Johnny In The Outsiders

A world where you are looked down upon by everyone, are constantly being harassed by others, and are seen as having no opportunity in life; this is what it is like to be a Greaser. Dally, Ponyboy, Johnny, and the others in the gang must endure these hardships in their everyday lives. In the novel The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, Dallas Winston, more commonly known as Dally, emotionally suffers when Johnnycake dies. If Dally did not commit suicide by cop, one of 2 scenarios could occur; he could stop being a hood, or he would eventually die young and desperate as he was originally.

Dally was hard, but this incident would eventually change him for the better. The only thing Dally loved, Johnny, gave Ponyboy words of advice for Dally, “Listen,

On the way to see Johnny in the hospital Dally vents to Ponyboy about being hard, “I was crazy for wanting Johnny to stay out of trouble, for not wanting him to get hard. If he’d been like me he’d never have been in this mess. [...] 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” (147). In this quote, Dally thinks it is to his avail to be tough. He would not change after the experience because he would realize that it is more beneficial for him to stay hard. Another reason would be that he has been selfish his whole life and it would be very hard for him to change now. Once Dally becomes fatally shot Ponyboy reflects, “Dally Winston wanted to be dead, and he always got what he wanted. [...] Dally didn’t die a hero. He died young, violent, and desperate, just like we all knew he would die someday” (154). Crude and hard, Dally would not be affected by this incident. He would stay “too cool” for this to change his attitude towards life. As Ponyboy and others thought, he would die young and desperate later due to his reckless personality. If Dallas Winston did not die, the end of the novel would be much