time following everything that’d happened in windrixville, bob’s death, johnny’s, dally’s, etc. that darrel would let either of his brothers tear into him. he’d think he’d deserve it.

pony blames himself for their parents' death.

…if he’d just gotten that frosting for darry’s cake.

darry thinks, i’m the one that killed them. they brought me into this world, and i’m the one that took them out.

in trying to celebrate me, and the anniversary of my birth, they died.

if pony needed to take his anger, or his grief out on darry, darry would let him. he’d think he’d deserve that too.

he’d be still. because he’d hit pony first, after all, back in the middle of the dining room. it’d only be fair. an eye for an eye.

there’s a song off the twisters soundtrack i really like, by jake kohn and wyatt flores:

‘the clouds start caving in, and these walls are paper-thin,

counting all of my sins, like it’s judgement day,

locked in a household war,

battleground’s the living room floor,

i’m not sure what i’m fighting for,

but i’m tired of trying to be who you need me to be’

(in case you want to know, later lyrics include, ‘let the rain come pouring down, i’m not afraid to drown, just hope you make it out before i do,’ which i think is true. we know darry feels like he’s treading water, we know he thinks he’s ready to throw in the towel, but for as much as he’d blown up in runs in the family reprise, he’d still get his brothers into the lifeboat first, you know what i mean?)

wyatt flores’ discography actually goes very hard.

he has a couple songs that remind me of pony and darry’s dynamic:

‘you woke from a dream last night,

thought we had had that fight,

i finally said goodbye,

like you think i will,

you saw it clear as day,

backpacks in a chevrolet,

i can tell by the look on your face,

it’s still killin’ you,

i hate that you wonder,

if i still love you,

well, i don’t say it all the time,

god knows i never say it right,

right now feels like a damn good time to start,

i’d rather drown in the darkest water,

i’d rather burn in the devil’s fire,

than to ever think of tearing us apart,

i’d rather break my bones,

than break your heart’

which, like, in the book darry is haunted by the fact that pony has nightmares. he’d hate to be the reason. he’d hate to know that all of those things he’d said in the heat of the moment continue to terrorize pony in his dreams. and he’d fucking take it all back if he could.

(also, like, the parallel of ‘i’d rather burn in the devil’s fire,’ and ‘i try to keep you from the fire, but it’s me who’s getting burned.’ darrel says that shit because he’s mad, because he knows it’ll hurt, because it’s this voice in the back of his head that he’s tried to keep quiet, because he won’t let himself feel a goddamn thing, and then boom. he’d never leave his brothers like that.)

wyatt’s featured on ANOTHER song that’s so fucking darry:

‘another day, another regret,

try to remember how the night went,

oh, this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me it didn’t go well,

lost a couple of my friends,

and in the morning try to mend,

can’t fix what’s in pieces for my selfish reasons,

tryna run from myself,

i let a lot of people down,

they’re not surprised this time around,

they say i’m a ticking time bomb,

way too fucking far gone to probably get some help,

take me as i come,

or don’t take me at all,

i’m gonna let you down,

i’m gonna lead you lost’

anyway, yeah.

i hope this finds you anon!! sorry i deleted your ask, but yeah.

those are my thoughts.

[dallasgallant]

Pony’s got a huge case of “I just turned 14” brain but something about how their parents die and he just assumes Darry woke up one day and chose to be mean.

They ‘used to get along just fine’ before their parents died, I imagine they used to be able to see the similarities between them more clearly too. He sees the change in behavior and how Darry has to become a parent instead of a brother but it doesn’t quite click as to ‘why’ yet.

That has to hurt so much. That your brother suddenly becomes strict and prone to get onto you out of the blue when you’re hurting.

It has to hurt too that you have to change the way you act, focus on staying together and alive — take on all this worry and have your brother not see that just that you changed? Thinks you chose to be wound up all the time?

How they both get along better with the middle brother but don’t see how it hurts him because he gets both sides?

The dynamic change must’ve been so jarring to all of them, Darry’s a more ‘logic’ and ‘serious’ guy but I imagine he was a lot more light hearted and goofy when he still had the opportunity to be. Now being a brother is something he can’t afford to be. He’s stricter than their parents ever was but who wouldn’t be with so much fear?

[kaytheday]

After Sodapop left for Vietnam, Ponyboy starts advocating. He starts going to protests on his college campus. He fights against the war that took his brother away. He gets a black eye and broken ribs from a cop during a protest. He’s arrested and it’s Darry who picks him up. He’s half expecting Darry to start screaming at him. The same things he’s been saying since the beginning.

“Fighting here ain’t gonna get him back Ponyboy.”

But he doesn’t, Darry doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t even talk to him. Talks to the cop but not to him. Ponyboy feels nervous, he’s never seen this side of Darry before. The one that doesn’t yell at him, even if it is out of concern. They’re quiet the whole ride home, albeit for The Doors song on the radio and Ponyboy’s fingers tapping against the door. Finally Ponyboy says it.

“You ain’t gonna yell at me or something? I mean I got arrested for Christs sake.” Darry just lets out a long sigh and is quiet for a long time. Ponyboy is half sure he’s going to keep ignoring him. They pull into the driveway and neither make a move to get out of the car. Then Darry turns to him, softer than he’s looked in some time.

“I ain’t gonna yell at ya… I want to though.” Ponyboy doesn’t know what to say.

“Then yell at me.” He tries to say it with some heat but he can’t muster it.

“Do you get it Ponyboy? Do you get that you’re the only thing left I can protect? I can’t do nothin’ not for any of our gang and not for Sodapop, who’s so far away. But I can still protect you. You’re still on the same continent for gods sake but you make it so goddamn hard kid.” And Ponyboy blanches because what is he supposed to say to that?

“And I know you think that doing these protests and whatever else is helping Soda but it ain’t.” He take another breath and puts a hand heavy on his shoulder. “It ain’t helpin’ Sodapop because it ain’t helpin’ me. You just be careful because I can’t lose you too kid.” It’s on the tip of his tongue to correct Darry. To tell him that he’s not a kid but he guesses he’ll always be in Darry’s eyes. With that, Darry went inside, leaving Ponyboy stunned in the car.

Ponyboy didn’t stop fighting, even after that conversation. But he was more careful, tried to head up more organized peaceful protests. He couldn’t stop fighting, not if his brother was still thousands of miles away across the world. But he could stop fighting with his brother in the states. ease his mind just a little bit.

He wouldn’t make his older brother who had already lost so much lose him too.

[brokenlovesong]

The JPC Darrel analysis I promised

Alright guys same deal as the last with just as much chaos. Sorry this took three years

Anyways. JPC DARREL LETS GET INTO IT

So he plays the youngest Darrel, no doubt. He’s tall but much smaller both physically and the way he portrays himself on stage. Using this he really plays into it. He’s a much less angry Darrel, more tied than anything else.

I think runs in the family reprise is where his version of Darrel really shines. He plays it very differently from Brent, Victor, or even Dan. He’s just so tired of it all. He doesn’t even start yelling until the end once pony has pushed him to his brink. When he sits down during the “you don’t tell me when you’re coming home lately” line it’s much less confrontational. He’s trying to stay calm and reason with his brother. It’s not until the “tired of lifting you up” part that he’s finally losing control and breaking. That’s the first time I think I genuinely saw him angry and even then he’s consciously trying to reign himself in but pony keeps pushing. And dude he YELLS “You have no idea what I give up for you” and because he didnt spend the song nearly as angry as like Brent does, that scared me so much because he just snapped.

I wanna talk about the scene between Darrel and dally because that scene was done in a way I’ve never seen it before by both Jpc and Josh Boone. Jpc is a much less physically intimidating Darrel. Especially compared to Josh Boone. That was taken into account by both of them which I have to give so much praise for because they did such a wonderful job. Darrel went in thinking he could push dally into revealing. He clearly had no intent to fight him. He was taunting him. But let me tell you dally knew how to play Darrel like a fiddle. He knew exactly what buttons to push in a way Darrel couldn’t. While he normally yells half that scene, dally didn’t raise his voice ONCE. He was even SMILING at the end because he wanted Darrel to swing at him. Dally loves fights and he knows he could easily win against jpc Darrel. So he played him. Decided to see how far he could push because if Darrel swung he could easily take him. Absolutely fantastic scene and lemme tell you Josh Boone calmly speaking the last bit of the scene with a smile? ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING

Now throwing in the towel. So jpc flubbed the first part and bro I’ve never been more stressed (probably not as stressed as him tho LMAO) but he managed to keep it together which I give him so much credit for. He took his anxiety and stress and used that as a focus for his acting the rest of the scene. Other actors usually play this scene as very defeated. But he was much more anxious about pony and what’s to come next. And tbh this is the most in it I’ve ever seen Jason. Now I love Jason but I have found his acting style to be more passive then I’d like in some scenes (JUST MY OPINION PLEASE DONT ATTACK ME) I think because of what happened to jpc not only was he soda trying to comfort Darrel, I saw Jason trying to comfort jpc and it made the scene so much more beautiful and strong.

Overall, jpc Darrel is wonderful. My only main issue is that I felt like he read too similar in age to Brody as ponyboy and frankly Jason read older than him. Nothing to do with his acting. Jpc is an incredible actor. But I just feel like with the cast the way they are, while he reads as Darrel’s actual age, much of the cast reads older than their characters and so this does affect how he’s seen.

I did see him as soda too, with Dan darry, and I thought he was literally like who I envisioned soda to be when I read the book. Like he gave such soda energy it was incredible

[curlyshepardconfirmed]

"Always the savior never the saved,"

And it's Darrel Curtis, the boy who had everything going for him and everything going so well, he had a future set up until his parents died and he had to step up his role in the house and throw everything away so his brothers could have food on the table. It's Darrel Curtis pouring blood, sweat, and tears into his family and the few moments he cracks from the stress he's painted as a villain in the mind of his 14 year old brother.

"Always the coward never the brave,"

Now fight me if I'm wrong, it's not Johnny, it's Dallas. Dallas, the boy from New York who hid from his issues, who acted brave as a facade his entire life when he was still a kid, he was still a kid, he was always just a kid because he never made it to adulthood, he died because he was scared he didn't die because he was brave.

"Always the artist never the muse,"

Will unfortunately remain Ponyboy, he could see the sunsets and the sunrises and he was canonically an artist, he liked drawing Dally because he would be able to get him down in a few lines. He was aware of the beauty of the world around him so much so that he felt disconnected from it unlike the way he could see the muses, his brothers, his friends, and even his enemies interacting all in real time, the incredible creation and destruction, the life and the death all around him, nature's green and nature's gold.

"So much to gain but much more to lose,"

And this one goes to Johnny Cade, the boy who wasn't born with much, the kid who grew up worse, and the kid who could've become like Dally but refused to stop seeing the gold in the green, and remembering that the green had once been gold and deserved to be remembered as such. The boy who could have gone so much further in life if he had a chance and even though he didn't, and even though he didn't make it, he had so much more than what was physically valuable. He had so much he could have gone to, but he had everything, friends, love, and life, and he lost it all in the end, when nature's gold turned to a green covered grave.

"Always an angel, never a god,"

You guys know me, there has to be some Two-Bit recognition in here somewhere. Two-Bit who could have had a lot and who did, just not what others could necessarily see, his wisdom that even Ponyboy hadn't expected, the way he saw things deeply but on the east side it wasn't understood, because that was just how things worked, yet Two-Bit knew how to put it into words and make it fly. But in the end is he remembered for the ways he knew the lay of every inch of the greasers walk of life? No, he's remembered as the alcoholic, the wise guy.

"Trying to love but told I'm too much,"

And it's Sodapop, the boy who loves both his brothers, the boy wearing his heart on his sleeve no matter how many times it's been struck, with the death of his parents, the death of his friends, Sandy leaving, Ponyboy running away. He still does everything he can, he still pours his heart and his soul into everything he does and he doesn't think that he knows how else to do anything other than live it, breathe it and revel in it.

"All that I have is falling apart,"

But it's Steve Randle, the boy doomed by the bias of the narration but small cracks of him peek through the bias. It's Steve Randle, tied to Sodapop but his pain is so obvious when Johnny dies and when Dallas dies. Steve fights for hatred, he fights for revenge, he fights for family, all of it falling apart within hours. He fights for his friends, he fights for the family he wishes he had because all he's ever had was a shack of a house with a worse shack of a man to guide him until he met Sodapop and he built his life, he built himself a family until it all fell apart, and he felt like he was falling too.

Always the Angel, never the God.

[chippedshake]

Different characters as a narrator

I haven't written from every character's POV, but I want to someday have done it, and for now I have Thoughts on the ones I have written about.

I've already made two posts about Ponyboy as a canon narrator (here and here), but basically he can and will misinterpret everything. Everything is warped by his self-esteem being absolute shit. Any look towards him is judgemental. Any ambivalent comment is derisive. No one loves him. Run-on sentences my beloved.

Johnny is slowly growing to be my favourite character to write from. Anyone who heard "nothing gold can stay" for the first time from the shitty reciting of a fourteen-year-old who's insecure as fuck (when you feel insecure reciting something, you're more likely to speed up because you feel stupid doing the right intonation) and immediately knew what it meant and that it was what he was trying to express is going to have an aggressively poetic inner monologue, which is exactly how I like to write, so he's fun. I feel like he thinks a lot about the world around him and I love metaphors, and it's actually so. much. fun.

Dally is in constant denial of any sort of human feelings. It's really funny to describe a common reaction to caring for someone and then say. Huh. That's a weird feeling. I must just be hungry. He is incredibly unaware of his own feelings. Dally is one of the heavier cursers.

Darry is... interesting. For some reason, Darry is the character I've gained the strongest connection to out of the whole book, despite being a teenage, female middle child with absolutely no strength. So writing him feels personal. He's also the character I've written about the most, especially from his point of view. He's also kind of shit at noticing social cues, like Ponyboy, and he has low self-esteem, but they aren't as interconnected as they are with Ponyboy. He just doesn't understand people and also feels like he's constantly messing up with his brothers. But these two things aren't cause and effect, they're two characteristics that coexist in one fucked-up guy. Darry is also one of the ones that curses the most because he is constantly stressed out. He has a lot of short sentences.

I've never written from Two-Bit's point of view because I find it mildly terrifying because he's funnier than me and also often drunk. I have never had a drop of alcohol, so he's a bit far from my reality. As for Marcia, I have written a bit from her pov, but I don't love it. I mainly made her insecure so I could relate to her on some level, because she's also much funnier than me.

Now, Steve... Steve is insecure, but not as much as Ponyboy and Darry. He's confident in his abilities mostly, but has grown insecure because of how he's always seen as "the other one", "Soda's friend", etc. I haven't written much from his point of view, but Steve's mom was Latina so he absolutely inserts random phrases in Spanish into his inner monologue.

Soda is interesting because I have written a lot about him, but not very much from his point of view. Mainly, he's insecure like every character I've written ever, but it manifests in the fact that he talks about everyone's feelings but his own. Until they're so overpowering they take over. Also, off-handed comments on his being stupid. There's a lot of noticing small details and piecing together another character's emotions.

[shae-pine]

Ponyboy Curtis was not lucky

Johnny Cade was not loved

Steve Randle was not a people person

Sodapop Curtis was not smart

Dallas Winston was incapable of love

Two-bit Mathews was not serious

Darrel Curtis was not rich

Trying to follow a brain worm here based on the line in the musical “the haves will make sure you have not” got me thinking about the things the gang lacks in terms of personality/story. For Johnny it’s specifically love from his blood family, I’m in my character analysis era if you couldn’t tell. Slowly been working on this as an analysis fic.

[coralcreature]

if you get this, answer w/ five random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs. anon or not, doesn't matter, let's get to know the person behind the blog! No pressure though!

Elloooo :D I go by Mochi online most of my socials, and here are five facts abt me ig

1. I’m aroace‼️ romance is dead and I happily trample over its grave

2. I actually don’t like eating Mochi, I just named myself that bc I like how it sounds

3. I am down DIABOLICAL for Darrel Jr Curtis<333 that man has my cold, still heart in his clutches and I will never take it back

4. I’m Vietnamese (RAAAAAH SOUTHEAST ASIA🔥🔥)

5. I’ve written a Tommyinnit character analysis for an English assignment and got a 100% grade 😀