Survival and Struggle: An Analysis of 'The Outsiders'

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“The Outsiders”, by S.E Hinton is the story of Ponyboy Curtis and the struggles he faces as a “Greaser”. Ponyboy lives on the east side of town with his older brothers, Darry and Sodapop. After their parents died, the oldest Curtis brother, Darry becomes the guardian of his younger brothers. Other characters that come to play as the story progresses are, Steve, Two-Bit, Johnny, and Dallas, who are also all greasers. The greasers have a hateful feud going on with the “Socs”, the upper class socialite teenagers who jump greasers for fun. When Johnny and Ponyboy have a run in with a group of Socs that beat Johnny up before, they end up killing the leader of the Socs, Bob. Now on the run, the duo go to a friend of theirs who’s had more than his …show more content…

Dallas, also known as Dally helps them run away to a small abandoned church a few towns over. After many trials, Dally helps and ultimately saves in a way, both Ponyboy and Johnny. Dallas Winston is the hero of “The Outsiders.” Dallas Winston had a rough life from the start, his parents threw him out of the house at a young age and never cared about him. Though he would never show it, this deeply hurt Dally thus making him into the hardened character S.E Hinton shows us. After living on the streets for a good portion of his young life, Dally developed a strong “I don’t care about anything” attitude. “I was crazy, you know that kid, crazy for wantin’ Johnny to stay outa trouble, for not wantin’ him to get hard. If he’d been like me, he’d never been in this mess. If he’d got smart like me he’d never have run into that church. That’s what you get for helpin’ people. Editorials in the paper and a lot of trouble… You’d better wise up, Pony … you get tough like me and you don’t get hurt. You look out for yourself and nothing can touch you… Hinton 147” Dally cared about Johnny and he didn’t want Johnny to end up like him. He didn’t want Johnny to become emotionally hardened because he cared about him too much for him to feel that way.Dally doesn’t

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