Character Analysis: The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton

Most people in the world are misunderstood at some point in their life. However, if other people’s perceptions of a person create a reputation, it can camouflage their real traits. Dallas (Dally) Winston is a victim of this. A character in the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Dally is commonly known for being a tough ruthless guy who doesn’t care about anybody but himself. He’s a great fighter and is very confident, but because of his past, it seems his real qualities have been masked. Even though Dallas Winston’s friends misunderstood him to be a cold-hearted and tough person, his experiences and how he treats his friends reveals his loving, self-reliant, and dependable nature.

A very important comparison Dally and Johnny have is their parents. Johnny’s parents do not care about him. They either beat him or ignore him completely. “His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignored him” (12). His parents are alcoholics and do not care if he comes home or not. Likewise, Dally parents also do not care about him. If he was put in jail by age ten, then his parents clearly do not care enough to discipline him. He rarely talks about his parents, but when he does, he has nothing nice to say. “‘Shoot, my old man don’t give a hang whether I’m dead in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter’” (88). Dally talks about his father with disgust, like he never did anything for him, which may be true. The way Dally’s parents and Johnny’s parents both do not care about them makes these two characters very similar.

He lacks decent behavior as shown when he smokes (pg. 12), stays up unreasonably late (pg. 58), and even harasses Cherry Valance as his way of “flirting” (pg. 24). His lack of any sense in general even goes as far as not knowing how valuable friendship is. Regardless of whether Dally is indeed a lovable caring person deep down inside, it really does not matter as he does not know how to express it properly towards the people he cares for; especially towards Johnny. Dally could not comprehend how critical Johnny’s condition was and that sometimes, the most important thing in life was actually near him. In Dally’s case it would have been Johnny’s friendship but he missed the opportunity to tell him how much he matters to him and instead says, “We beat the Socs. We stomped them-outta our territory” (pg.148). After Johnny’s death, Dally finally became aware of how meaningless his life has been this whole time after losing his friend, so he commits suicide by his own will by raising an unloaded gun tricking the police into thinking it was actually loaded after chasing him down for robbing a grocery store (pg.154). This fatal end for Dally just proves what a impulsive and thoughtless person he is as he simply just wasted his life. He could have been considered “gallant” if he gained courage and motivation to start his life over after Johnny’s death, but instead blew the

The Outsiders is a wonderful novel to read in the classroom because of its conflicts with one another. During this novel, the Curtis brothers realize that they are the only family they have left, and they make the best out of that. Throughout this novel, Darry, Soda, and Pony have changed dramatically throughout this

The 1967 novel The Outsiders by S.E Hinton is about the social outcasts; the Greasers and their rivalry against the high class Socs. In the beginning of the book the characters values and attitudes are revealed to the reader through the point of view of Ponyboy. As the book progresses and the lives of the characters take a turn for the worse there is a significant impact on the characters resulting in an alteration of their values and attitudes. Ponyboy, Dally and Johnny experience these changes due to the death of Bob the Soc and the chain of events that follow.

Dally is described as being tough in the beginning if the book. Pony boy told us, “Dally had spent three years on the wild side of New York and had been arrested at age of ten” (Hinton 10). We never knew why Dally spent three years in New York, but we know how and why he is tough like he is. In addition, in the beginning of the book Pony boy told us, “In New York, Dally blew off steam in gang fights” (Hinton 11). “One time, in a dime store, a guy told him to move over at the candy counter. Dally had turned around and belted him so hard it knocked a tooth out” (Hinton 24). Pony boy said this when Johnny had told Dally to leave Cherry alone.

I think this applies to Dally because of his personality. Dally is the kind of character that only cares for himself and will beat up any one who is aggressive with him. Dally also grew up on the bad side of New York and was first arrested at the age of ten. He has seen the worst things people do, from murder to abuse, this is why he acts so tough. Another reason I chose him, his age matches this quote perfectly. Seeing so much in such a short amount of years made his outlook on life very bad

Darry has to take care of his brothers and he does with his friends too .Darry lets his friends sleep on the couch when they don't have anywhere to go . Darry works two jobs just to be able to take care of his fam . Darry manages to keep a roof over his family's head . Darry somehow is unappreciated by his youngest sibling Ponyboy he is so ungrateful.

Although Dally does not have a perfect home life with his parents, he has everything else. He has an abundance of friends, he always gets what he wants, and everyone is scared of him. Is that not what a Greaser wants? All of Johnny and Dally’s friends wish they lived longer than they did. No matter how hard kids lives are, no one deserves to die that young.

One thing you can grasp from his death and this detail is the cops killed Dally because they shot him but in the example given it shows he knew what hes was doing, so basically Dally wanted to die. Another example is Dally never went on a rampage and robbed from that grocery store the cops wouldn’t have been searching for him. According to “The Outsiders” on page 153 its says “ It was Dally. He phoned from a booth. He just robbed a grocery store and the cops are after him.”

In the novel the outsiders written by S.E Hinton there is a lonely boy that has never been loved in his life by his parents. Johnny never has anyone for him in his life but his gang the greasers. Johnny goes through pain, he is very frightened, and he has family matters.

In the beginning of the book, Dally goes to the movies and starts to bother a girl named Cherry. When she threatens to call the cops on him he says, (22) ”You ought to see my record sometime, baby [...], guess what I’ve been in for?” But then, Jonny sticks up for Cherry, and Dally ends up stocking out of the movie theater because he likes Jonny too much to hit him. Dally sounds like he’s proud of his record when he tells Cherry that. Dally needs the gang in his life because his family doesn’t care about anything he ever does. He just needs someone to look up to him.

This book showed the struggle between rich and poor. The two main groups of the story were the Socs and the greasers. The Socs are in the upper class while the greasers are the poor ones that dislike the Socs because they have more money, better cars, and act like they are better than the greasers. The Outsiders is a good story by S.E. Hinton that shows the struggles of growing up Hinton did a fine job with the character development, the plot, and the theme with a few flaws.

In the book Dally even says “His parents don't care if he is in jail , prison, or even dead on the side

First off, Dally shows many actions made from his genuine character. To start, at this time in the book, Dally had just shown up to the abandoned church. Pony and Johnny had been staying up there for about a week before he arrived, and while he was there, he explained to them why he was brought into the station, specifically how they were now safe: “‘While I was there I kinda let it slip that y’all were headin’ for Texas. So that’s where they’re lookin’’”(82). This proves his genuine character because his main concern was to keep them away from the police.