Johnny And Dally Analysis

How can two people with two totally different personalities be so similar? In S.E Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, there are two characters that have similar life situations but totally different personalities. Johnny and Dally both have it tough at home and place little value on their lives, but they both have very different personalities. Dally is tough and mean, but Johnny is sensitive. A main similarity between them is that they both have abusive parents.
Johnny and Dally share one big similarity and that is that they both have abusive parents. Johnny’s parents don’t pay any attention to him or they beat him, that really bugs Johnny. The rest of the gang notices that and they show Johnny the affection that he needs. Ponyboy says “‘His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignores him”’ (12). It is very obvious that Johnny is sensitive about his situation at home. Dally is the opposite of Johnny is his situation at home, he does not care about his parents or if they care about him. Dally says to Johnny, “‘My old man don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter. That don’t
Johnny has said that he has considered killing himself multiple times. At the hospital Johnny says “‘I don’t mind dying now(...) their lives are worth more than mine”’ (178). Johnny does not think that he has much more to live for and he places no value on his life. Dally does not think his life much value as well. He has a record with the fuzz a mile long and no one cares about him. Ponyboy thinks to himself “Johnny was the only thing Dally loved and now Johnny was gone” (152). Dally thinks that now Johnny is dead he does not have anything else to live for. Because Johnny died Dally places no value on his life, like Johnny, and he gets shot by the police. Johnny and Dally think there lives have no purpose making them