Why Is Johnny Justified In The Outsiders Murder

Additionally, he did not commit first-degree homicide because he didn’t plan to kill Bob. When he saw Bob earlier, he didn’t attempt to kill rather, he tried to hide from him. (pg 44) He didn’t pull it out when the socs came to them originally. (pg 54 and 55) He chose to try to resolve it peacefully but that didn’t work because David grabbed Ponyboy.”(pg 55) They forced his hand and he had to stab Bob in order to save himself and Ponyboy otherwise Pony would have drowned in the fountain and Johnny would have been dead too. In conclusion, Johnny did not commit a first-degree

Claim: However, Johnny still can be considered innocent of murder because he killed Bob out of self defense, he had to defend Ponyboy, and the Socs were the ones who provoked the fight.

“Then I saw Johnny. ‘I killed him,’ he said slowly. ‘I killed that boy.’ Bob, the handsome Soc, was lying there in the moonlight, doubled up and still.”(PDF 49). This quote supports the opinion that this is wrong because Johnny is admitting that he killed Bob the soc, without saying it is out of self defence or any other reason. He is admitting to a crime he was said to have committed. This quote proves that he is guilty for murdering Bob the soc. However, though this may be true, Johnny is innocent from the crime of murdering Bob because he was protecting his 3rd party. “I fought again desperately but only sucked in water. I'm drowning, I thought, they've gone too far... A red haze filled my mind and I slowly relaxed. The next thing I knew I was lying on the pavement beside the fountain…‘I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you.’ ”(PDF 49+50). This provides support that Johnny is innocent because it shows how Ponyboy was drowning and was in the moment of dying. It didn’t leave Johnny an option but to help Ponyboy. If he hadn’t helped him, Ponyboy would have died and Johnny would have to fight against all of the socs attacking

The first reason why Johnny Cade is guilty of murder is because he carried a switchblade with him to kill the next person who jumped him. Ponyboy says, “Johnny, who was the most law-abiding of us, now carried in his back pocket a six-inch switchblade. He’d use it, too, if he ever got jumped again . . . He would kill the next person who jumped him” (Hinton 34). This shows

The first reason as to why Johnny killed Bob was because he had a fear of great bodily harm. Four months before the incident, Bob and his colleagues beat Johnny half to death. He had cuts and bruises, but most especially, he was traumatized. Johnny says that he killed Bob because 1) they could have killed Ponyboy, 2) They had a switchblade (and who knows what intoxicated individuals are capable of doing), and 3) they could have beaten Johnny up, again. Ponyboy explained

Stated in Ponyboy´s though, “ Johnny's hand went to his back pocket and I remembered his switchblade” (Hinton pdf 47). It shows that Johnny had a concealed weapon the whole time. Meaning that he could attack anyone within his reach. Showing that he was liable for any incident to happen where he went. Even though Johnny might have concealed a weapon, he saved Ponyboy's life when one of the Socials tried to drown him before he blacked out. It showed that Johnny was trying to stop the Social and get away from the scene that he did not cause. He and Ponyboy were only trying to walk around the park without trying to cause any trouble. Johnny is innocent due to events that happened, “ ... scared him. … most law-abiding of us, now carried in his back pocket a six-inch switchblade.” (Hinton pdf 30). Therefore it shows that what Bob did to make Johnny scared of his own shadow, take extra precaution. He used his brain to see the possibility that Bob could attack him again. It should not be counted as a murder weapon but as a self-defense as how small Johnny was and how large the chance that Bob might attack him

“ ‘I killed him, he said slowly. I killed that boy’. Bob the handsome soc was lying there in the moonlight.” (p.56) This showed that Johnny could gather up courage to make his own decisions and kill someone.

Johnny is not justified in what he did and is guilty because he had the intent to kill. Ponyboy talks about Johnny and the previous attack by saying, “He would kill the next person who jumped him. Nobody was ever going to beat him like that again. Not over his dead body…” (Hinton 34). This shows that Johnny was changed by the previous

Johnny was the one that needed his friends the most, with a dad that beat him, and a mom that ignored him, until she needed something to yell at, then she yelled at him so loud Ponyboy could hear it from down the street. Due to this abusive relationship with his parents, Johnny needed something, or someone to fall back on, this was the gang, including Ponyboy, Sodapop, Darry, Two-Bit, Dally, and Steve. Johnny often slept over at Ponyboy's when life at home was especially hard, and Ponyboy even claimed "He would have ran away a million times if we weren't there"

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.

On page 57 of The Outsiders, Johnny states, “I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you.” This states that he had to take Bob’s life to protect his friend Ponyboy Curtis. Not only that, he further goes on to state, “They were gonna beat me up.” So if Johnny had not killed Bob, Bob would have harmed Johnny. Bob and the Socs would never keep a witness alive, if Johnny saw Ponyboy get killed, they would have killed Johnny to protect themselves from the law. On page 56, when Johnny

As I read With Every Drop of Blood, I wondered why Johnny would go assist the Confederates in the Civil War, even after his own father told him not to. The authors of the book are trying to show you that people will judge you simply by the color of your skin, but will change once they get to know you. Johnny is a young man in the south who helps his family while his father is fighting for the Confederates in the Civil War. This all changed when his dad came home wounded and told Johnny that he didn’t want him to go away from his family. Johnny went off anyways and was captured by a black soldier named Cush who at first Johnny hated, but later got to know Cush and they became close.

The first reason Johnny should have found a gun for Rab is that Rab needed a gun. Rab only had his wimpy, outdated, unfit gun that could only knock over a rabbit at ten feet. Rab could never fight in a war with such an inadequate firearm.

He was even prepared to do so, because he “carried in his back pocket a six-inch switchblade. He’d use it, too, if he ever got jumped… He would kill the next person who jumped him” (Hinton 34). Since Johnny had the intentions to kill Bob, the murder was not accidental. Not only that, but according to Cornell University Law School, “Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder perpetrated to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed, is murder in the first degree. Any other murder is murder in the second degree.” The law says if the murder is carried out to affect people other than the victim, it is first-degree murder; otherwise, it is second-degree murder. Johnny is guilty of second-degree murder because he had the intentions to hurt Bob, but did not plan it out

He was looked upon as a murderer for his actions. However, it can be argued that Johnny’s innocence can be defended because he stabbed Bob in an act of self-defense while protecting a third party, he sacrificed his life to save another, and to avoid having a drunk teenager kill them.