Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a dark-gold buckskin quarter horse, sassy and ornery, not much more than a colt, who belongs to a man who keeps him at the stables where Sodapop Curtis used to work. From the first day Sodapop saw him, he declared, "There's my horse," and Ponyboy Curtis never doubted it. The horse would come when Sodapop called him but would not come for anyone else; he would stand and chew on Sodapop's sleeve or collar, and sometimes nip him, but not hard. Sodapop was horsecrazy, always hanging around stables and rodeos, hopping on a horse every chance he got. Ponyboy, then about ten, thought that Mickey Mouse and Sodapop looked alike and were alike.

Life and Loss

Mickey Mouse was a mean horse who kicked other horses and was always getting into trouble. Sodapop would rub his neck and say, "I've got me a ornery pony. How come you're so mean, Mickey Mouse?" The horse was a pure quarter and valuable. One day, the owner came and took him away. Sodapop had been twelve, going on thirteen, and he bawled all night long after they came and got Mickey Mouse. Ponyboy cried too, because Sodapop never really wanted anything except a horse, and he had lost his. Sodapop never let on to their parents how he felt, because the family never had enough money and usually had a hard time making ends meet. Ponyboy kept saving his money for a year, thinking that someday he could buy Mickey Mouse back for Sodapop, but he later reflected, "You're not so smart at ten."

Narrative Significance

Mickey Mouse is a symbol of the economic deprivation that shapes the greasers' lives and the innocent dreams that class realities crush. The horse represents Sodapop's deepest, simplest desire—a desire that is unattainable not because of any personal failing but because of the family's poverty. Ponyboy tells Cherry Valance about Mickey Mouse as a way of opening up about his brother's vulnerability, and the story reveals the emotional cost of growing up poor in their neighborhood. The loss of the horse foreshadows the larger losses—of Johnny Cade, of Dallas Winston, of innocence—that the novel chronicles, and it underscores the theme that "nothing gold can stay."