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Dally Winston And Erikson's Theory Of Social Differences

Decent Essays

The Outsiders is a novel written by a then 15 year-old by the name of S.E. Hinton. The tale of social divides revolves around a group of six teenage “greasers”. One of these greasers is Dallas “Dally” Winston. The greasers are the poor and underprivileged in society. The greasers as a group are in a constant struggle against the socialites, the high point of society, who are referred to as “socs”. Dally Winston is among the worst of them in terms of respect for the law. “He had quite a reputation. They have a file on him down at the police station. He had been arrested, he got drunk, he rode in rodeos, lied, cheated, stole, rolled drunks, jumped small kids--he did everything.”(11). Dally is said to have lived in New York for three years and had been arrested at the young age of 10. His behavior seems wild and unexplainable, but it can be deciphered through the means of Erikson’s theory on the stages of development, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Erikson’s Theory is divided into periods of development in which an individual goes through a crisis. Depending on the outcome of said crisis, one would gain a positive or negative trait. In the theory, there is a set of crisis’ that nurture the most development. These are mainly the middle years, from about 3-40 years old. Dallas Winston can be more easily analyzed through these years considering that the most information about his past self is revealed in that time period. During the first period within this set, from 3-5 years

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