Character+Analysis+PC15

Character Essay

==When dangerous and risky story book characters are mentioned, some people may think of Peter Pan, Nemo, and Thomas from “The Maze Runner”. All of these characters show great danger because they all do things that could possible hurt themselves or others. Dally from “The Outsiders” is another character that is dangerous and risky. He is also brave, callous, and impulsive. Dally is a member of the Greaser gang. He lives his life not caring what his parents think about him and letting his gang be his family. One day all of this changes, Dallly decides to take his life because of a simple incident.==

==Dally is a character of great bravery. Once about a week had passed since Ponyboy and Johnny killed the Soc, Dally went to pick them up from the abandoned church. All three of them were very hungry so they decided to get a bite to eat. When they were finished they returned to the church only to find it was on fire. A school had taken a trip to it for a picnic. When they pulled up Johnny and Ponyboy jumped out of the car while Dally sat and watched in amazement. They boys ran inside to rescue the children that had been trapped in a room. While they were doing this, Dally ran to the back of the church and busted a hole in the wall to pull the kids out. Once all of the children were out Dally ran into the flames to pull Johnny out who had be hit with a heavy log. On the way to the hospital Ponyboy asked a man where Dally was and he said, “He burned one arm pretty badly, though, trying to drag the other kid out the window.”(95) This shows that Dally doesn’t just care about himself he cares about his friends, and he was very brave to do what he did.==

==Although Dally is very brave, he can also be callous. Before Dally, Johnny, and Ponyboy went to eat, they had a little conversation. Dally and Johnny had an argument and Dally told Johnny that he doesn’t kill people with switch blades. Ponyboy responded by saying, “Dally! You kill people with heaters!”(83) After Ponyboy said this Dally continued on by talking about how he doesn’t really care about killing people, in fact he thinks it’s like a medal. When he kills someone he tells people about it. He is callous because he does not care about his actions. He robs stores for no reason and is always looking for a fight.==

==Just like Dally being callous he is also an impulsive person. One night before Johnny got hurt, he, Ponyboy, and Dally went to the movies. While they were there a girl named Sherry (Cherry) Valance got angry at her boyfriend and sat in front of the boys. Dally started to show how impulsive he was because he started saying mean things to Cherry. She got very agitated and told him to stop many times. Dally continued being mean to Cherry. He decided to go get cokes for her, Pony, Johnny, and himself. When he handed the coke to Cherry he said, “Here this might cool your off.”(24) Of course this only made Cherry even angrier so she took the coke and threw it in Dally’s face. Dally deserved what happened because he was being impulsive. Dally was trying to get Cherry to like him and this did not work at the moment.==

==Although some of these story book characters turn out to be good people in the end, Dally did not. Once Johnny had died because of his injuries from the church, Dally ran out of the hospital and robbed a store. He took the money and ran away, but the cops finally caught up to him. He pulled out his gun and the police fired. Dally died. Dally did not change his behavior after all he did. He only continued his normal routine; rob stores, and look for fights. Dally’s bravery, callousness, and impulsiveness caused huge changes in people’s lives, especially Johnny’s. If he wouldn’t have saved him, Johnny would have died faster and not have been able to talk to Ponyboy one last time.==