“Things are rough all over”. Cherry Valance pg.35 The novel, “The Outsiders”, by S.E. Hinton,is a very popular piece of literature with youth in today’s society. Its main theme describes the realistic dynamics that can occur between distinct social groups of youth in society. Johnny, one of the main characters in the novel, was part of the Greaser gang. He spent most of his nights hanging out with the “gang”, watching the sunset or smoking. In the novel, Johnny Cade, the gang’s “pet”, was involved in a horrific accident. Johnny soon realised that the life that he had lived was coming to an end. Johnny understood that life presented his gang, including himself, some obstacles in life. Johnny gives advice to some of the gang so that they could live life to fullest. Johnny especially discusses life, in his final moments, with his …show more content…
He has always held Johnny in high regard. After the Socs and the Greaser fought, Dally and Ponyboy went to visit Johnny in the hospital. The boys soon realized Johnny did not have much time left and that they needed to say their goodbyes. When Dally was telling Johnny that they had beat the socs, Johnny had said to Dally, “Useless… fighting’s no good…”. This is a very strong statement. Socs and Greasers never got along. They would be in constant fights. The whole reason the gang was in the dilemma is because of the fight with one of the socs, Bob. Johnny and Ponyboy would not have had to go to the old barn and they would not have had to save the children from the fire if this fight did not happen. In Johnnys last few days of life, he had nothing but time to thing about life and he realized that all the fights and disputes between the two groups were pointless. Their is better ways to handel things than fighting and the only thing the gang got from fighting is hospital bills. The few glory days after the greasers won the fight would not be worth their friends
Click here to unlock this and over one million essays
Show MoreOh Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. Johnny was my best friend, a part of my family. I knew that I could always count on him whenever I needed him. Even though his family was violent with him, he was still there for me. He can also always count on me to be there for him. Other people don't know him as well as I do, I remember all the great times we had looking up at the stars at 1 a.m. in a lot. *pause* We also went to the movies. This one time there were these two pretty good looking girls there, and they were Socs too. They were sweet, nice and funny, they were even nice to us Greasers. Anyway, Johnny wouldn't hurt anyone unless he absolutely had to, Johnny didn't like to fight that often. The only time he would fight would be in the rumble, or if
A juvenile delinquent, Dally was put in jail when he was only ten years old. This probably is the outcome of him having a lack of a guardian when he was a youth. In addition, while on Jay Mountain, Johnny asks Dally whether his parents wanted to know about him. Dally replies saying “‘... They didn’t. Blast it Johnny, what do they matter? Shoot my old man don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter. That don’t bother me none’”(88). This is the only time Dally mentions his father in the novel and his tone suggests his disdain. Dally’s insolent behavior has to be because of his inadequate parents. Likewise, Johnny is also a victim of bad parenting due to his abusive mother and father. In The Outsiders the narrator, Ponyboy, describes Johnny’s personality and family atmosphere in the exposition. Ponyboy states about Johnny: “His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignored him, except when she was hacked off at something, and then you could hear her yelling at him clear down at our house”(12). Pony’s statement shows how Johnny Cade has a difficult life at him and so he relies on the Greasers for family. This evidence leads to the conclusion that Johnny and Dally both have neglectful parents causing them to rely on their gang for family
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...
...inks he is more important than anything else and will not even think about going out of his way to do anything nice for anyone or anything. Both Johnny and Dally’s similarities and differences balance each other out.
In S. E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, all is well until the end of this section; the innocence of Ponyboy of Johnny lost to the murder of Bob.The loss of Johnny’s innocence is the heavier surprise. He has mainly been the victim of his problems with his situations, showing the innocence, before
Johnny was a Greaser and had bad parents. Johnny had gotten into a terrible situation. Johnny got jumped in a lot by a group of Socs, Bob and his friends. Bob is known to be wealthy and has a Mustang, he was a Soc, had blond curly hair, and known for his rings which he was so proud of. Johnny was the pet of the gang. Ever since he had gotten that day Johnny was always scared he would get jumped again. He would always make sure there were no Socs around him when he was walking. He was the scared one of the
Out of all of the members of the gang Johnny and Ponyboy were the closest, because they were the youngest and also they were not as tough as the other boys. After Ponyboy got in a fight with Darry about being late at getting home, Ponyboy ran to the lot and told Johnny that they were running away. Without hesitation the two boys took off running. Johnny needed no explanation. He had a rough life at home and without the support from the gang he may have already killed himself. Johnny just wanted to be there and support his friend like they had been supporting him through everything. At many points throughout the novel Ponyboy teaches or shows Johnny something new. “You know Johnny said slowly “I never noticed colors and clouds and stuff until you kept, reminding me about them. It seems like they were never there before” (Hinton,78). When Johnny says that to Ponyboy is gives readers a glimpse of how Johnny having Ponyboy in his life makes it better. Another key point of their friendship in the novel is after Johnny kills the Soc. This is a key point because they run off to Jay Mountain to hide from the police and while they are there they discover more about each other and themselves. The boys are at that church for about a week before Dally came to check in on them and while they were inside that church they read Gone with the Wind. As they read Gone with the Wind they started to make connections
A hero, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary is “a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities”, or “one who shows courage”. Write an essay explaining why you believe each of the Greasers - Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally - could be considered a hero. Include your own definition of hero in the essay, and be sure to explain how each character, in his own way, meets your definition. Remember to support your ideas with examples.
Dally and Johnny are similar in a way of knowing what it is like to have abusive and neglectful parents. There is no love coming from Dally’s home, which is why he does some reckless things. The neglect he faces at home affects his ability to love others. His parents do not interact with him and Dally states, “‘my old man don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter’” (88). Dally’s
The last picture relates to The Outsiders in a sense of loneliness and not being able to understand the people around you. Having to be yourself without being able to rely on others to be able to connect with your opinions and actions. Like Ponyboy, he enjoys sunsets, poetry, and books, but he should enjoy cars, fights, and leather jackets because that is what he stereotyped as. Which is shown on page 77, “Nothing Gold Can Stay. I was remembering a poem I read once.” He reads poetry and is smart, but he has a dropout brother and is friends with people who don’t even have a proper education. But in the end, he is still a proud greaser and loves all of his friends, which are his family. This picture also relates to the book in the aspect of suicide because Picasso painted this piece after a friend committed suicide.
At the end of the book there was a rumble and Dally showed up even though he was injured.”Don’t you know a rumble ain’t a rumble unless I’m in it?”(144) This means that no matter what Dally would like to be in a fight of some kind. Dally likes to fight because he feels that their is no got in the world. On the other hand, Johnny does not enjoy fighting.’”useless… fighting’s no good…”’(148). This means that Johnny would not like to be in a fight especially when he is injured. Johnny does not like fighting because the socs have beat him up multiple times badly. Dally and Johnny are different because Dally likes fighting and Johnny does
..., even by Ponyboy, who is the youngest of the group and two years younger than Johnny. Dally, the toughest and the meanest guy in The Greasers, is Johnny’s idol and seeing how he acts in situations probably influenced Johnny’s choice of action. Watching these bigger guys close in on him and Ponyboy being drowned, he was probably thinking, ‘what would Dally do what would Dally do?’ So he did what he thought Dally would do he pulled out the knife and stabbed Bob Sheldon so he would have extra hands helping him to fight off the rest of the guys, but that did not happen because they ran off in fear of Johnny.
Johnny saw that Pony was unhappy because he missed his brothers that were back home. Johnny thought that the only reason Pony was still there in the church with him was because he was the one who wanted to run away in the first place . Johnny finally decided to turn himself in because Pony hadn’t committed a crime and Johnny would be let of easy for saving the kids . Johnny would do anything for his buddies but he has a limit and I think that limit is girls. I don’t think that Johnny would of yelled at Dally if he wouldn’t of disrespected those girls the way he did. Although he yelled at his buddy he was the hero of those two Socs that Dally was disrespecting and he got a complement from them and they let him and Pony sit with
Johnny's last words were "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold..." Johnny meant these words even if they were his last. I believe this gave Johnny a way to say thank you to Ponyboy for being a great friend along with stay who you are because how good of a person Ponyboy was.The way they always got along and had many things in common. Also how they were always together no matter what the situation. For example Bob's death. So I think Johnny felt a real connection with Ponyboy especially out of everyone. In the text it states, “I barely heard him. I came closer and leaned over to hear what he was going to say.” To me I look at this and think out of everything Johnny could have said he chose to say that to Johnny. So this shows that Johnny really wanted
Although Johnny and Dally share some homogeneous traits, they also have very vast differences. For example, Dally is a villainous, tenacious, and greaser while Johnny is a perceptive, polite, and craven greaser. Dally does not fear anything and Johnny is petrified of his own shadow. His own gang thinks that Dally is mean, and Johnny is the gang’s pet. Dally spent three years on the wild side of New York and gets harder and tougher there, when Johnny has not even left the neighborhood. The description befitting Dally in the book just makes him seem even scarier. “His eyes were blue, blazing ice, cold with the hatred of the whole world… He was tougher than the rest of us [them] tougher, colder, meaner.” (10). This shows the confident, and indignant look on Dally’s face. On the other hand, the description for Johnny just radiates empathy and sympathy, “If you can picture a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you’ll have Johnny… he had a nervous, suspicious look in his eyes…”(11). The difference between the two characters is evident in these descriptions, Johnny is like a puppy and Dally could be compared to a tiger. Another example of how Johnny and Dally are different is seen through the fact that Dally loves to fight and has a huge record with the police, while Johnny detests fighting and has no tr...