The Importance Of Choices In 'The Outsiders'

Ponyboy is a very good friend. He has a friend named Johnny who is also a greaser. Johnny is going through so much throughout the story. He runs away from his home because he heard his mother and father fighting like they always do. He goes to the park and he says, “I can’t take much more. I’ll kill myself or something.” Johnny hated that his parents fought so much and he didn’t want to be around it. His parents were neglectful and abusive, both

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.

This shows us that Dally is supportive by helping Pony and Johnny run from the fuzz until things die down. In the novel, Dally has been a 'bad boy', but he has saved someone. " Dally swore at me and clubbed me across the back as hard as he could, and I went down not a peaceful darkness." Pg 93.

If Dally never pulled the fake gun out on the cops or robbed from the store he would still be alive. Dally knew the cops didn’t know he was bluffing by pulling a fake gun out but Dally understood what he was doing once he pulled out the gun. In the text it does state he knew what he was doing and that’s what he wanted. These words from the text explain that Dally’s actions caused him to pass away. This is why Dally and Johnny’s actions are responsible for their deaths and

This shows in the text when the author writes, “Dally appeared after a minute. He carefully shut the door, ‘Here’ he handed us a gun and a roll of bills” (Hinton 60). This quote shows that Dally cared for Johnny and Pony and wanted them safe. Dally loved Johnny the most and was willing to do anything to protect him. He wanted to make

Johnny said, “‘I killed him ... killed that boy,’” (56). Johnny was explaining to Ponyboy that he was nervous and killed Bob in an anxious manner. Bob was trying to kill Ponyboy by drowning him, so after Johnny he had fought for himself, he took his knife to Bob. Johnny protected Ponyboy by killing someone, he was loyal to his friend. Ponyboy learned in this situation that loyalty doesn't really have a limit, or that his family would go great heights to protect him.

He went through a lot in the time period between running from the law and Dally and Johnny's’ death and the only reason he made it through was because he had people who loved him to help him through it. Things for Ponyboy are finally getting better after everything he and his family have been through, so what right would be anyone have to take that away? All that matters in life is to be happy, not the quality of a house over one’s head or what one sees from another perspective of someone’s life situation. A person can have a prominent house and all the money a person can want and no home, while another could have a dilapidated house with no money whatsoever, but a home where he or she feels unconditionally loved and protected. What’s being disclosed is that someone could have everything anyone wants in life and have absolutely nothing while others have nothing but everything anyone needs in life. It is rough everywhere, but just because it’s rough, doesn’t mean that it’s never going to get better because it will. Afterall, the best things in life never come

At the beginning, Ponyboy doesn’t understand the concerns of Darry, but towards the end, he understands that Darry is overprotective for him. For example, when Ponyboy came late home from the lot and Darry hit him and he ran away with Johnny. He said to Johnny, “He didn't use to be like that... we used to get along okay... before Mom and Dad died. Now he just can't stand

This fact is further reinforced when Johnny later says he wants to turn himself into the cops, so Pony can go home and be with his brother, and Dally protests against this idea saying he doesn't want Johnny to “get hardened in jail” and become like him (pg 89-90). This shows that he quite strongly cares about these boys and wants them to have a better

Dally may not have said or did the best option for Ponyboy and if he had parents, they would probably give him a better option. Ponyboy becomes very lonely and needs the feeling of friends or family. As a result of him being lonely, he joins a gang to fill in the space of a family. When Ponyboy’s parents died, Ponyboy had a new identity where he was lonely, made bad choices and had no

In “The Outsiders,” Ponyboy tells Darry ”very popular in high school; he was captain of the football team and had been voted Boy of the Year.” However, after their parents died, Darry was left with only two difficult choices. Darry could either continue college, send his two brothers to boy's home to be taken care of, and get a job. Or, on the other hand, works two jobs full time, one of the job is roofing. The two choices, between taking care of his siblings by passing on to the opportunity of college and sending his brothers to boy’s home for college, he chose his family. In Ponyboy and Johnny's case, the choice was difficult for simply one reason: the two teenagers were risking their lives saving the children. The fact is, people tend to put their own safety above others. Simply for one reason, once a life is lost, there’s nothing be done. However, the two teenage boys, with the same perspective on life as others, decided to put other’s lives in their own hands. On the other hand, however, if they chose to do what others had chose to do; stay safe on the side and hope for the best. But the fact was, they faced the challenge bravely without

Appearances falsely define reality in the Outsiders because when people judge others based on what they see then you are being blocked from the truth and you are getting false information. Firstly, in the book Ponyboy describes Dally as a criminal because he has done violent actions during his life. Ponyboy doesn’t know everything about Dally and he could be a respectable person. Consequently, when we judge people we get the erroneous idea of them, so Dally could have had a brutal life.

Ponyboy is looking up to his brothers bc his mom or dad isn't there for him to look up too. Darry is the one who is taking over his father's spot. He works all day to help ponyboy and his brothers. He wants his brother to graduate and get a scholarship. ”I love soda more than i have loved anyone, even my mom and dad”(2).

Later, Johnny conveys his guilt to Ponyboy when he says: “‘There sure is a lot of blood in people.’”(Hinton 74), nearly quoting Shakespeare in Macbeth. In a later conversation with Johnny, Ponyboy gets thinking about this new world he has been thrust into. In the text he says: “I liked my books and clouds and sunsets. Dally was so real he scared me.”(Hinton 76) This shows how Ponyboy likes when the hero can beat the villain and get a pretty sunset at the end. But now Ponyboy has to deal with the real-world effects of violence, and he doesn’t like it. This marks one of Ponyboy’s first major changes of his mindset on violence.

Ponyboy said he would be dead if he didn't have the gang members. Johnny is the youngest in the gang. He was jumped by Socs and was seriously injured that he almost died. He had psychology impact on the Socs, he would shiver and be frighten whenever he sees a Soc. On the day he left with Ponyboy, they met a group of Socs. Since the Soc called Bob almost drowned Ponyboy to death, he killed Bob. Johnny admired Dally a lot. He wishes Dally could be proud of him for even just once. He wanted to be as tough and cool as Dally but he never succeeds. Johnny was kicked out of school and that was how Ponyboy thought he wasn't clever. Sometimes Johnny understood things better than Ponyboy in the book which was called Gone with the Wind. Johnny had the interest and talent in reading books but no one in the gang except Ponyboy was good enough to talk about these. He wasn't really close with Ponyboy before they ran away together so they didn't have a talk. Johnny also loved to watch sunsets and sunrises but no one in the gang could have spared time to watch or even talk about this. All Johnny couldn't express mad him alienated from the gang members. The only one he was close to was Dally. Dally cared for his all time and would risk his life for whatever happens on Johnny. Such as lending a gun or killing a Soc. Dally wouldn't hesitate as long as it was for