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How Does The Outsiders Change

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Friends are like a beautiful tattoo on the heart. No matter how hard you try to get rid of them, their ink is always left in you. We see this idea expressed in the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The Outsiders is about a group of teenage boys trying to survive the rigid class structure in their town. Ponyboy Curtis is the center of this story as the narrator. He deals with multiple hardships, but is always surrounded by his friends, his gang. The character Dallas (Dally) Winston, one of the most prominent gang members, reinforces the theme that friendship leaves a permanent impact on life. Dally’s “tough” and “dangerous” characterization is shown to change overtime due to his relationship with the gang. When Ponyboy introduces Dally, he …show more content…

While all the characters in the novel have meaningful friendships, Dally’s portrayal stands out. Once Johnny decides that he is going to turn himself in for the murder of Bob Sheldon, Dally tells him “Johnny, I ain't mad at you. I just don't want you to get hurt. You don't know what a few months in jail can do to you. You get hardened in jail. I don't want that to happen to you. like it happened to me,” (90). Dally was so afraid that if he did not protect Johnny both physically and emotionally, he would end up like him, tough and hard. This expresses how Dally only wants the best for his friends, and he protects them in whatever ways he can. This level of devotion sets his friendships apart from others. While Ponyboy is grieving, he states, “...Two friends of mine died that night: one a hero, the other a hoodlum. But I remembered Dally pulling Johnny through the window of the burning church; Dally giving us his gun, although it could mean jail for him; Dally risking his life for us, trying to keep Johnny out of trouble. And now he was a dead juvenile delinquent, and there wouldn't be any editorials in his favor. Dally didn't die as a hero. He died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he'd die someday,” (154). The deep effect Dally’s friendship had on Ponyboy’s life is truly evident after his devastating death. By losing Dally, Ponyboy’s view of the world changes, he

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Above all he cared for Johnny the most because he was the “gang's pet”, Dally cared about Johnny so much that when Johnny died Dally came up with a plan to die too. Another way Dally cared for the gang is that when Johnny and Ponyboy was at the Church reading Gone With The Wind Johnny said that the Southern boys reminded him of Dally because on night the fuzz came because Two-bit broke the windows at the school but Dally took the blame without batting an eye when he could have let Two-bit get in trouble. Dally even broke out of the hospital to help fight in the rumble. Some may say that Dallas didn't do anything and it was Johnny who was the hero although if Dally didn't help Johnny and Ponyboy they would have went straight to the police and most likely would have been put in jail which would have caused them to not be the same soft people they

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Character Analysis Of Dallas Winston In 'The Outsiders'

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Dally unexpectedly demonstrates bravery many times throughout the book. Initially, Ponyboy views Dally as tough and mean. However, Dally frequently displays his selflessness by helping his fellow gang members, even though the consequences for him could be very detrimental. In doing so, he establishes himself as a father figure, someone who will look out for the others, no matter what. His heroism creates trust between the boys and establishes a ‘family’ within the gang, which each of them is sadly missing in one way or another.

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Police were already after him because Dally robbed a store. On page 152 Ponyboy says ‘“ Dally is gone, he ran out like the devil was after him”’. And on page 154 it says, “Dally raised the gun, they don’t know that your bluffin and the police men’s guns spit fire into the night’”. This is important to the book because someone they cared about the most died. This demonstrates the importance of losing someone you cared about the most, because somebody died who was in their gang and they cared about a lot.

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Therefore dally and johnny have some similarities and huge amount of differences. Dally is a mean, aggressive, tough person. He has a record a mile long. He can’t do anything legal, so when he wants to go to the drive in everyone with him has to sneak in. He loves picking fights with people and loves to scare little kids.

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On page seventy-six, while talking to Johnny, Dally says,“ … you get hardened in jail. I don’t want that to happen to you. Like it happened to me.” That quote shows that while in jail Dally lost the sense of how to behave ’normally’. An example of this is after Dally got out of jail.

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Which Johnny basically “worshipped” Dally. One example says, “Leave her alone Dally!” and Dally responded “huh” as he was caught off guard by it, which isn’t a surprise because Dally was Johnny’s hero. This is showing acts of being a hero by Johnny sticking up to even his best friend, to be a hero. By doing this he earned respect, and gained new friends.

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Dally helped convey one of the most important themes in the book; he looks mean and tough, but he has a heart and cares deeply about Johnny. Dally was careless with his actions. He was a bit reckless, and seemed to live as if he had nothing to lose. After Johnny died, he truly had nothing to lose. He was resourceful.

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1442 Words | 6 Pages

The fact that he even says that he may kill himself, shows that he has lost so much confidence due to the lack of care he is receiving at home that he is beginning to feel worthless. In addition, after Dally meets up with Johnny and Ponyboy and gives Ponyboy the letter that

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Dally loved no one except for Johnny. He felt as if he was his brother and he tried his best to let no one hurt him. When he died he believed that he would just kill himself to be with Johnny and wouldn't feel the depression he did for losing his brother. So as he did Dally sank to grief and commited suicide. Ponyboy didn't expect that Johnny and Dally died the same day.

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When Dally picked fights or robbed he joined gangs this made him look like a thug. As ponyboy describes the gang he has no other explanation for Dally other than the fact that he is cold. When we see how Dally behaves we also get fooled by his actions. As Ponyboy gets the time to see all of his actions he notices that he truly has a heart. He changes his opinion of Dally from this tough thug to this man with a heart when he realized, “Why can I take it when Dally can’t?

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As stated on page 152, “Johnny was the only thing Dally loved. And now Johnny was gone” (Hinton). Dallas spent a majority of time as a greaser acting as a protector of Johnny, as he saw a piece of himself in Cade. Dallas is a character that one would never expect to be considered a hero, though what many fail to recognize is that he maintained a semblance of calm so that Johnny would have someone to fall back onto when he or his parents couldn’t pick himself back up. Dally is a silent hero.

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