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Character Analysis: 'Your Circle Of Influence Dictates Your Path'

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"Your circle of influence dictates your path"-Jon Bielecki. During specific events, a person’s mindset can be influenced by the people around them. Everyday the social environment of a person affects the outcomes of their decisions and the direction of their life is essentially chosen by society. Each one person has their own persona that dominates another person or group’s life and judgment on certain topics. For example, everyone chooses the people they hang out with and in return their behavior immensely impacts everything the other does. For Johnny, the gang means everything to him because they protect him, care for him, and most of all, they adore him. Therefore, every decision they make impacts Johnny, but these choices affect his way …show more content…

For instance, when the Socs jumped Johnny and Ponyboy in the park, "'You really killed him, huh, Johnny?' 'Yeah.' His voice quavered slightly . 'I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you. And they had a blade ... they were going to beat me up ... '" (Hinton 57). Bob and the others were harassing the teens because they had picked up their girlfriends. This represents an ideal example of how intense the rivalry between the Socs and Greasers really is as the upper class kids had gotten ticked off over a misunderstanding of actions. Moreover, after the Greasers had a rumble with the Socials, "'We won,' Dally panted. 'We beat the Socs. We stomped them - chased them out of their territory.' Johnny didn't even try to grin at him. 'Useless ... fighting's no good ...'" (Hinton 148). During his time at Windrixville, Johnny learned essential lessons on how all the fighting with the Socials was pointless. He realized that violence is not the answer, but without the rivalry between the two groups of people, Johnny would have never come to that conclusion. All things considered, the behavior between two civil groups is not the only thing that can affect a person's point of

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