The Outsiders Argumentative Essay

Jaxi Woods-Smith

Mrs. Brown

English Period 1

September 26th, 2012

The Outsiders
By S.E. Hinton

“Dally risked his life for us, to keep Johnny out of trouble.” (Pg. 117.) This is a quote from S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, a novel about two social groups, the Greasers and the Socs, and how the war between them cost three lives. The book is in the perspective of Ponyboy Curtis, a sensitive Greaser who is put in the middle of the social conflict when he friend Johnny kills a Soc in self-defense. Ponyboy and Johnny run away to escape the law, and to do so go to their friend Dally for help. Now, it is known that Dally was a criminal, a true Greaser. He was arrested at the age of ten, and mugged small children for fun. He didn’t care about anyone or anything, except for Johnny. Dally risked jail time to help them, providing a gun, money, and a plan. Johnny and Ponyboy escape to an abandoned church, and a few days later the church catches fire. Johnny and Ponyboy run into the church to save a group of small children trapped inside, despite Dally’s objections. Dally then runs in after them to help. Ponyboy and Dally escape with minor injuries, but Johnny’s injuries are much worse. If he survived, he would be crippled for life. Johnny dies the next day, right in front of Ponyboy and Dally. Dally loses it, and runs out. Ponyboy goes home to find out that Dally robbed a grocery store. He goes to the lot right in time to see Dally pull out an unloaded gun on the police, instantly being shot and killed. Dally killed himself, because he could not live without the only person he had ever loved, Johnny. He was completely justified to do so. Dallas Winston never knew a world with anything good in it. He grew up in the wrong side of town in New York City, was constantly getting in trouble with the law, and he says in the book that his father does not care about him. “…my old man doesn’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in a gutter.” (Pg. 68.) Dally never mentions his mother, so it is assumable that Dally grew up without any kind of parental support system, making life that much harder. The only good in the world Dally ever saw was in Johnny. Dally did his best to keep Johnny out of trouble, and when he couldn’t, he tried to keep him out of jail. Dally did not want Johnny to turn out like him. When Johnny died, all of the goodness he saw in the world went with him. Dally had nothing else to live for. He could not live in a world where everything was just terrible, all the time. I understand why some people might think that Dally was wrong to kill himself. They believe that Dally could have gone on with his life. They believe he had something to live for in the world, something to wake up in the morning for, when he knew he was destined to spend his life behind bars, or dying in a violent, desperate way. That is very wrong to me. Dally saw nothing good in the world, and when you see nothing good in the world, have no emotions, when no one loves you and you have no love for anyone or anything, you do not feel you need to be alive anymore. Dally was justified in killing himself. Dally killed himself in a final way to show his love for Johnny. He did it for Johnny, the one person he had ever loved, and the only person that had ever loved him. “Johnny was right. He died gallant.” (Pg. 117.) I do not know why it had to end this way. I wish it had ended in a way that Dally didn’t die, because Dally was