Why does Ponyboy dislike Dally in The Outsiders?
Pony only hangs out with Dallas Winston because he is so close to Johnny Cade--Pony's best friend. Johnny idolizes Dally, and Dally treats Johnny like a little brother. Dally is also a member of their greaser gang, another reason Pony tolerates him. While Pony does his best to stay out of serious trouble, knowing that Darry would kill him if he was arrested, Dally is proud of his arrest record and his violent past on the streets of New York City.
... he did everything. I didn't like him, but he was smart, and you had to respect him. (Chapter 1)
Pony disagrees with Johnny's belief that Dally is similar to the "gallant" Southern characters inGone With the Wind. Where Pony can envision Darry and Soda and even Two-Bit "like the heroes in the novels I read..."
Dally was real... Dally was so real he scared me...
Not even Darry wanted to tangle with him. He was dangerous. (Chapter 5)
Pony knew that Dally treated most women badly and didn't care "about anyone but himself," and he knew Dally would die by violent means one day, but on the night of the rumble, Pony still felt close to Dally. "Two friends of mine had died that night: one a hero, the other a hoodlum."
What is Ponyboy's initial opinion of Johnny in The Outsiders?
Ponyboy changes a great deal over the course of just a few days in this novel, and his opinion of various other Greasers changes quite a bit, too. That's why the best place to look for Ponyboy's initial thoughts and opinions of Johnny is in the opening chapter, when Ponyboy is explaining to his readers a little bit about each Greaser. Ponyboy feels a certain amount of camaraderie with Johnny because they are both young and physically small Greasers. Both boys are not the loud, show-off kind of guys, either. However, even Ponyboy expresses a decent amount of sympathy toward Johnny. Ponyboy knows that Johnny has a rough home life, and he knows that Johnny has been beaten to within an inch of his life before; therefore, Ponyboy knows that Johnny is a very scared individual. For that reason, Ponyboy feels that Johnny needs a lot of care and protection. He likens Johnny to a scared little puppy at one point:
Johnny Cade was last and least. If you can picture a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you'll have Johnny. . . . If it hadn't been for the gang, Johnny would never have known what love and affection are.
What is Ponyboy's initial attitude toward Dally in The Outsiders?
Ponyboy Curtis, the narrator of S. E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders, is very clear about his feelings regarding Dally. Early in the story, in the opening chapter, Ponyboy describes his hardscrabble life as an orphaned child being raised by his two older brothers amid a perpetual cycle of violence between the poorer boys of the city, the Greasers, and the more affluent ones, the Socs. Once this basic setting is established, Hinton's young narrator begins to describe important figures in his life, including Dally:
"If I had to pick the real character of the gang, it would be Dallas Winston—Dally. I used to like to draw his picture when he was in a dangerous mood, for then I could get his personality down in a few lines. . .He was tougher than the rest of us—tougher, colder, meaner."
As Ponyboy's description continues, he emphasizes the hardened nature of Dally's character. Dally is the one among the group who is regularly in trouble with the law and who is more than just a Greaser; he is, for all intents and purposes, a criminal. Dally, Ponyboy relates, has been arrested at least once and is seriously lacking in any degree of fealty to the conventions of society. Ponyboy is not, at this point in the story, a fan. As he notes, "I didn't like him, but he was smart and you had to respect him."
This, then, is how Ponyboy views Dally early in The Outsiders. As the story progresses, however, Dally's importance in Ponyboy's life increases, and Ponyboy develops a considerable measure of respect and fondness for the older, tougher, and infinitely loyal Dallas Winston. As readers of Hinton's novel know, Dally will die towards the end of the story, but only after helping Ponyboy and Johnny, and only after suffering emotionally at Johnny's death. Ponyboy learns not only to respect Dally for the latter's fearlessness but to love his now-deceased friend despite his conviction that Dally was a doomed figure:
"Don't think of Dally breaking up in the hospital, crumpling under the street light. Try to think that Johnny is better off now, try to remember that Dally would have ended up like that sooner or later."
Ponyboy mourns his friend and protector's loss, even while knowing inside that Dally was heading down a dangerous path from which there was no return.
In The Outsiders, what does Dally despise?
In The Outsiders, Ponyboy offers a description of Dallas, or Dally, in the first chapter. Ponyboy says, "His eyes were blue, blazing ice, cold with a hatred of the whole world." From this description, it appears that Dally hates most everything. He seems to be somewhat different from the other Greasers according to Ponyboy. In most greasers, there was a "shade of difference that separates a Greaser from a hood." This is not present in Dally as he seems to have a toughness and coldness that the others do not.
Ponyboy also informs the reader about what the Greasers refer to as "rumbles." He explains that Greasers could never really beat the Socs. The Socs always win in the end because they "got all the breaks." Ponyboy speculates that perhaps this could explain why Dally is so bitter.
While Dally appears to be hardened, he is the one that Ponyboy and Johnny go to for help when they are in trouble. Dally even helps to save the boys from a fire after they attempt to rescue children from a burning church. Near the end of the novel, after Johnny dies as a result of burns and wounds from the fire, we see that perhaps there is something Dally doesn't hate. Dally is hurt by Johnny's death. Ponyboy observes that "Johnny was the only thing Dally loved."
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