Dallas Winston: a Vulnerable Teenager or Just a Hoodlum?

In the novel The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, two social groups, the Socs and the Greasers, are rivals because of their different places in society. Throughout the novel, the main character Ponyboy Curtis’ feelings and attitude towards the Socs change. Ponyboy finally learns at the end of the novel that although a group of people may have a reputation, that reputation may not hold true to individuals.

Throughout the story, we see Dally do many reckless things, but it all starts in the beginning when Ponyboy introduces Dally to the readers. “He has been arrested, he got drunk, he rode in rodeos, lied, cheated, stole, rolled drunks, jumped small kids- he did everything.” (Page 11) From this quote, we learn that Dally will do anything- even if it means jail for him. He has a miniscule sense of self control, and we see that through his actions. Another quote that shows his recklessness is when Dally breaks some news to Pony and Johnny. “ ‘We can’t walk alone at all. I started carryin’ a heater…’ ” (Page 83) EVen though Dally keeps the gun not loaded, the police do not know that. If Dally pulls the gun out, which he does in chapter 11, the police will shoot him down. By carrying the gun, he is putting himself in danger, but he does not care. The final time where his reckless shines through is on page 29, when Dallas slashed the tires on someone’s car. EVen though the consequences will be serve, Dally does not think about what he is doing and does it anyway. Through his actions, he proves that he has no self control and really is reckless. This trait goes hand in hand with one of his other traits- he is a hothead and has a short

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.

The Outsiders is a young adult novel written by S.E. Hinton. The book was first published in 1967 by The Viking Press. Today, the book is published under Speak, an imprint of Penguin Group. The book has a total of a hundred and eighty pages. The Outsiders fits in the genre of young-adult fiction because it relates to teens on emotional levels. Like Ponyboy, the teen protagonist of the story, teens relate to his emotional growth as he tries to piece his life together. The story follows a rivalry in a socially divided community. The Greasers are a gang of teenage boys who live on the east side of town; the wrong side of town. Their rivals, the Socials, better known as the Socs; come from the wealthier side of town. The two groups are always head to head with one another, seeking a fight. Ponyboy belongs to the Greasers. He is the youngest out of the three brothers in his family. Apart from his brothers, Ponyboy hangs out with Johnny, Dallas, Two-Bit and others who are also Greasers. The rivalry between the two groups heightens when Johnny kills Bob, a Soc, in an attempt to save Ponyboy from drowning. In this book report, I will go through the meaning of this book and my opinion on the story itself.

This causes Dally to become reckless and finally ending in him being killed by the police, Ponyboy tells the reader “Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted.” (p.187). From this the reader can gather how the events had modified Dally, creating a more emotional and caring character, weakening his value for himself and in return, strengthening his value for others.

As a young adult, it is difficult to grow up without parents and still be tough and brave. In addition, teens can be emotional and overreact at times. In the novel The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, a fourteen-year-old kid named Ponyboy Curtis feels different emotions that make him stand out from other Greasers, or “hoodlums”. Ponyboy, the youngest of all the Greasers, is a great example of a teen who feels isolated, brave, and emotional throughout the novel.

Have you ever read a very hard hitting and the phenomenal story about rival gangs and the effect it has on the lives of the people and the society. In The Outsiders, is a story of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis and his two older brothers, Soda and Darry. The boys are orphans and struggle to stick together in their lower-class neighborhood, known as the East Side. They and their friends are part of a gang of tough street boys called the Greasers. Even though other people might think you're unimportant and below them. You will always have your friends and family. In The Outsiders, we see the idea of the difference in the society based on the economic level of the characters, honor among the lawless and violence among the youth.

The book, and the movie, “the Outsiders” is about a conflict between greasers and socs. Up until the point where Johnny kills a soc, there are mostly only small fights and arguments between the two. The story “the Outsiders” takes place in the 1960’s, when there were two main lifestyles. Greasers and Socs. Greasers are known for greasing their hair. Socs are rich kids who have good clothes, drive mustangs, and always have an argument against the greasers. The main character in S. E. Hinton’s book “the Outsiders” is Ponyboy Curtis. He has two older brothers Darry and Soda. Pony is 14 years old and his best friend, Johnny, is 16 years old. S. E. Hinton wrote “the Outsiders” when she was 17 years old. Her book was published in 1967. The

The Outsiders is a novel written by Susan Eloise Hinton, also known as S.E Hinton. The setting of the story takes place in the 1960s. The Outsiders is written in first person view, by Ponyboy Curtis. The story revolves around the greasers and Socs. The Socs are the west side rich kids, they wrecked houses and “threw beer blasts for kicks”. While the Greasers were the east side kids, they “drove old souped-up cars, held up gas stations and had gang fights once in a while.” One of the conflicts the characters face is man vs man, which is because the greasers and Socs don’t get along, this is because they feel superior to each other. They both had different ways of lives, they did different things for fun, and they did not understand each other. This conflict was later resolved towards the end of the story when Ponyboy speaks to Randy about no longer fighting after Bob’s death.

In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Johnny is introduced and develops as a braver person through his. The Outsiders is a novel about the life of a boy named ponyboy. He has two other brothers one older and the other younger, there parents passed away in a car crash so the leave alone. In town there are two groups the greasers and socs. The greaser are kids that live on the east side and use lots of grease in their hair,.

The outsiders by S.E. Hinton is an action thrilling book that’s about a gang of greasers. The main character is a 14-year-old boy named ponyboy his two brother darry and soda are raising him because his parents were in an auto wreck. In this book there is a rival between the richer boy named socs and the lower class called greasers. One night ponyboy falls asleep in a parking lot with johnny his friend from his gang and when they wake up it’s really late so pony runs home and his oldest brother darry was worried sick and yelled at ponyboy and ponyboy snaps and get johnny to run with him they plan to run away but they change their minds and go to a park and while they are there a drunk group of soc come and start to fight the boys and the ponyboy

S.E.Hilton wrote The Outsiders while still in high school and it was published when she was only 17-years-old in 1967. The Outsiders is about two rival gangs that each come from a different side of town. The greasers are from the east side and struggle financially and the socs who are from the west side and are privileged kids with wealthy families. The book’s main setting in the mid-1960’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Other minor settings include the movie theatre, the hospital, and the church. The main character of the story is Ponyboy who is a 14-year-old boy who lives with his two older brothers and is a greaser. Minor characters include Sodapop (Ponyboy's 17 year old brother), Darrel (Ponyboy's 20 year old brother and guardian) along with other members of the greaser gang like Dallas, Steve and Johnny. The novel has many themes but three stand out like society and class, love, and loyalty (Shmoop Editorial Team).

While they are with johnny giving him support, all of their hopeful wishes and care are put at a stop to of which Johnny dies. After that Dallas runs off because he couldn’t handle the truth to of which got in some trouble by robbing a gas station. The cops go to the lot and dallas shows them his gun. The cops shot and killed Dallas. After that tragedy it put a huge hole in the hearts of the Greasers.

S.E Hinton wrote the novel The Outsiders in 1967. In this book people are categorized in two ways. There are socs which are rich kids that lived on the west side of town. The Socs were always getting drunk and looking for fights with greasers. Then there were the greasers which were poor, most of them didn’t go to school and they lived on the east side of town. Greasers were wild, but once you got to meet, they were actually nice, kind, caring people. In this novel the main character name is Ponyboy. Ponyboy is a greaser but he is not like the rest of the gang. Pony is in school and he is not as wild as the rest. Ponyboy has two older brothers Darry and Soda pop. Dally as the oldest so he had to take care of Soda pop and Ponyboy. He has to take care of pony and soda because there parents died when pony was twelve years old. Soda pop was the middle child he drop out of school and now worked in a gas station.

Gang violence, murder and the kids from the poor side of town- the perfect set up for an action-packed drama. Yet, the movie The Outsiders paints a very atypical picture of the boys living on the bad side of the town. The main character, Ponyboy, shows the viewer what life is like inside of the Greaser gang and the rivalry between the Greasers and the upscale Soc gang. The characters that make up the Greaser gang are unique and complex, but we can see that they all feel things deeply and completely, which is important to understanding why Ponyboy expresses his feeling the way he does. During the film the two youngest and innocent of the members, Ponyboy and Johnny, kill one of the Socs out of self-defense and flee the city; during his time away from the town, Ponyboy begins to see the differences between himself and his friends. Ponyboy’s biggest struggle throughout the film is that he is suffering from an identity crisis and feels alone. This is crucial to understanding the film because the audience can see as he struggles with fitting in and being able to connect to the other members. Pony and Johnny grow closer throughout the turn of events, the friendship and love they share is the main factor that leads to Ponyboy accepting himself at the end of the film.