Theme Of Violence In The Outsiders

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Violence was much more powerful than we imagine not only because it led tremendous dis- aster, but also due to the deep impact on individuals. In the book of the Outsiders, the violence of
Johnny’s family, the other greasers, and their opposing gangs, the Socials, strongly affected Johnny.
The Violence of Johnny’s family impacts Johny’s natural instincts, which means that some of his characteristics were already fixed since he was born, and influenced him in daily life. Johnny grew up in a family without care, love, and understanding. From his parents, he barely gained the warmth of being in a complete family. As Ponyboy said, “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 clearly down at our house. He hates that worse than getting whipped…If it hadn’t been for the gang, Johnny would never have known what love and affection are” (Hinton P.12), we can clearly known that Johnny’s parents were extraordinarily violent to Johnny. Due to the charac- teristic of Johnny’s father, the hereditary gene of violence affected fixed some of Johnny’s personal- ity. Also, Johnny was only the one who serves as a vent to his parents’ anger. Days pass and years pass, Johnny was horribly scared of violence. According to the saying of parents are the best teach- ers to children, the violence was just like a seed which was kept in Johnny’s heart and grew gradual- ly day by day. That was all