The Outsider Compare And Contrast Essay

How can two people from what seems like different sides of the world come together and coexist? Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade from S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders are a good example of two such people. Dallas and Johnny both have parents who abuse and neglect them. They also care about each other. However, their personalities differ which is evident when Dallas and Johnny give Ponyboy different advice. Additionally, Dally is the least law-abiding out of out the gang and Johnny is the most. Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade share several similarities, but they have a few things that are not alike at all.
A strong similarity between Johnny and Dally is that they both have parents who abuse and neglect them. Half of the time Dally’s father does not know where he is. While Dally, Johnny, and Ponyboy are driving back to the church, Dally says, “‘ Shoot, 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 bother me none’” (88). Dally’s dad does not care about him. His dad neglects him and does not pay any attention to him. This
One way that they are different is Johnny is the most law-abiding and Dally is the least law-abiding out of the gang. Dally, Johnny, and Ponyboy go to the Nightly Double drive-in. They all have the money to get in but “Dally hated doing things the legal way. . . He went around trying to break the laws” (20). Dally is so ignorant that he purposely goes around breaking the laws. Unlike Dally, Johnny is the most law-abiding. Around the fuzz, Johnny “Stuck up for the gang and kept his mouth shut good around cops. . .who was the most law-abiding of us. . .” (34). Johnny knows how to behave around the fuzz and never acts up. He also likes to brag about how he is clean and does not have a record with the fuzz. Even though Dally is the least law-abiding out of the gang, Johnny is the most which sets them