Johnny's Diary From 'Strange Greasers'

“My name is Ponyboy Curtis.” I started. I didn’t know why I introduced myself, the only people here already knew who I was, but it just felt right, like I had to. “I was a good friend of Johnny, and he was a good friend to me.” I choked back my tears, there was no going back

In this book, everyone was part of a gang and everyone looked at each other as either a Soc ,or a Greaser. Johnny, who has been abusively beaten while getting jumped and from his own father at home, and Pony save children from a burning house. No one would expect the hoodlums to risk their lives to save children. They have a reputation for doing illegal things and getting arrested. However, newspapers have stories on the two and labelled them as “heroes”. Dally, who was the toughest and baddest of all the Greasers, kills himself. The true reason behind this was because after going to the hospital to visit Johnny, he witnessed watching him die right in front of his eyes. Johnny’s death makes him rob a store and having the police intentionally kill him. The only thing that he loved was Johnny and his beloved thing was gone. This shows that Dally, even though he’s a Greaser and does all these horrible things, has feelings. Even people who genuinely knew him, labelled him as having no feelings. Also, Randy, who is a soc, talks to Pony about Bob and how he was just a regular guy who had his own problems. The only reason that Bob would act out and drink a lot was because his parents would never set boundaries. He just wanted for someone to tell him “No”. Cherry Valance, who was Bob’s girlfriend, even said that he was actually sweet. This shows that people are individuals and that labels don’t say who you

To begin, Johnny is innocent for the murder of Bob concidering that Bob was killing Johnny’s third party Ponyboy, leaving Johnny to use self defence. “ ‘I had

While Ponyboy was being drowned by Bob, a Soc, Johnny take out his knife and kills Bob. Looking to not get caught, Johnny and Ponyboy go to Dallas for advice. He tells them to take a train to Windrixville, and hide in an old abandoned church until he tells them the coast is clear. Later in the church Johnny gets an idea. “Were gonna cut our hair, and your gonna bleach yours”(S.E Hinton 71) Hair is everything to greasers. “Maybe we couldn't have Corvairs or Madras shirts, but we could have hair”(S.E Hinton 71) Ponyboy is not happy with being labeled as a Greaser. However, after he cuts of his hair, the one thing that labels him, Ponyboy will be neither a Soc or Greaser. Life is only getting harder for Ponyboy. After some times passes, a fire takes place at the church. Dallas, Johnny, and Ponyboy are all injured. No doubt, Ponyboy is reflecting back to what happened the night of Bob's death. Perhaps he may be thinking ‘If only the Socs would leave Greasers alone, none of this would have happened’ With Johnny in critical condition, he is not expected to

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.

After Johnny’s death, Ponyboy finds a letter written by Johnny that reads, “When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold. Keep it that way, it’s a good way to be,” (178). Johnny urges Ponyboy to embrace his youth and innocence by not yielding to the greaser lifestyle. He insists on Ponyboy seeking his full potential. Ponyboy acknowledges that there are different stories beyond one’s appearance like himself because although the society previously consider him a nuisance to the community, they are proved wrong after he transforms into a hero after saving children from a church fire, which contributes to his dynamic change. Even the close-minded public are subject to their own change of mind. Johnny’s letter also leaves a lifelong impact on Ponyboy’s perspective on the importance of family because the absence of family in Johnny’s life makes Ponyboy treasure the atypical family he has, whether it may the greasers as a whole. In all, a number of people influence Pony to change his views on people and his

Everyone has a courageous moment in their life, but Johnny has multiple moments where he shows a true act of courage. The first event that shows that Johnny is courageous is when he saved Ponyboy from the Socs. There has been this rivalry between the Socs and the Greasers (the rich and the poor) which has caused a lot of fights. When Johnny’s best friend Ponyboy and him were in the park they were jumped by Bob and his group of Socs. They were drowning Ponyboy in the fountain and Johnny decided to take a courageous action and stab Bob to save Ponyboy. If it was not for Johnny, Ponyboy would be dead. Johnny knew that stabbing Bob would get him in trouble with the police, but he took the chance. “ You really killed him, huh, Johnny ?...

Randy confides in a Pony boy at a moment of raw self reflection stating, “I wouldn’t have. I would have let those kids burn to death” (123). Here in this moment of doubt it is evident that Randy is contemplating the goodness that exist inside of him, Pony boy’s heroism inevitably prompted Randy to seek his identity outside of his social role, and ponder his more ethical self and his own selflessness. Pony reflects on Johnny’s and his own heroism saying, “Greaser didn’t have anything to do with it. My buddy over there would have done it. Maybe you would have done the same thing, maybe a friend of yours wouldn’t have. It’s the individual. Pony boys statement reveals that real heroism is not a characteristic exclusive to either group; but rather an attribute of the pained and selfless. Through Randy’s genuine pain from losing Bob, Pony boy is able to look beyond the Soc facade and see that Randy too would have saved the

The Johnny gasped and turned white as a ghost then red with rage. While all of the other boys were looking at the Ponyboy who was drowning, Johnny pulled a knife out of his back pocket, I gasped I knew what he was going to do seconds before he did it. “Wait!” I screamed, but the boy didn’t even acknowledge me. I turned around, I couldn’t watch. This reminded me too much of Yaqui beating me up, but this was different, these boys fought unlike we did. The way we fought it wasn’t killing each other or anything like that, but it was almost worse. Being humiliated in front of the whole school. Both Ponyboy and I got hurt though mine was both mentally and physically. The only other thing that I could see that connected our two lives was that we both fought back. Well actually Johnny fought for Ponyboy, but it’s pretty much the same, in the end the bullies both got what they deserved. No, that’s not true, nobody (even Yaqui Delgado) deserves to die. By the time I turned back around the boys were driving away in their car and the boy who had been killed was slumped on the ground not moving. The other boy; Johnny was helping to pull his friend; Ponyboy out of the water

The Greasers and the Socs' Are two rival gangs who try to claim there place in a small town. Throughout the book and movie an interesting twist occurs, Ponyboy runs away and meets with Johnny Cade, they walk throughout a vacant lot and didn't expect to see the Socs' and their blue Mustang . This is when the interesting twist occurs one of the greasers called Bob had tried to drown Ponyboy and Johnny having no choice, killed him with a switch blade. The movie had quite a turn as it included different details.

Two of the socs grabbed me and put my head in the fountain. I nearly drowned then i felt them let go and Johnny was standing still with the knife in his hand… i looked down and saw a dead person, I thought to myself Johnny just killed him "I had to. They were drowning you Pony. They might have killed you. And they had a blade… They were gonna beat me up" (Hinton ch. 4).he said. After about 5 min I said to Johnny he just killed someone,"Johnny! I nearly screamed. "What are we gonna do? They put you in the electric chair for killing people!" (Hinton ch. 4) At this point in the story Johnny is in big trouble. All because of gangs and rivalries.

In contrast to the removed Johnny shown early on, after the realization that he endangered several children, he boldly rushed to assist. After killing Bob in self-defense, Johnny bolts with Ponyboy to an abandoned church in the countryside. However, after presumably dropping a lighted cigarette, the church ignites in a blaze of fumes. Realizing there are children in the flaming church, Johnny and Ponyboy dart to aid. During the calamity, Ponyboy realizes that, “Johnny had been right behind me all the way” as he slips through a broken window and into the fiery church and notes that, “Johnny wasn’t behaving at all like his old self...That was the only time I can think of when I saw him without that defeated, suspicious look in his eyes” (92).

Johnny wants Ponyboy to turn themselves in. Johnny said “I said we’re goin’ back and turn ourselves.” Although they do not get to this point to turn themselves in, Jonny knows right from wrong and wants to do what is right. Johnny is courageous to tell Dally and Ponyboy exactly how he feels about that situation.

Johnny had to kill bob the boyfriend of cherry. Johnny had killed Bob with his six inch blade.The leads up to the murder was that Johnny did not like bob because, Bob had jump Johnny a while back before Johnny died. Johnny and ponyboy were both involved with the death of bob. Ponyboy and Johnny should both be innocent.

Ponyboy, Johnny, Sodapop, Darry are all a part of the unruly gang, the Greasers. S.E Hinton is writing these characters as rebellious young men, with a harsh background, who takes their anger and hardship out on gang fighting. These roles play an important part in this book because it shows that even though they nothing physically, they have a heart stronger than gold for each other and others mentally. Hinton use these characters to show prejudice leads to wrong conclusions, violence and oppression because these “poor” young men are getting beat up by the rich Socs who have never felt the feeling of being in poverty. “ You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you’re in a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don’t stick up for them, stick together, make