Dally In The Outsiders

“Sometimes the toughest are the most broken.” (Anonymous) In the novel The Outsiders, Dally Winston, a poor seventeen year-old with a tarnished past, played an influential role in the lives of his fellow friends, the Greasers, and mostly over Ponyboy. Dally was both the toughness and the anger that existed and held back the Greasers and Ponyboy. Known as the toughest of the Greaser gang, with no family, Dally felt he could take violent risks. While Dally’s death seemed tragic, if Dally had continued in the same manner, the lives of the Greasers and Ponyboy would have traveled down a darker path.
As a Greaser, Dally always acted very “tough” and “hard” and only felt that he should live because of Johnny, the one true person he ever loved. However, Dally also had an
Behind Dally’s rough exterior, Johnny saw his gallant and heroic side. Dally, on the other hand, represented the anger and hatred the Greasers had towards their archenemies, the Socs. With Johnny gone, the harmony that once existed had now disappeared. If Dally had not died shortly after Johnny, the gang would have lost sight of the dream Johnny had for them and followed Dally’s downward spiral. Ponyboy implied this when he narrated, “He (Dally) had quite a reputation….you had to respect him.” (11 Hinton) The Greasers most likely would follow in the footsteps of Dally and even channel Dally’s frustrations with the Socs, the world, and life in general. Moreover, this hatred would have driven the Greasers all to a life of crime and with the attitude of dying young. “You’d better wise up Pony….you get tough like me and you don’t get hurt.” (147 Hinton) as said by Dally. Ponyboy would have been the most influenced and would have never have grown up to become his own