The Outsiders

Johnny is Ponyboy's best friend in the gang. Even though he is 16, Pony describes him as “last and least,” “a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers” (11). Quiet Johnny is considered the gang's pet, and they all feel protective of him. Johnny often spends the night at friends' houses or sleeps in the vacant lot, avoiding his alcoholic, abusive parents at home. The greasers effectively become Johnny's family, though he feels it is still not a genuine replacement for loving parents (51).

Like Ponyboy, Johnny is introspective, too; he and Pony bond over this while hiding out in Windrixville. Johnny is the only one Pony can share his true interests with, and the only one besides Soda that Pony feels comfortable crying with. Johnny is also a keen observer, remembering details that others might overlook. He remembered that Pony once mentioned Gone with the Wind, so he buys a copy on his supply run. He later remembers the Frost poem Pony recites for him and shares his interpretation in a heartfelt letter. These small acts of care and attention demonstrate what a caring friend Johnny is, and why Ponyboy feels his loss so acutely.

The meekest of the group, Johnny is the unlikely catalyst for the major events in the novel. The compounding trauma of his home life, his attack, Bob's murder, and the burning church causes him immense suffering. His suffering has the opposite effect of Dally's, though—instead of becoming “hardened” by all that he endures, Johnny remains an advocate for peace, knowing that the endless violence will never solve the gang's problems. 

Sodapop is the 16-year-old middle Curtis brother, who is beloved and adored by everyone. Pony describes him as the “movie-star kind of handsome,” with “lively, dancing, recklessly laughing eyes that can be gentle and sympathetic one moment and blazing with anger the next” (8). He dropped out of high school but works hard at the local gas station to help support his family.  

Exuberant and charismatic, Pony “loves Soda more than he's ever loved anyone” (2) and admires the joy and positivity with which his brother lives. Soda serves as Pony's protector, defending him against Darry's frequent criticisms and even sharing a bed to ward off Pony's night terrors. Soda's perpetual happiness masks his troubles, though, and his reaction to Sandy's returned letter forces Pony to realize that Pony “never had paid much attention to Soda's problems,” “[taking] for granted that he didn't have any” (174). Always the peacemaker, Soda finally voices just how torn his brothers' fighting makes him feel and is able to bring Darry and Pony together for the sake of saving their family.

Standing over six feet tall and the fittest of the group, Darry is the gang's natural leader and their resident “Superman.” At 20 years old, he accepted guardianship of his younger brothers, Sodapop and Ponyboy, when their parents died in a car crash 8 months ago. He works long, grueling hours for a roofing company to support his brothers, and the hard labor and obligation to provide for his family have aged him significantly; Pony thinks that “Darry’s gone through a lot in his twenty years, grown up too fast” (2). Burdened by this immense responsibility and constant fear of separation, Darry is always serious, strict, and unapologetic for anything he does. 

Darry is closer to, and more lenient with, Sodapop, but Ponyboy has grown more distant from Darry since their parents died. Pony misinterprets Darry's strict rules and overprotective behavior as resentment but comes to learn that Darry acts out of love and fear of losing him. Darry was athletic, popular, and successful in high school, but he could not afford college. Ponyboy recognizes that “in spite of not having much money, the only reason Darry couldn't be a Soc was [...] the gang [...] Darry was too smart to be a greaser” (126). His own failed future only further incentivizes him to ensure Ponyboy achieves all that he could not. By the end of the novel, Pony realizes: “Living the way we do would only make [Darry] more determined to get somewhere. That's why he's better than the rest of us [...] And I was going to be like him” (138). 

Ponyboy identifies Dally as “the real character of the gang” (9)—he is the toughest and meanest gang member, with a “hatred of the whole world” (10). He has been frequently in and out of jail since the age of 10, and “the fight for self-preservation had hardened him beyond caring” (59). Dally has a complete disregard for authority and rules, breaking laws as a matter of principle. 

His toughness and ability to survive a negligent home and whatever trouble he gets into is what makes him a hero to Johnny, who views him similarly to the gallant southern gentlemen from Gone with the Wind. Johnny is the only thing Dally has ever loved (152), and his well-being is the only thing Darry has ever expressed concern about (89). 

Johnny's death is the one thing that finally “breaks” him, and this painful loss hurts him so deeply that it drives him to commit suicide-by-cop. Dally's character represents the tragic future of the “hoods” who cannot escape their circumstances, the future Ponyboy desperately wants to avoid. Despite his crass and irreverent behavior, Pony realizes just how much Dally risked keeping them out of trouble; even if the newspapers did not praise Dally's death as heroic, Pony knew he died gallantly.