outsiders hero essay

The Outsiders

By s. e. hinton, the outsiders essay questions.

Compare the characters of Bob and Dally.

On the surface, Bob and Dally couldn't be more different. However, the two boys are linked together by the phrase, "Next time you want a broad, pick up your own kind." Right before the Socs attack Ponyboy and Johnny, in the fight that results in Johnny killing Bob, Bob states the reasoning for the attack. He wants the Greasers to know their place in society, and to stay away from Soc girls. Later, in Chapter 6, Dally echoes Bob's words when he explains that Cherry is acting as a spy for the Greasers, adding: "Man, next time I want a broad I'll pick up my own kind." Ponyboy remembers Bob saying this not even a week before. Both boys are victims of the violence between the Socs and the Greasers, and die before the story is over. They both have violent tendencies, look for fights, and end up losing their lives because of it; more important, both draw ideological lines in the sand.

Discuss the relationship between Johnny and Dally.

Johnny feels hero-worship toward Dally, and thinks of him as the most gallant of all the gang. Dally wants to protect Johnny and keep him from turning out the way he himself has. As they drive back to the church in Chapter 5, he explains, "You get hardened in jail. I don't want that to happen to you. Like it happened to me..." After Johnny dies, Dally reacts with uncharacteristic emotion. Ponyboy realizes that "Johnny was the only thing Dally loved. And now Johnny was gone."

Discuss the relationship between Ponyboy and Darry, and how it changes over the course of the novel.

At the beginning of the novel, Ponyboy resents Darry for being too strict and always bothering him for not using his head. He recognizes the sacrifices that Darry has made to raise his two little brothers, but still thinks Darry just doesn't care for him at all.

But in Chapter 5, when Soda and Darry come to the hospital, Ponyboy has a revelation. He sees his oldest brother cry for the first time in years - he didn't even cry at their parents' funeral - and realizes that "Darry did care about me, maybe as much as he cared about Soda, and because he cared he was trying too hard to make something of me." He understands that Darry is terrified of losing another person he loves, and wonders "how I could ever have thought him hard and unfeeling."

In Chapter 10, when Ponyboy wakes up momentarily, he asks Soda if Darry is sorry he's sick. He also worries throughout the chapter that maybe he didn't ask for Darry while he was delirious, but Soda finally confirms that he did. This concern for Darry's feelings is a huge change from the way Ponyboy regarded his oldest brother in the beginning of the novel. Now he is worried that, because deep down he feels he can relate better to Soda, he might have left Darry out in his unconscious babbling.

How do Ponyboy's feelings toward Randy reflect the conflict between the Socs and the Greasers?

At first, Ponyboy sees Randy as a violent Soc to be avoided; he is Marcia's boyfriend, and is involved in jumping the Greasers. But in Chapter 7, they have a conversation in Randy's car, and Randy explains why he is leaving town instead of attending the rumble. He says, "You can't win, even if you whip us. You'll still be where you were before - at the bottom. And we'll still be the lucky ones with all the breaks. So it doesn't do any good, the fighting and the killing. It doesn't prove a thing. We'll forget it if you win, or if you don't. Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs." Ponyboy begins to see Randy as someone who can appreciate sunsets, and feels a connection to him regardless of their different social statuses.

However, in Chapter 11 when Randy comes to visit Ponyboy at home, Ponyboy's denial about Johnny's death and the events leading up to it cause a rift between the two boys again. Ponyboy decides, "He was just like all the rest of the Socs. Cold-blooded and mean."

What do Johnny's last words mean?

Johnny's last words echo in Chapter 12 when Ponyboy breaks a bottle to defend himself against the Socs. Two-Bit says, "Ponyboy, listen, don't get tough. You're not like the rest of us and don't try to be..." Ponyboy is confused by what Two-Bit means, since he felt nothing when the Socs approached him. But he proves that he is still "gold" by bending down to pick up the pieces of broken glass from the ground without even thinking about it.

How does Gone with the Wind represent an ideal for Johnny?

Johnny puts his last note to Ponyboy inside his copy of Gone with the Wind . The gallantry of the Southern gentlemen in the book, who rode to their certain deaths bravely, inspires Johnny and reminds him of Dally. This allows Ponyboy to see Dally in that light, too, and to consider that his death might have been gallant. Johnny dies as a result of rescuing children from the fire in the church, so in that way he lives up to the ideal in Gone with the Wind .

What is the difference between Ponyboy the narrator and Ponyboy the character?

It is always clear that Ponyboy is narrating The Outsiders from a point in the future, after the events of the story have taken place. However, this rift between narrator and character becomes definite in Chapter 11, when Ponyboy's pretending makes him an unreliable narrator for the first time in the story. When Randy comes to visit, Ponyboy says that he was the one who killed Bob, and that Johnny is not dead. He repeats it aloud to convince himself of it. But as narrator, he says, "Johnny didn't have anything to do with Bob's getting killed." The reader has depended upon Ponyboy's narration to dictate the events of the story, and now the frame of reference is thrown off, since we know he has moved into an alternate reality.

Discuss Ponyboy's "dreaming", particularly in regard to Johnny's death.

Ponyboy's reaction to Johnny's death has been foreshadowed by Ponyboy's tendency to create alternate realities for himself throughout the story, but the difference is that "this time my dreaming worked. I convinced myself that he wasn't dead." Throughout the story, Ponyboy creates these alternate realities in order to cope with situations he feels are unbearable. For instance, in Chapter 3 he dreams of a life in the country, with his parents still alive and Darry kind and caring again. What is important to note is that he concedes that his dreams are only dreams, and that he admits to use them as a mode of escape.

Describe how eyes are used as a characterization technique.

Ponyboy's view of other characters is often reflected by his interpretation of their eyes. For example, he says that "Darry's eyes are his own. He's got eyes that are like two pieces of pale blue-green ice. They've got a determined set to them, like the rest of him... he would be real handsome if his eyes weren't so cold." Darry's eyes reflect Ponyboy's view of his oldest brother as "hardly human." In contrast, Sodapop's eyes are "dark brown - lively, dancing, recklessly laughing eyes that can be gentle and sympathetic one moment and blazing with anger the next." Johnny is defined by his emotive eyes; the difference between his mother and him is clear to Ponyboy because of their eyes: "Johnnycake's eyes were fearful and sensitive; hers were cheap and hard."

In what way is The Outsiders a call to action?

The Outsiders ends with its own opening sentence, as Ponyboy begins to write his assignment for English class, and it becomes clear that the story the reader has just finished is the assignment itself. It is inspired by Johnny's letter to Ponyboy, in which he explains what he meant by his last words: "Stay gold." There is no reason for lives to be cut short because of senseless violence between the Greasers and the Socs. Ponyboy feels called to action by Johnny's note, and wants to save the lives of other hoods who might end up like Dally. In Chapter 12, this goal is underlined:

"There should be some help, someone should tell them before it was too late. Someone should tell their side of the story, and maybe people would understand then and wouldn't be so quick to judge a boy by the amount of hair oil he wore."

The Outsiders Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Outsiders is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

why do you think johhny wasn't scared, depsite the obvious danger?

Johnny is a sensitive boy. He cares for others, especially those that are helpless like the children. This is perhaps because he has felt so helpless in his own childhood. It is also probable their cigarettes started the fire.

How did the Greasers react to the beatings Johnny received from his father? What evidence is there in paragraphs 1-5 that the Greasers were more deeply affected by Johnny’s beating at the hands of the Socs? Why do you think this was the case? Cite specifi

From the text:

I remembered Johnny--- his face all cut up and bruised, and I remembered how he had cried when we found him, half-conscious, in the comer lot. Johnny had it awful rough at home--- it took a lot to make him cry.

the outsiders

The Greasers have an extended family. The Curtis family have taken characters like Johnny and Two-Bit under their wing. The Socks may have money but they do not have brotherhood. Dally is doing his best to be a good father figure but their family...

Study Guide for The Outsiders

The Outsiders study guide contains a biography of author S. E. Hinton, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Outsiders
• The Outsiders Summary
• The Outsiders Video
• Character List

Essays for The Outsiders

The Outsiders essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Outsiders written by S. E. Hinton.

• Analysis of the American Reality, Possibility, and Dream found in "Nickel and Dimed" and "The Outsiders"
• Stay Gold, Ponyboy: Historical Models of Childhood in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders
• The Socioeconomic Triggers of Juvenile Delinquency: Analysis of "The Outsiders"
• Greater Meanings in The Outsiders: A Theater, a Sunset, and a Novel

Lesson Plan for The Outsiders

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Outsiders
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Outsiders Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Outsiders

• Introduction
• Major characters
• Controversy
• Critical reception

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Outsiders — The Outsiders Character Traits

The Outsiders Character Traits

• Categories: Character The Outsiders

About this sample

Words: 745 |

Published: Mar 6, 2024

Words: 745 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, ponyboy curtis, johnny cade, dallas winston.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof Ernest (PhD)

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 1070 words

1 pages / 610 words

1 pages / 607 words

2 pages / 887 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on The Outsiders

Dallas Winston, a character from S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," is known for his rebellious and tough nature. Throughout the book, Dallas Winston, also known as Dally, makes several memorable quotes that reflect his [...]

In S. E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," the character of Darrel Curtis, also known as Darry, plays a significant role. As the eldest sibling and caretaker of his two younger brothers, Darry is portrayed as a responsible and [...]

In S. E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," the character of Dallas Winston, also known as Dally, plays a significant role in the story. Dally is portrayed as a tough, rebellious, and troubled teenager who often finds himself in [...]

In S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," the character of Dallas Winston, also known as Dally, stands out as a complex and intriguing figure. His tough exterior and rebellious nature mask a deeper vulnerability and inner turmoil [...]

In the vast landscape of literature, there are certain works that stand out not only for their storytelling prowess but also for their ability to weave in elements of other literary works, historical events, and popular culture. [...]

Johnny Cade is a character in S.E. Hinton's novel, The Outsiders, who stands out for his quiet demeanor and inner strength. Despite being a member of the Greasers, a tough and rebellious gang, Johnny is portrayed as a sensitive [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

Joe Lieberman and David Mixner, Exemplary Outsiders

By James Kirchick

Mr. Kirchick is the author of “Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington” and a contributing writer at Tablet.

The gay activist David Mixner and Senator Joe Lieberman died last month at the ages of 77 and 82, respectively, and were it not for the coincident timing of their passing, I would have no reason to reflect collectively upon their legacies. Biographically, ideologically and temperamentally, they were very different men, and to my knowledge, never interacted. But I was fortunate to know them both, and after attending their funerals last week, I’ve come to appreciate some important qualities they shared.

In the summer of 1993, Mr. Mixner was at the height of his political influence. An old friend, Bill Clinton, was occupying the White House. In April, Mr. Mixner spoke to an estimated one million people assembled on the National Mall for the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi-Equal Rights and Liberation. And the next month, he featured prominently in a Vanity Fair spread celebrating America’s “new gay power elite.”

As would become evident once Mr. Clinton reneged on a promise to repeal the ban on gay people serving in the armed forces, however, the trappings of power were not what attracted Mr. Mixner to politics. Even before Mr. Clinton entered the White House, military leaders had expressed strong support for the ban, and the administration eventually agreed to a compromise allowing gays to serve provided they kept their sexual orientation secret, a policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Mr. Mixner did not limit his displeasure with Mr. Clinton to words, leading a protest at the White House in which he was arrested along with 28 other people. “I just have to do what is right,” Mr. Mixner said .

Though he would later reconcile with Mr. Clinton, Mr. Mixner paid a heavy cost for his fidelity to principle. “In 24 hours, every one of my clients canceled,” he told me in 2019 of the business consultancy he operated alongside his political activities. To pay his rent, Mr. Mixner pawned old watches.

In 2006, Senator Lieberman faced a similar conundrum. Only six years earlier, he had made history as the first Jew to appear on a major party presidential ticket when Vice President Al Gore chose him as his running mate. But Mr. Lieberman’s refusal to join other Democrats in condemning the Iraq war, which most of his Senate colleagues had initially supported, infuriated the party’s left-wing base, fueling a primary challenge to his re-election bid by the antiwar scion of a prominent family, Ned Lamont.

Had Mr. Lieberman joined the rest of his colleagues in washing his hands of Iraq, he might have staved off Mr. Lamont’s campaign and handily won re-election. But to do so would have been out of character for Mr. Lieberman, who believed strongly in the justice of the war and securing a democratic future for the Iraqi people. Though Mr. Lieberman lost the nomination to Mr. Lamont, he refused to let the Democratic primary electorate have the final say. He mounted an independent candidacy in the general election and became the first and only senator in American history to lose a party primary and regain his seat in the same cycle.

Though Mr. Mixner was a pacifist who got his political start in the movement against the Vietnam War, and Mr. Lieberman personified the liberal hawk, both men were inspired by the two forces that most captured the imaginations of young people in the 1960s: John F. Kennedy and the civil rights movement. The 35th president’s appeal that Americans “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s insistence that that country live up to its founding principles, motivated Mr. Mixner and Mr. Lieberman to pursue lives devoted to public service. Theirs would be careers guided by idealism.

Mr. Mixner and Mr. Lieberman were also members of minority groups that, in different ways and to varying degrees, had been excluded from the promise of equal American citizenship. This experience of being outsiders deeply affected their political worldviews and caused them to embrace the struggles of other excluded Americans as their own. Mr. Lieberman was a longtime supporter of gay rights, sponsoring the legislation that ultimately rescinded “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Allowing gay people to serve openly in the military, Mr. Lieberman told me at the time, was “an extension, the next step of the civil rights movement.” Meanwhile, in one of his last video blogs , posted in late October, Mr. Mixner spoke emotionally about the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, declaring, “We will never allow the kind of pogroms that haunted the people of Jewish faith in Russia and Eastern Europe again.”

Mr. Mixner and Mr. Lieberman lived their lives openly and proudly — one as a gay man, the other as an observant Jew — serving as role models for their communities, and indeed for all Americans.

Though their independence of mind could sometimes lead to charges of stubbornness, Mr. Mixner and Mr. Lieberman were adept at working across political divides. In 1978, Mr. Mixner persuaded Ronald Reagan to publicly oppose a California ballot initiative that would have banned gay people from teaching in public schools, an intervention that proved decisive in defeating the measure at the ballot box. When Mr. Clinton later came out against the Defense of Marriage Act, the law he had signed as president in 1996 that forbade the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, many gay activists responded with self-righteous anger, given that he had signed the law as president. Mr. Mixner counseled forgiveness. “The purpose of a movement is to change minds, not in some Stalinistic way to punish those who are not ideologically pure,” he said. And in a final act of grace, before he died, Mr. Lieberman asked Mr. Lamont, who since their bruising Senate campaign became governor of Connecticut, to deliver the first eulogy at his funeral.

In his own eulogy to Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Gore used the Yiddish word mensch to describe his former running mate, explaining: “Those who seek its definition will not find it in dictionaries so much as they find it in the way Joe Lieberman lived his life. Friendship over anger. Reconciliation as a form of grace. We can learn from Joe Lieberman’s life some critical lessons about how we might heal the rancor in our nation today.”

And we can learn the same from the life of David Mixner, who though raised in an Irish Catholic family also qualified as a mensch.

Sitting in the pews at each of their services, I had the distinct feeling that not just two menschen, but an entire style of politics, was being laid to rest.

James Kirchick ( @jkirchick ) is the author of “Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington” and a contributing writer at Tablet magazine.

Source photographs by CQ Archive and Brooks Kraft, via Getty Images.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .