Johnny Cade Research Paper

Why Is Johnny Guilty Johnny Cade was fatally wounded and killed by Bob, the leader of the gang who drowned Ponyboy Curtis in a nearby fountain. One night Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade ran away from home and were jumped by a group of socs. Bob the leader told David to "give him a bath" directed toward Ponyboy. David was aggressively drowning Ponyboy and as a reaction, Johnny stabbed and killed Bob and ran away. Johnny is guilty because he did not kill the aggressor and he had malice and aforethought. Supporters of Johnny s innocence might say Johnny Cade is not guilty because it was an act of self-defense, but to counter what they say, the article states that killing someone who wasn't the aggressor is illegal. To counter what the agreers or Johnny's innocence say, Johnny is innocent because he was acting in self-defense.

Instead, he killed Bob. Killing someone who is not the aggressor is a crime. Johnny is guilty because he did not kill the aggressor, instead he killed Bob. To continue my point, in the argumentative debate, we had the opposing side continuously bring up the fact that Bob was the aggressor but by definition, “A person, group or nation who attacks first” and with that we know that Bob was not the one attacking Ponyboy, it was David making him the aggressor. In the book, it states Johnny saying “I killed that boy, Bob the handsome Soc” (pg 56 S.E. Hinton) In the scene where Ponyboy was drowned. Bob told David to drown the ponyboy. David did not have to listen to Bob but instead, he followed his orders and drowned Ponyboy Curtis, making him the aggressor, not Bob whom Johnny later killed. But you may wonder, why did Johnny decide to kill Bob and not David? Johnny killed Bob because of malice and