Johnny & Dally In The Outsiders
DescriptionAn essay quickly exploring Johnny & Dally from The Outsiders, comparing them to the poem We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks.
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"Live every day as if it were your last." We Real Cool, by Gwendolyn Brooks, is about how you should live life to the fullest and is set around seven pool players at a pool hall called the Golden Shovel. It describes how they stay out late and thin gin so everyone can have a drink. The Outsiders by S.E Hinton is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and revolves around a fourteen-year-old boy named Ponyboy and his gang, the Greasers. Pony has two brothers, Darry and Soda, with Darry letting go of his dream of college to becoming their parental figures after the death of their parents. Soda does something similar, dropping out of high school to get a job at a gas station. But there are other characters in The Outsiders, those being Johnny and Dally. They are both part of the Greasers, and though different in many ways, are perfectly represented in poem by Brooks. We Real Cool has themes that perfectly personify Johnny and Dally from The Outsiders.The theme of We Real Cool is to live every day like it is your last, living fast and dying young, trying to have as much fun as possible while you can. The poem starts off with seven expert friends in their favorite tavern, playing pool and drinking gin. “The Pool Players./Seven at the Golden Shovel./Left school. We/Lurk late. We/Thin gin. We/Die soon” (Lines 1-10). The poem describes all of these delinquent-esque activities, describing how they thin gin, which means that they water it down so there is more, to give everyone drinks. Johnny can perfectly relate to this, especially the idea of living life to the fullest, as his is quickly cut short, but instead due to a heroic act.Johnny relates to many themes within We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks. Later in the book, Johnny is in the hospital, wounded to the point where he may be disabled for the rest of his life. He there because of a fire that occurred at an abandoned church he and Ponyboy were using as a hideout. The church was full of children when it was on fire, so Ponyboy, Dally, and Johnny rushed in to save the kids. Unfortunately, Johnny ended up getting extremely injured, leading to one of the sadest part of the novel: “‘Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold...’ The pillow seemed to sink a little, and Johnny died” (148). Johnny saved the lives of many, even though it ended up costing his, but he was okay with that. This is how Johnny relates to living every day like it is his last. He ran into a burning building to save children, instead of turning around and walking the other way, sacrificing his chance of living a long and healthy life for others. But along with Johnny, Dally can also relate to this poem.Dally perfectly relates to the idea of living life like it is your last day. In one of the most unexpected point in The Outsiders, Dally had just robbed a grocery store and was running from the police. He called the Greasers and told them to hide him, but it was too late. As Dally stood in a vacant lot, the police surrounded him, waiting to fire. Dally stood there with a smile on his face, the officers taking swift action to stop the "dangerous" Dally. “He was jerked half around by the impact of bullets, then slowly crumpled with a look of grim triumph on his face. He was dead before he did the ground”(154). Dally knew he was going to die, and he was okay with it. It's not every day you see someone get shot by the police with a smile on their face. Dally wanted to be dead and was satisfied with everything he had done, so he got into trouble with the police on purpose. And as a result, the Greasers grieved his death, ultimately understanding that it was what Dally wanted.Two characters that best personify the themes in We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks are Johnny and Dally. Johnny had a pretty rough home life and was always somewhat invisible to his parents. So, when Johnny saw an opportunity to save the lives of those children, he went for it, knowing that it was the only way he could live his life to the fullest. And the poem really relates to this, as he made that decision without hesitation, disregarding if he would make it out alive. Dally, on the other hand, started his criminal lifestyle at a relatively young age, making him very outgoing and not really thinking twice about his decisions. But he did it because he did not care what tomorrow would bring, only what today had. And ultimately, this can connect to real life as there are many people who live carefree, not caring about the future, only the present. They understand that we all die eventually, so why not make the most of it?
Sources
Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders. Collins, 1983.
Brooks, Gwendolyn. “We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks | Poetry Magazine.” Poetry Foundation, 1963, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/28112/we-real-cool. Accessed 3 April 2023.
