Examples Of Heroism In The Outsiders

People often think that a hero is someone perfect—someone who always looks good, does the right thing, and says the right thing at the right time, but that is not always the case. Heroism means putting others before oneself and helping them, even if it is risky to do so. You do not have to be handsome, wear a cape, or fly to do that; sometimes ordinary people can unexpectedly turn out to be heroes. In the book The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, one unexpected hero is the character Ponyboy Curtis, a poor member of a gang called The Greasers. A second unexpected hero is Johnny Cade, a quiet, abused teen who is also a Greaser. Being an underdog does not automatically make one a hero, though. The character of Dally Winston, for example, is not quite a hero. An imperfect, ordinary person with problems can be a hero if he/she is willing to sacrifice his/her own health and
Yet, he proves to be very heroic. Ponyboy saved some kids from dying in a burning church, even though it was difficult and dangerous. Ponyboy recalls,“I picked up a kid, and he promptly bit me, but I leaned out the window and dropped him,” (pg. 93). In this passage, we see that Ponyboy does not worry about how the kid treats him. He still saves the child and does his best not to harm him. In order to teach and help others, Ponyboy decides to write his theme about events that led to the death of his friends, even though it is painful for him to think about what happened. Ponyboy thought, “There should be some help in the world, someone should tell them before it’s too late. Someone should tell their side of the story…” (pg. 179). This shows that Ponyboy is determined to help other suffering teens, like The Greasers, by writing about them. Even though he was sad about his friends and was having trouble focusing on school work, Ponyboy wants to