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Examples Of Misjudgment In The Outsiders

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Misjudgment is something that occurs often in novels in order to teach the reader an important lesson. It can teach the reader about the consequences of misjudgment, or about specific ways people are misjudged. Just because someone is different from the typical person doesn’t mean that they are inferior. In the novels The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, characters such as Johnny and Piggy were misjudged based on appearances and stereotypes, leading the reader to learn an important lesson about misjudgment in general. In The Outsiders, Johnny is misjudged when he is portrayed as the stereotypical violent “greaser” by the Socs, despite his selflessness and hate for violence, resulting in Johnny becoming known …show more content…

This book starts off with a bunch of kids stranded on an island after their plane crashed. Within the first chapter, he is already being misjudged by being called “Fatty” and immediately cast aside. As the book progresses, he is only misjudged and ignored more and more. He struggles to be heard even while holding the conch. The one time he is listened to, he proposes bringing the signal fire down to the beach instead of up high. Piggy is obviously really smart and has many great ideas, but is constantly ignored and bullied for his appearance. One example of this is when he says: “‘We got a lot of sticks. We could have a sundial each’…. ‘Oh shut up.’” (Golding 59). He has the great idea of creating sundials for everyone, but is immediately shut down. All his ideas are automatically cast aside as stupid, always being told to “shut up”. If only he was listened to, they could have escaped the island sooner and with no fatalities. Piggy’s misjudgment throughout Lord of the Flies is extremely important because his great ideas are ignored due to this misjudgment, leading the boys to turn to savagery to survive and teaching the reader that someone should never be misjudged by their

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1073 Words | 5 Pages

Due to this, Piggy should be blamed for the chaos and eventual destruction of the island because he is condescending and lazy. To begin, readers often consider Piggy as the voice of reason and intellect in the Lord of the Flies, but he comes across as condescending instead. Whether it be because of how he acts or what he does, he escalates situations and should be blamed for the chaos and the inevitable destruction of the island. For example, Piggy confronted Jack’s tribe and said, “Which is better–to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?”

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964 Words | 4 Pages

Julia Baird’s article Redefining Failure touches on the topic of failure by discussing how people’s perception and grasp on the meaning of failure can and has changed over time. Julia Baird constructs her argument by introducing a character known as Willy Loman whom she constantly uses throughout the text as a symbol of failure in the past. Baird throughout the text makes numerous appeals to authority and to the reader’s, which unfortunately fell short of its potential. To introduce her argument, Baird describes a character known as Willy Loman from Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, “We’ve spent more than 60 years dissecting Willy Loman, the character artfully sketched by…”(par.1).

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533 Words | 3 Pages

In William Golding’s novel The Lord the of the Flies the character Piggy, who is the group’s greatest voice of knowledge and reason is often ignored and even abused by other boys. He seems to have been rejected by everyone but a select few of the boys. This rejection is shocking as Piggy has value knowledge and tools needed for survival, and still being rejected even then deeply strikes at the heart of the theme for Lord of the Flies. Piggy is rejected for many reasons. The first and most obvious reason being his physical appearance of having glasses and being overweight.

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622 Words | 3 Pages

Piggy is very intelligent, he comes up with ideas on how to help the boys survive on the island from the moment they crashed on it. Ralph starts begins to admire him for this clear focus on their rescue off the island. “ we can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us” (Pg 16)

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939 Words | 4 Pages

This displays how Piggy is sagacious and knowledgeable, by giving accommodating propositions in a time of desperate need when the rest of the boys are quite lost and do not quite know what to do, for he is the only one smart enough to dare and bring up such an idea. Suggesting rational solutions and helping the boys find a way by using his intellectuality, to create smoke, exhibits his insightful collaboration in order to get rescued. Another example that demonstrates Piggy is incisive is when he declares, “You have doctors for everything, even the inside of your mind. You don’t really mean that we got to be frightened all the time of nothing? Life…is scientific, that’s what it is.

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599 Words | 3 Pages

Many times in life today, people’s personalities and actions are misjudged or misinterpreted because other people don’t want to think of reasons why that person is that way or why they acted a certain way. One example of how the book proves that Johnny

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522 Words | 3 Pages

All throughout the book Piggy is faced with many challenges where most people would act in a bad manner, although Piggy is always responding very appropriately and does not act wrongly against the other. All these examples show how Piggy

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628 Words | 3 Pages

From the first scene of the book, it is introduced that the Greasers often get jumped by Socs because of their greasy and raggedy appearance. Johnny has nobody to take care of him, so he always seems dirty, leading to the Socs constantly making fun of him. Johnny progressively becomes more fearful of the Socs intimidating and hurting him, and starts to have murderous thoughts towards them. The author shows how Johnny was affected by misjudgment when Johnny says, “ I killed that boy” (Hinton 56). Johnny kills a popular Soc named Bob after himself and Ponyboy are being harassed.

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1073 Words | 5 Pages

(52). This shows that Johnny believed that killing Bob was the only way to save Ponyboy and that he did not kill Bob out of anger and hatred. Also, Johnny risked going to jail and losing his freedom when he killed Bob in order to save Ponyboy from drowning. By risking his life and saving Ponyboy’s life, Johnny proved that when in danger, a Greaser would sacrifice himself to save another, which shows honor among the lawless. Hence, there is honor among the Greasers because risking their life for another shows great love and bravery, which are also honorable

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836 Words | 4 Pages

Piggy’s idea to call the other boys with the conch is very important, and this conch becomes important to the story. However, his ideas get covered up when the boys bully him. For example, the text states, “You’re talking too much, said Jack Merridew. “Shut up, Fatty.” Laughter arose.

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821 Words | 4 Pages

Johnny, the second youngest Greaser, gets jumped by Socs, and has feared them since the incident. Johnny, the loyal gang member, gets described as the gang 's pet. Yet, he still believed in doing the right thing and was the most law-abiding kid in the group. For example, one

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2211 Words | 9 Pages

This event starts a turning point for Johnny's character. Although he acts in self-defense, he is deeply hurt by the violence and the realization that he has taken another person's life. When he and Ponyboy flee to a church to hide, he reflects on the situation and realizes that the fighting between the Greasers and Socs is pointless and only leads to more violence. Johnny's realization that fighting is useless is evident in his conversation with Ponyboy in the church. He tells Ponyboy that he doesn't want anyone to get hurt anymore, and he wishes the Greasers and Socs could find a way to get along.

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526 Words | 3 Pages

In the Outsiders, the characters usually make bad decisions. The Greasers are a gang that function like family, and Johnny’s decisions are not so good. But sometimes they can be spot on. The theme is watch out for what decisions you make, Understand that what ever choice you make there will be a consequence. Johnny made the difficult choice to kill Bob.

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848 Words | 4 Pages

People are often misconceived for what they present on the outside, not what’s on the inside. This is shown in a number of characters in a number of novels. One of these novels, is called the Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton. In this novel, there is a boy named Johnny, who is in a gang called the greasers. He is like the pet of the gang, and without him, their is no balance between the gang mates.

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835 Words | 4 Pages

Piggy’s Logic In William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, Piggy is the most rational boy on the island compared to the other children. As a logical person, he can control his emotions and he is able to analyze situations with a clear thought process. His way of thinking is based on logic as well, and he expresses his feelings accordingly to the issue at hand. However, the boys, unable to comprehend Piggy’s words, decide to ignore him.

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