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The Outsiders Essay

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Outsiders Argumentative Essay S.E. Hilton’s novel The Outsiders is filled with violence, strife, and death. In the novel, Johnny Cade and Ponyboy find themselves in a violent encounter with the Socs. One Soc, Bob, is killed during the encounter. Although some may disagree, Johnny Cade is completely innocent of murder because he was terrified and only acted in self-defence. Johnny is guilty because he committed murder because there were other things he could have done instead of resorting to killing. First of all, the police were already on their way, so Johnny and Pony could have held out a little longer and everything would have been alright. Furthermore, Johnny could have easily injured Bob, but Johnny wanted revenge for when the Socs …show more content…

Johnny’s parents beat him, ignored him, and constantly abused him which started his PTSD. “His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignored him, except when she was hacked off at something, and then you could hear her yelling at him clear down at our house”(Hinton, 12). Then on top of that the Socs jumped and beat him and Bob was the Soc that nearly killed Johnny with his rings. “I knew it was Bob when you told me the story. He was so proud of his rings”(Hinton, 128). After Johnny had been jumped the first time was scarred, so he started carrying a switchblade and would use it if he had to. “And Johnny who was the most law-abiding of us, now carried in his back pocket a six-inch switchblade. He’d use it, too, if he ever got jumped again”(Hinton, 34). This is what made Johnny murder because Johnny was a kid, afraid of his own shadow, who grew up in a rough environment, and killing was his last …show more content…

When they got jumped the Socs were drowning Pony and going to beat Johnny. “I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you. And they had a blade… they were gonna beat me up….”(Johnny Pg,57 ). “Like… -I swallowed- like they did before?”(Ponyboy Pg.57). This evidence is proof that Johnny only wanted to defend them. Johnny committed a homicide kill, only to protect himself and Ponyboy. Johnny’s personality and actions are confirmation that he wouldn’t kill someone on purpose. Johnny is a kid, kind, brave, gallant, and terrified of everything. Johnny had never done anything really bad, killing Bob was the first time he did. “I ain’t got no record with the fuzz and it was self-defence”(Hinton, 87). Also, if Johnny was awful then he wouldn’t have saved those kids from the fire, but he did, with courage. Johnny regretted killing Bob and wanted to take responsibility because he didn’t want to drag anyone else down for his

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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)

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He said. ““He would kill the next person who jumped him. Nobody was ever going to beat him like that again. Not over his dead body…”(pg. 34) Ponyboy’s talking about a time when Johnny got a little beat up by some “rival gang members.”

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Johnny had not purposely but out of fear killed a Soc to protect his friend. Johnny was brave and noble to be able to protect Pony and help the kids at the church. He had been beaten before and was not wanting that to happen to them. He bravely protected his younger friend Pony from the Socs. He had jumped into a burning church without hesitation to save a group of younger school kids.

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These to have a history of quarrels and stick-ups. I believe that Johnny is not justified in what he did and is guilty because he had the intent to kill a Soc for attacking him before and wanted revenge, he killed the wrong person, and he was carrying a concealed switchblade. The first reason that leads me to believe that Johnny is guilty is that he wanted revenge because the socs had attacked him before. The text tell us that after the attack, Johnny started carrying “in his back

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I killed that boy.” This shows that Johnny was being honorable because after the Socs get rid of Ponyboy, they might go after Johnny. He had to kill Bob to protect himself and Ponyboy.

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This started to escalate into a fight. Bob started to drown Ponyboy and Johnny stabbed Bob from behind. In court, Johnny would be found innocent because he was using self-defense to protect Ponyboy and himself. The first reason why Johnny is innocent was that he was doing self-defense to protect himself and Pony.

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Johnny should not face punishment for killing Bob because it was self-defense. When he did it, he saw the Socs killing Ponyboy and reacted by stabbing him. He was provoked and could have gotten extremely hurt. This point is further proven when Johnny states, “I had to. They were drowning you, Pony.

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Ponyboy was being drowned in the water and “(He) couldn’t hold (his) breath any longer”(Hinton 64). David was drowning Ponyboy to the point where he couldn't breathe and “only sucked in water”(64). If Johnny never “Killed (Bob)” he would either have drowned or got abused (63). In essence, he was only doing this for self-defense. He has gotten attacked by the Socs and now he’s taking action to defend himself and Ponyboy.

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He wouldn’t do anything drastic like this. In this case, seeing his good friend Ponyboy getting hurt was not something worth watching. He picked up his switchblade and stabbed Bob. Johnny acted in a way different from his personality, but it was because of his loyalty to Ponyboy. After this disaster, Ponyboy is thankful for Johnny’s act.

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Besides that Johnny also has trauma that made him do certain things as well. Johnny later in the story kills a handsome soc named Bob with a pocket knife then says once Ponyboy wakes up, “I killed him,” slowly. (Hinton 56) Due to needing to protect Ponyboy, he stabbed Bob who was jamming Ponyboy’s head into a fountain. From what I saw Johnny was scared his trauma made him react because he thought Ponyboy was going to die or get the same trauma in which he did.

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Johnny started using drugs and alcohol to cope with the long hours on the road and probably performance anxiety. I also believe that Johnny was suffering from survivor’s guilt, due to the death of his brother and that his father blames him for the death. Add that all up and you have a ticking time bomb ready to go off. I believe the diagnosis

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Consequently with all that was going on at that moment, Johnny defended himself and Ponyboy who is one of the Greasers. Furthermore, Ponyboy responds saying, “‘You really killed him, huh, Johnny? ‘Yeah.’ His voice quivered slightly. ‘I had to.

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“Johnny shoved me toward the window, Get out Ponyboy”(p.91). After Johnny and Ponyboy got all the kids out of the church, Johnny could have just tried to save himself but since he cared about Ponyboy so much he made sure Poyboy was the one who wasn't seriously

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