Compare and Contrast Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston in the Outsides by S.E. Hinton

How can two people that have so many similarities be so different in their daily lives? Johnny Cade and Dallas (Dally) Winston are a perfect example that this is possible in writing. These two characters star in The Outsiders, a compelling story by S. E. Hinton. Johnny and Dally are perfect foils of each other, by being so different, yet they are almost completely alike.

Dally and Johnny are similar in two key ways. For instance, neither Dally nor Johnny value their own lives at one point or another during the story. Dallas always goes out and does whatever he wants. Even if there is a chance of the Socs ganging up on him, or cops arresting him, he does not care what consequence acting out brings. After Johnny dies, Dallas cannot think of any way to survive without him, and therefore reasons that he does not want to live under these circumstances. Obviously, he “wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted” (154). In fact, leading up to Johnny’s death Dallas does not seem to care either way about how his actions would affect the world. Even at the age of ten, Dallas does not give thought to being arrested. Likewise, Johnny states that he does not care for his life before, and after killing the Soc and creating trouble. He said to Ponyboy in the parking lot that he might just kill himself. This is caused due to the stress by his parents arguing all the time. Killing himself, is the only path out of his stressful life that he could see. Furthermore, while in the hospital Johnny states to Ponyboy that the lives of those children were “worth more than [his]” (178). He has more than enough time to think about his current situation and decides that his life is less important to, say, Darry’s. Both Dally and Johnny think that the...

... middle of paper ...

...uld not separate Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston more, no matter how similar their lives are at one point or another.

In S. E. Hinton’s book The Outsiders two characters, Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade are shown to be very similar in many ways, yet are different in more ways than one where it counts. They come from the same neighborhood, they hang out all the time, and yet their views on the local law enforcement continue to differ, if not seem like complete opposites. As it is true that they both end up without much reason to value life, it seems fit that their opinions differ vastly when it comes to following the law. But does Dally really just want to oppose the law, or does he aim to create a way out of other problems that he and his gang may run into? Either way, these two characters are the foils of each other, while they share amazingly distinct similarities.