Who Is The Protagonist In The Outsiders

Describe an important character in the text
Explain why the character is important to the text

"The Outsiders" by S.E Hinton is a story that follows two rival groups, the Greasers and the Socs, who are divided by their socioeconomic status. The story is told through the eyes of Ponyboy Curtis, the protagonist. The story takes place in a small town in Oklahoma set at 1960s. Johnny Cade was a character in the story who was abused by his drunkard father and neglected by his cold mother, who thinks that he is just a dead weight to the family. Johnny is a quiet and a cowardly young adult at the age of 16, the protagonist’s best friend. He is perceptive, cowardly and brave at the same time.

Johnny grew up in an abusive environment because of how he was treated by his parents and because of this he realized what golden was in the poem “Nothing gold can stay” by Robert Frost. He finds out what gold means because of his childhood and his own perspectives of the world, while Ponyboy grew up in a relatively better childhood than him and didn’t

He saved little children from a burning church by sacrificing his life and personally carrying them out, we know Johnny wanted to risk his life for the children because of what he wrote in the letter. “Listen, I don’t mind dying now. It’s worth it. It’s worth saving those kids.”, this shows that even though Johnny didn’t want to die because he hasn’t lived his life to the fullest, he was satisfied that he saved those children. This is important to the story because it sparked Ponyboy’s sympathy for other children that were also at poor condition just like Johnny. Compared to his old self, Johnny had grown fully and has matured just from that day, he had realized how important his and other people’s life can be. The author wanted Johnny’s bravery just to show how Johnny and Ponyboy, though being the two youngest people in the gang, was different from all of