The cutting of Ponyboy’s and Johnny’s hair is a very symbolic gesture. On the surface, their new short haircuts offer them a disguise, but the haircuts also exemplify the fact that they are cutting their ties with the past. They are no longer greasers; unfortunately, they are now fugitives. By losing their hair, the outward trademark of their identity, they change perspectives—not only from their own point of view, but the perspectives of others around them. Dally is the first to see the transformation: “He looks different with his hair like that.”
Pony’s hair was his pride and joy; now, not only does he lose it, but he also changes its color. His hair color changes from a reddish hue—a warm, comfortable color—to white. White contains all the colors of the spectrum and is a crossover color that cannot be affiliated with anyone. As in earlier chapters, the color white brands him as an outsider—this time to his own identity as a greaser.
Cutting their hair forces the boys to deal with the trauma of their situation. After crying and venting their emotions, they settle into life in hiding at the church. To help pass the time, they read Gone with the Wind. The Civil War novel begins to take on special significance in this story. Johnny, especially, likes the book, and Pony is amazed that Johnny can get more meaning out of the story than he can. Johnny didn’t do well in school: “—he couldn’t grasp anything that was shoved at him too fast, and I guess his teachers thought he was just plain dumb. But he wasn’t. He was just a little slow to get things, and he liked to explore things once he did get them.”
Johnny’s love for the book—and his ability to get more meaning out of this novel than Pony does—defies society’s assumptions about Johnny and greasers in general, especially with regard to what they can accomplish and enjoy. The class distinction between the greasers and the Socs becomes blurred, indicating that being an outsider is a matter of perspective (a recurring theme in the book).
Johnny is especially impressed with the Southern gentlemen. Johnny relates to these men because they are gallant and cool even when everything is against them, just like the greasers are.
The South had attempted to secede from the union, and at the time of the Gone with the Wind story, they were losing the Civil War. They were the “outsiders” and in the novel they are gallant even in the face of defeat.
Johnny says “I bet they were cool guys” when he learns that the Southern gentlemen rode into sure death because they were gallant. He says of them “They remind me of Dally.” And he tells Ponyboy a story about Dally getting picked up by the police (for a crime that Two-Bit actually committed) and staying cool and calm throughout the ordeal, just like the Southern gentlemen. Ponyboy begins to understand Johnny’s hero worship of Dally. Ponyboy likes his escapes from life—his books, clouds, and sunsets—but Dally isn’t like the heroes in Pony’s books; Johnny worships him because he is frighteningly real.
