Dally Winston Anti Hero Research Paper

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Anti-heros are all around us, even on the shows we watch. Examples of this are Dexter Morgan from the show Dexter, Batman, and Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. In The Outsiders, the characters Johnny and Ponyboy get into trouble when Johnny fatally stabs a soc named Bob. Which leads to Johnny and Ponyboy having to skip town in order to run from the police. An anti-hero is somebody who would usually be classified as the villain, but does things villains do for good reason. From what I’ve read, I can conclude that Dally Winston is the anti-hero of this story because he helps Johnny and Ponyboy flee from the police, he tries to save Ponyboy and Johnny from going into the church that was on fire. The first reason why Dallas Winston is the anti-hero of this story is because Dally cares about his friends but does things the antagonist would do. On page 61 "I'll be up there as soon as I think it's clear." Man, I thought New York was the only place I could get mixed up in a murder rap" (Hinton 61). This shows that Dally is willing to do something illegal, but for good reason. Why that would make him an anti-hero is because he knew Johnny was only defending himself and Ponyboy from being jumped and decided …show more content…

On page 4, Ponyboy describes Dally as someone who has been a criminal for a while and hasn’t been able to stop. The text says, “Dally had spent three years on the wild side of New York and had been arrested at the age of ten”(Hinton 4). This shows that Dally hasn’t been set up very well in life and has had to resort to criminal life. This would also show how someone like that doesn’t particularly know how to do good things in a good way. And would reveal that he isn’t an evil person, just misunderstood. In conclusion, I believe Dallas Winston is the anti-hero for reasons like he breaks the law but works with the cards he is dealt, cares for his “family”, and would end his own life for

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