Everybody has the opportunity to be a hero, but does everyone take it? A hero is someone who is respectful and willing to put their safety in harms way in order to keep others safe. In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy, a 14 year-old Greaser is a hero who is concerned about the well-being of people around him, and of people he might not even know. Johnny, the Outsiders Gang’s pet, is also a hero. Dally who is a hardened teenager in the Outsiders Gang is not a hero because he does not realize that there are more important things in life other than looking cool. What a wonderful world we would live in if everyone strived to be a hero.
Ponyboy is a hero. When the time comes, he always pulls through by not being afraid. When Pony realizes
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He was always looking for trouble and was not interested in anybody's feelings like in this instance “ [Dally] put his feet up on the redheads chair, winked at [Ponyboy] and beat his own record for saying something dirty.”(p 87). Nobody would want to be treated like this, and anyone with good sense would know that. A hero is somebody who is pleasant and congenial but Dally does not have either of this characteristics. Right before the death of Johnny out of fear to losing Johnny Dallas went on a rant saying “‘That’s what you get for helpin’ people,’”( p 147). The selfishness of this quote is astonishing and I am glad that this is just a fictional character, but the fact that The Outsiders is based off of reality is eye-opening because people like Dally might have similar thoughts.
Those who are gracious, kind, and cautious of other’s well-being are heroes. Ponyboy was a hero because of how he was not only capable of thinking about the common good of others but was also able to carry through with those actions. Although Johnny was a hero, he was one to the people closest to him, by treating them with kindness and wise words that made an impact on them. Dally was not a hero because of his selfish thoughts, words, and actions that hurt others in many ways. The world as we know it could be changed if all of us were able to grasp the concept of a hero, and perform those same