Compare And Contrast Johnny And Dally

Although they are all different ages they all stay friends. They support each other through hard family times, for example; during the novel. Friendship is especially shown when Ponyboy runs away to hide with Johnny, so that Johnny don’t get into trouble with the police after killing a socs. Johnny shows that he cares about Ponyboy, but taking him back home to be with his two brothers. At the end of the novel, friendship is shown by Dally, committing suicide, as he can’t handle to live without Johnny.

But once he sees Johnny it gives him something to love and care about. He made sure that Johnny didn’t become violent. He says in the book multiple times he cares about Johnny he said “Johnny…I just don’t want you to get hurt.” A quote also says that “Johnny was the only thing that Dally loved. And now Johnny was gone.” Later in the book Johnny dies and it is too much for Dally and he gets himself killed. Dally was so distraught, he wanted to be dead.

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.

Dally loves to fight, he has to be at all of the gangs fights he even came out of the hospital for a rumble. Johnny on the other hand is the opposite, he thinks fighting is useless and wants there to be good in the world. On the night of the rumble Johnny and Dally are both in the hospital. Dally did not want anything more than to be in that rumble. Just before the first punched was thrown Dally showed up and says, to the gang “‘ do not you know a rumble ain’t a rumble unless i’m in it?’”(144). Dally pulled a knife on the nurses to get out of the hospital with a burnt arm just to fight in a rumble. While johnny is in the hospital and Ponyboy and Dally went to visit them, they told Johnny that they stomped on the socs. Johnny just says, “‘useless . . . fightings no good.’”(148). After that moment he called Ponyboy over and

Dally is a criminal who did many bad things, and had gone to jail many times. Dally has been involved in many gang related crimes. He lied, he cheated, and he stole. He also went to rodeos and rumbles. He even jumped people. Dally lived a life of crime and didn’t take any actions to turn his life around, he just kept doing the wrong thing. And after Johnny dies, Dally has the police kill him. He does this by pulling a gun so that the police will shoot at him; and they do. He died before he hit the floor.

Although Dally and Johnny have a lot of similarities, they also have many differences. One of their many differences is that Johnny is law abiding and Dally is the complete opposite. Dally got in trouble with the police when he is ten years old. He likes to break laws and do things the illegal way. As Ponyboy says of Dally, “Dally hated to do things the legal way. He liked to show that he didn’t care whether there was a law or not” (20). Dally never follows the law. Conversely, Johnny is extremely law abiding and has absolutely no record with the police. When Johnny, Ponyboy, and Dally are all in Windrixville, Johnny decides he wants to turn himself in. He says to Dally, “‘I ain’t got no record with the fuzz and it was self-defense’”(87). He never gets in trouble with the police, and he feels that if he turns himself in, then he will receive a light sentence. This shows that Johnny has never had a complication with the police, on the other hand, Dally first got arrested at the age of ten and keeps getting arrested.

Johnny and Dally are basically polar opposites with respect to their personalities. At the beginning of the story, Johnny’s personality is described. The author writes, “Johnny couldn’t say “boo” to a goose… I had never heard Johnny talk back to anyone” (35). It is shown that Johnny is a very shy and sensitive boy. Since Johnny

As much as they are alike, they both are very different from another, such as Johnny is more law abiding, while Dally is the least. For example, Johnny Cade is the most law abiding greaser because he does not want any trouble with anybody. Johnny only had one offense with the police which is manslaughter, but it is clearly self defense. For instance, when the socs jump Johnny he does not fight back because he does not want trouble with them. Johnny tells Dally and Pony, ‘“I ain’t got no record with the fuzz”’(87). When Johnny is wanting to turn himself into the police after the killing of the soc. On the other hand, Dally is not law abiding at all. He always wants to be involved in fights or in trouble. He is proud of his record with the police. Ponyboy says, “‘He had been arrested, he got drunk, he rode in rodeos, lied, cheated, stole, rolled drunks, jumped small kids--- he did everything’”(11). He has quite a reputation with the police. Dally was in

Another difference between Dally and Johnny are Dally love to fight and has a huge record with the police, while Johnny hates

Johnny Cade comes from a broken home, his dad hits him, his mom does not care about Johnny, the only thing he has are his friends, the greasers. Ponyboy, one of his closest friends, is talking about everyone in the gang and when he came to Johnny he said, “Johnny had it awful rough at home”(4). Johnny unlike everyone else in the gang, except Dally, does not have someone in his family that truly cares for him. This affects him because it makes him upset that his parents do not care for him. If Johnny did not have it so hard at home, he would be more content and joyful, and even less scared. Johnny is a little bothered that his parents did not ask about Johnny so Dally goes on and says, “‘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). When Dally is 10, he gets arrested and is on the streets of New York, which shows how little Dally’s father cares about him. Maybe if his father did care, Dally would be more kind and caring, and like Johnny, more joyful. If Dally’s dad cared, he may still be living with his parents and would not be a greaser. Dally and Johnny are

Both Johnny and Dally are similar in the way that they both have a terrible home life. Johnny and Ponyboy are resting in the park when they accidentally fall asleep. Johnny wakes up Ponyboy at two in the morning and tells him to run home fast because Ponyboy’s brothers do care about him unlike Johnny’s parents. “‘I think I’ll stay all night out here.’ Johnny’s parents didn’t care if he came home

As I stated above, Dally had proven that he cared about Johnny, many times throughout the book. Dally had practically taken Johnny in as his family. He was like a mentor to Johnny, he wanted him to do well and have a better life than him. Johnny was the greasers’ “kid brother,” meaning that everyone cared for him as a younger brother. On page 89, Dally says to Johnny, “Johnny, I ain’t mad at you. I just don’t want you to get hurt,” this tells us that he really cares about his feelings and doesn’t want any harm done to him. He continues with, “You don’t know what a few months in jail can do to you.” He cared about what would happen to Johnny, he didn’t want him to end up like the uncaring side of Dally. Indirectly, he mentioned caring about him, he didn’t want Johnny to end up like him if he turned himself in to the police. This proves that Dally has a caring side to

The outsiders is a novel of conflicts- greaser against soc, rich against poor, the desire for violence against the desire for peace. The characters of Dally and Johnny affect the novelś conflicts as greasers and as friends of Ponyboy, however they have opposite personalities and approaches. Johnny is quiet, caring, and loyal. however Dally is mean, caring, and tough.

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 hates fighting most of them all. He will always do the right thing never getting into fights except for when he was jumped. Johnny said to Dally and Pony that fighting is “‘Useless... fighting's no good....”’(148). Johnny was disappointed in them for fighting the soc’s he disagrees with all fighting. Unlike Johnny, Dally loves to fight.Dally is a tough greaser who does not waste anytime creating a problem if he has the opportunity. Dally is always looking to start a problem with the police and other people. The matter of facts, even his friends try their hardest to stay on his friendly side. Ponyboy says of Dallas, “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 loose. A complete stranger, too” (24). Dally has a bad temper, and he is not afraid to fight with anyone. Most of the time he will find ways to break laws randomly. Looking up to what I have stated you can tell they are two completely different people at