The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, is about two feuding social groups, the Greasers and the Socs (short for “Socials”).T he context to this quotation is that there was a fire at their local church because someone left a cigarette and it lit on fire, all the Greasers group ran into the church to save the children in there, and when lots of them left brunt they went to the hospital, where the nurses told them Johnny was burnt the most and with fetal injuries. When Ponyboy and Dally saw Johnny, he was on his deathbed. They told him about how they beat the Socs, but he was to drained to think about that considering his injuries.
“Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold… It’s a good way to be. It’s like the way you try to be, like you used to be. The way I wanted you to be when we were kids. Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.” (p.148)
In the moment that Johnny tells Ponyboy to “stay gold…” he is referencing the Robert Frost poem that Ponyboy had shared with him earlier in the book, nothing gold can stay. The poems meaning is that beauty and innocence are fleeting, and that you have to hold on to it. By Johnny saying this he is saying to Ponyboy that he needs to hold on to that “gold” for as long as he can.