Choices In The Outsiders

Living the way that Johnny did, he did something great in his life. He didn’t deserve to die, but he died a hero and not everyone in the town where the greasers lived agree. Johnny lived in a world where he was probably scared every time he walked around town and that flat out sucks. He didn’t have the best family life, but he had Dally and that was pretty great because Dally loved Johnny. “Why can I take it when Dally can’t? And then I knew. Johnny was the only thing Dally loved. And now Johnny was gone.” (Hinton pg. 152).

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.

Johnny has a fear of Socs after getting jumped by them, which led him to kill Bob. He is regularly beaten by his father and emotionally abused by his mother. Ponyboy mentioned a quotation of Johnny   “ I had never been jumped, but I had seen Johnny after four Socs got hold of him, and it wasn’t pretty. Johnny was scared of his own shadow after that.” After Johnny killed Bob trying to protect Ponyboy from drowning he ran away with Ponyboy to an abandoned church in Windrixville. At the time he was afraid of anybody that he thought could hurt him. When the church went up in flames Johnny made the decision to run in with Ponyboy to save the children in the burning building. His gallant actions led to him being paralyzed, but he learned to overcome his fears of easily being frightened. Before that, he always used to think about killing himself because he was scared and hurt, but now knowing that he has something to live for he thought he was too young to die. He said this “you want to know something, Ponyboy? I’m scared stiff. I used to think about killing myself… ”, “ I don't want to die now. It ain’t long enough. Sixteen years ain’t long enough. I wouldn’t mind it so much if there wasn’t so much stuff I ain’t done yet --- and so many things I ain’t seen. It’s not fair. You know what? That time we were in Windrixville was the only time I’ve been away from our neighbourhood.” Thus, adversity can help to overcome the hardships and

Johnny’s parents are abusive and don’t treat him with any emotional or physical support. In the book a quote is “Johnny’s father was a drunk and his mother was a selfish slob”. The gang helps Johnny in a lot of ways another quote says “Johnny would have run away a million times if we hadn’t been there. If it hadn’t been for the gang, Johnny would never

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.

The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton was published in 1967. The Outsiders is about a fourteen year old named Ponyboy Curtis, the youngest member of a gang called the Greasers. The novel starts off with members of their rival gang, the Socs (short for socials), and they jump Ponyboy when he’s leaving a theater. Ponyboy’s brothers, Sodapop and Darry, and several other Greasers rescue Ponyboy and the Socs flee. The Socs are richer and they have a better impression than the Greasers. The main conflict in The Outsiders is man vs man and an example of this would be the rival gangs, the Greasers and the Socs. The two gangs don’t get along and members from both gangs fight each other like when Johnny and Bobby fought and Bobby ended up dying; Johnny was just defending himself.

Have you ever thought about how life would be like without your family and friends? Throughout this novel, The Outsiders, By S.E. Hinton, three brother share many common conflicts between each other. Every brother and sister have been in fights or arguments, but after everything, you still love them. Darry, Soda, and Pony have changed dramatically throughout the novel.

Dally lived a hard life from the get go, he was from the "Rough side of New York." Dallas' life required great amounts of energy to sustain because there was no tranquility of his emotions at anytime other than when he slept. Constantly the reader and Ponyboy found Dally in an aggregated mood of on fire with anger. With the passing of Johnny the only thing of a normality in Dally's rocked and shaken world Dallas had lost his footing no longer on the ground, nothing steady to hang onto his world spun further down into complete turmoil and despair with every fleeting second. Dally saw only one way out, a permanent solution for a temporary problem, so Dally pulled the unloaded pistol out on the cops and fatally shot numerous times to the chest. "When I saw his face on his motionless body before it hit the ground I saw a face of grim victory." But Johnny's death affected everyone to some extent; Ponyboy, his closest friend suffered a severe mental breakdown and as for the rest like Soda it really got them thinking too. Johnny died young and he had seen it all, all the wrong things. It could have been any one of them but it was innocent Johnny a Greaser, who defied the stereotypes and died for a noble cause.

The author writes, “Johnny’s eyes glowed. Dally was proud of him. That was all Johnny had ever wanted” (148). Johnny’s reaction is priceless. Out of the entire greaser gang, Johnny and Dally’s relationship is the strongest and most significant. When Johnny needs Dally the most, he is his staunchest supporter. In return, Johnny gives back the same, if not more, amount of affection to Dally. When Dally and Johnny die, Ponyboy makes a list of realizations. Ponyboy thinks, “But I remembered Dally pulling Johnny through the window of the burning church; Dally giving us his gun, although it could mean jail for him; Dally risking his life for us, trying to keep Johnny out of trouble.” (154). It is clearly proven that ‘tough’ Dallas Winston makes a substantial effort to make Johnny’s life better. If Dally would not make the effort for Johnny, then Johnny would have to experience life worse than it already is. Since Dally thinks of Johnny almost like a little brother, it would hurt Dally to see Johnny experience that kind of pain. Dally and Johnny are bonded by these similarities, but they are also bonded through their differences.

Johnny is scared of his own shadow and Dally does not fear anything. His own gang thinks that Johnny is the gang’s pet and dally is mean. Johnny has never left the greaser neighborhood, when Dally spent three years on the wild side in New York and gets tougher and harder there.

Dally and Johnny have one very remarkable similarity and that gang is their family. The one similarity stands out more than others because it describes them both the best. They both have parents who do not give them the right attention like any other child. For instance, Dally was arrested at such a young age. If his parents cared about him, he would not of been running with gangs and he would not of been in jail in the first place. Dally never brings up his mother and he only brings up his father once to say, “‘Shoot, my old man don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter’”(88). Dally Winston is the real gang member and that is his life. Dally makes

Another difference between Johnny and Dally is that Johnny sees good in the world while Dally does not. Dally thinks that there is no good in the world and if you are a greaser, then you are a hoodlum. In Johnny’s letter, it states, “There’s still lots of good in the world. Tell Dally. I don’t think he knows” (152). Johnny is trying to say that Dally should see

Ponyboy said he would be dead if he didn't have the gang members. Johnny is the youngest in the gang. He was jumped by Socs and was seriously injured that he almost died. He had psychology impact on the Socs, he would shiver and be frighten whenever he sees a Soc. On the day he left with Ponyboy, they met a group of Socs. Since the Soc called Bob almost drowned Ponyboy to death, he killed Bob. Johnny admired Dally a lot. He wishes Dally could be proud of him for even just once. He wanted to be as tough and cool as Dally but he never succeeds. Johnny was kicked out of school and that was how Ponyboy thought he wasn't clever. Sometimes Johnny understood things better than Ponyboy in the book which was called Gone with the Wind. Johnny had the interest and talent in reading books but no one in the gang except Ponyboy was good enough to talk about these. He wasn't really close with Ponyboy before they ran away together so they didn't have a talk. Johnny also loved to watch sunsets and sunrises but no one in the gang could have spared time to watch or even talk about this. All Johnny couldn't express mad him alienated from the gang members. The only one he was close to was Dally. Dally cared for his all time and would risk his life for whatever happens on Johnny. Such as lending a gun or killing a Soc. Dally wouldn't hesitate as long as it was for

Even the younger boys like Soda and Pony are much more sensitive in nature but still eager to prove themselves in the “rumble” towards the end of the novel. Physical combat seems to carry weight similar to ancient rites of passage, you were only considered a man if you could best another in a trial by arms or “lick” someone as the boys of the 1960’s would say. This is an important distinction to notice and deserves further inspection. Even with the loss of their biological parents to death, alcoholism, marital strife or pure apathy, these boys take care of one another with each older generation raising the younger, Dally even comments to Johnny about the nature of their relationship when he inquires about whether his parents cared about his well-being, “’My parents… did they ask about me?’ ‘No,’ snapped Dally, they didn’t. Blast it, Johnny, what do they matter? Shoot, my old man don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter. That don’t bother me none.’” (Outsiders 88). Whether Dally is completely aware of the role he plays in Johnny’s life is unclear but it adds all the more weight to the revelation of Johnny’s death; for Dally, this is losing a son. There is a solid argument to make that, in spite of their personal hardships, these boys are far more adjusted to masculinity than their counterparts the “Socs” who seem to be aimless in their pursuit of

Johnny and Dally have a lot in common, and one of them is that they do not really have people to call their family, so they call their gang their family. When Darry hits Ponyboy, Pony runs to Johnny, who is sleeping in the lot, and tells him they are running away because of what Darry did to him. Johnny then explains to Ponyboy that he does not have family and Pony yells at him saying, “‘Shoot, you got the whole gang. Dally didn’t slug you tonight ‘cause you’re the pet. I mean, golly Johnny, you got the whole gang’” (51). Even though Johnny’s parents do not treat him nicely, he still needs to understand that he has people that care for him, and that he is not alone. Later on in the story, Johnny is dying. While he is still alive his mother comes to see him, but he does not want to see her because she will give him grief. When Johnny dies, Dally is devastated. He is so angry that he goes and robs a grocery store. As the police chase him, he goes to a phonebooth and calls the Curtis home. Darry