How did johnny's letter affect ponyboy's choice of a theme for his english paper?

He wants to write about his life and his friends. He writes the story “The Outsiders” to commemorate the memories of Bob, Johnny, and Dally and explain his story. Johnny’s letter tells Ponyboy that there is a lot of good in the world and that his death was worth it since he saved a lot of children. He tells him that he is gold and basically explains that he has potential to be something more in life. Ponyboy uses this information to show how important Johnny and the others were to him in his English paper.