Friendships are like peanut butter and jelly, they are great by themselves, but even better together. If every person had a friend just like them, life would be boring. A friend that is somewhat similar, but also somewhat different is just right. In the novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Johnny and Dally share many similarities and differences. 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 …show more content…
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.
A distinct difference between the two Greasers are their personalities. Johnny is a very innocent kid. He tries to never break the rules throughout everything he does. “‘Shut up about last night! I killed a kid last night. He couldn’t have been over seventeen or eighteen, and I killed him. How’d you like to live with that?”’(74). Johnny kills Bob Sheldon as an act of self-defense because Bob is drowning Ponyboy. This is Johnny’s first ever crime, he does not have a record with the police and is usually very law abiding. Johnny also wants to turn himself in, as he feels guilty. Dally on the other hand, loves to break the rules. He is always getting into some sort of trouble and does not care when he does. “‘Dallas has a record with the fuzz a mile long”’(95). Ponyboy, Johnny and Dally are in the hospital because of the fire in the church. Ponyboy is talking to a guy about the heroic event, and Ponyboy tells him how they are greasers and punks. He tells him about how Dally was in a gang in New York and is always in and out of jail. Dally and Johnny have complete opposite personalities, yet a very close friendship.
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.
" All of Ponyboy's greaser pals--including his brothers--seem to understand that Pony is not like the rest of them. Ponyboy excels at school: He garners good grades, likes to write, and is a member of the track team. His friends all know that Pony has a chance to make it out of town, go to college and make something of himself. The other greasers have already given up on ever rising above their economic and social status: Soda has dropped out of school, Darry works two jobs, and Johnny has adapted to life on the streets; Two-Bit, Steve and Dally are already well on their way to becoming legitimate hoods.
Terrified and confused, the two greasers hurry to find Dally, the one person the think can help them. Dally sends them with a gun and some money to an abandoned church near Windrixvill, where they hide out for a week, they cut their hair to disguise their appearances. After a week, dally comes to check on them, and says that since bob died, the Socs and the greasers have become worse then ever, a giant rumble is to be held the next night to settle the matters once and for all. Cherry feels responsible for the whole problem, acted as a spy for the greasers. Johnny surprises Dally by declaring his intention to go back to Tulsa and turn himself in. Dally drives them back, but as they leave, the notice that the church has caught on fire and it had a large group of schoolchildren inside. Ponyboy and Johnny rush inside the church to save the children. Just when they get the last child through the window, the roof caves in and Ponyboy blacks out again.
And after these events, a whole bunch of different things can be said about the Greasers. For example the old church that Johnny and Pony are hiding out in burns down and they go back inside and save some kids that are trapped and probably going to die. A teacher that was at the picnic with the kids that day rode with Pony to the hospital after he had been in the building when it collapsed asked him something about Johnny and Pony. He said, “ Are you two professional heroes or somthin’?”(84). To me, this is funny, and kinda cool , considering they’re just some nothing Greasers around where they’re from. After Pony tells him they are Greasers the man says, “Are you kidding me?”(84). Which I find funny.His reaction is just different because he finds out they’re Greasers and he probably wondered why them, of all people, would risk their lives for some little kids. So in the middle of the book there are mostly good things, except for Johnny’s hospitalization. By the end though, that’s when things take a
The Outsiders was about the greasers and the Socs. The Socs always jump the greasers, one day Johnny fights back, he ends up killing Bob. Johnny and Ponyboy run away to a church and hide until Dally comes and gets them. They then see the church was burning, Ponyboy and Johnny run into it to save the kids inside. Johnny and Dally get injured, Ponyboy is okay. The greasers win the rumble, the Socs will stay out of the greasers territory, Johnny passes away from his injuries, Dally robs a store, the police shoot him, and he does not survive the shots. In the end Ponyboy decides to regather his life and he starts with writing his theme for his ELA class. The book The Outsiders book, the
The Greasers go to extreme lengths to help and protect their friends. When Johnny killed Bob to save Pony-Boys life it was an instinct that Johnny had. He said “They were drowning you pony, I had no choice.” Johnny saw that his friend was in trouble so on instinct his priority was to save Pony-Boy which meant killing Bob, but he did it anyway to save Pony’s life. This shows us that Johnny cares so much about Pony-Boy that he would do anything to save him even if it meant murdering someone and possibly going to jail. When Pony, Johnny and Dally went back to the church and saw that there was a fire Pony felt responsible so he went to rescue the kids then Johnny went after Pony-Boy when Pony-Boy was out and was waiting for Johnny to come out the church the roof collapsed on him and Dally went in to save Johnny even though it meant risking his life. Both of these examples show the theme of friendship. This theme was important because friends will do anything to help each other and be there for each other, and tell each other everything and anything. Friends will always be there to the end. S.E Hinton was
rode in rodeos, lied, cheated, stole, rolled drunks, jumped small kids--he did everything, I didn’t like him, but he was smart and you had to respect him.” He is the all around greaser. He has the hair, the reputation, and the attitude. He is a very respected person in their group. Everyone would take a bullet for Dally. He is very well respected even though he has done some things that aren’t very. “ ‘They’re still writing editorials about you in the paper. For being a hero and all.’ He was talking too fast and too calmly. ‘Yeah, they’re calling you a hero now and heroizin’ all of the greasers. We’re all proud of you, buddy.’ Johnny’s eyes glowed. Dally was proud of him. That was all Johnny had ever wanted.” Hearing that Dally was proud of Johnny was great. That’s all Johnny wanted to hear. He is so respected by all of the greasers so much that Dally being proud is a big accomplishment. His word is
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.
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 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
Dally breaking up in the hospital and crumbling in the streets is almost meaning how Dally reacted to Johnny died and then leaded up to him dying. The parts where Ponyboy says “don’t think of” this is to take it off his mind and try to feel better about the two deaths. The greasers also respect Ponyboy, for example, during an argument towards the end of the book Darry said to Ponyboy “Sure, little buddy” (84). Another example of the greasers respecting Ponyboy is how Johnny helps Ponyboy feel better a lot of in a lot of conflicts. For instance, getting hit or getting almost drowned. Ponyboy positively accepted being a greaser and he is committed to being a greaser.
In The Outsiders, we see the respect and honor among the lawless. The Greasers develop honor among one another due to the struggles they face not being treated equally to those like the Socs, that hold a place in the upper level in society treated equally in the law”(Adamson, 58). The Greasers don’t have many people there for them, the rest of society, but they now have to stick together (Hinton, 176). According to The Outsiders, some of the boys in the Greaser face different problems. Darry became responsible for his little brothers, Ponyboy and SodaPop since their parents died, they fight all the time, and throughout the story try to reconcile and come to an understanding of knowing they need one another. (Hinton, 176). Even though the Greasers are stereotyped, and face different problems, they all share a bond of honor that holds innocence and love. Johnny may seem to be a horrible person for killing Bob, but he saves the children in the burning church, which meant he still had
Johnny and Ponyboy are in The Greaser gang and they love their life just the way it is. They wouldn’t change it for the world. Before the church fire started, Johnny and Ponyboy were hiding out there so they wouldn’t get caught by the police because Johnny killed Bob, a Soc. When they were in the church, all they would do was read, play cards, smoke, sleep, and eat. Dally helped the boys out by bringing them groceries so they would not go hungry.
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