In The Outsiders, how is “Nothing Gold Can Stay" relevant to Ponyboy and Johnny’s story?

It is important to realise that one of the central themes
of this excellent novel is that of childhood and growth. Ponyboy, as the youngest member
of the gang of Greasers of which he is a part, is surrounded by a number of people who
have grown into bad examples. Throughout the novel we always have in the back of our
heads a concern about what Ponyboy is going to grow into, and whether he will be able to
escape the many factors ranged against him and make something of his life. This issue is
directly related to the Frost poem:

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Nature's first green is
gold,

Her hardest hue to
hold.

Her early leaf's a
flower;

But only so an
hour.

Then leaf subsides to
leaf.

So Eden sank to
grief,

So dawn goes down to
day.

Nothing gold can
stay.

Looking closely at this
poem it is clear that this is all about the theme of growing up. Nature is used as an
analogy for the innocence of childhood and how it is lost with time. The "first green"
is actually "gold," but this is only very temporary. The final line, "Nothing gold can
stay," reflects the inevitable loss of innocence that all of us face as we grow and
mature.

Note how Johnny in his final letter to Ponyboy
expresses his interpretation:

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...he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like
green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to
everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that
way, it's a good way to
be.

The poem thus concerns
the struggle in all of us to retain some of our "golden hue" before "leaf subsides to
leaf" and we lose our innocence and child-like wonder of the world completely. The Frost
poem helps reinforce the central message of the novel, which is based around the series
of choices that we have to make that will decide who we will become when we are
older.