How Has Johnny Changed

One character that has changed from the beginning of the story until now (i.e. Chapter 4-6) is Johnny. He went from being an innocent puppy that was scared to a younger version of Darry, being tough, cool, and knowing what to do in certain situations. He went from getting beaten up badly by his father, and Bob (once) to killing Bob, and running away from the Police. What caused Johnny to change was that Ponyboy was being drowned by David (a Soc) and Bob was going to kill Johnny after Ponyboy was dead, so Johnny reacted quickly and stabbed Bob and scared away the other Socs. Johnny stated that he never wanted to get beaten up like he did in that lot when Bob almost killed him, so he took action. In the text, it says “If you can picture a little puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you’ll have Johnny.” (Hinton Page 11) This was when Johnny was still scared of Bob and was depressed to the point of mentioning killing himself if he didn’t see any action (which kept him sane). This was when Johnny was protected by older Greasers (Dally, Two-Bit, and even Darry), although Darry wasn’t a Greaser he seems to care about Johnny, this was when anyone could push him around when he was quiet and kept to himself. Later on, in the text, it said: “But Johnny, except for the fact that his hands were twitching, looked as cool as Darry ever had.” (Hinton Page 57) This shows how quickly he changed because earlier that night when in the movie theater he was still shy when first talking to Cherry, but after this, he was a totally different person. It’s like there is a totally different side of him which
It’s surprising that Ponyboy described Johnny as looking as cool as Darry ever had because before he called him a puppy that was lost, everyone’s “kid brother” and the Gang’s “pet.” He really was pushed over the edge and couldn’t take any more of being silent and not taking action, if it wasn’t for him killing Bob, he and Ponyboy would both be