Similarities Between Of Mice And Men And The Outsiders

In a Death, More Than One Person Will Die
By Lanie Cherry

A death is a significant loss. A death isn’t only about the person who dies, but the people that it impacts. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is a book about a poor group of friends called the greasers living in Oklahoma. The reader looks through the eyes of Ponyboy, a greaser who lives with his two brothers Darry and Sodapop. The Soc’s live on the other side of town, they are rich and have everything they want. Throughout the book these two groups face their differences and by the end they realize how similar they really are. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a book about two migrant workers named Lennie and George. Lennie is a big guy who usually doesn’t know right from wrong. George

In The Outsiders, Johnny’s place in the greaser gang is the group's pet. Johnny has horrible parents and he got badly beat up by the Socs in the past. Regardless of this terrible background, Johnny stills stays the caring person he is. Dally, another member of the greasers is known as quite the opposite. People see him as the reckless boy with no family who lives to cause trouble and doesn’t feel any shame in it. But the reader learns that Dally’s only soft spot is Johnny. In Of Mice and Men, Lennie is also known as almost a pet or someone who can’t be messed with. Just like Dally, George has always wanted to protect Lennie. Even though they have their differences they still care for each other greatly. First, both deaths make the people around them, the saddest they have ever been before. When Johnny died, Dally didn’t know how to take it. He has never felt what it was like to love someone before and now that the only person he loved died, he can’t take it. After Johnny dies in the hospital Dally runs off in anger and sadness when Ponyboy says, “Dallas is gone,” I said. “He ran out like the devil is after him. He’s gonna blow up. He couldn't take it,” (Pg. 152). In Of Mice and Men George will have to live his life just like all of the other ranchers; lonely and with no purpose. The reader knows how devastated George is and will continue to be

Both people didn’t live a good life. Curley’s wife was lonely and didn’t follow her dream, and Dally never really let anyone except Johnny. Both of these deaths show that if you live this kind of lifestyle, you won’t really live a good life. Steinbeck and Hinton wanted the reader to know that the best way to live is to love. When you have people you love in your life, whether it is your family or your friends, you life will have a purpose. In Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife tells Lennie, “I coulda made somethin’ of myself.” She said darkly,”(pg. 88). SHe continues to talking about a job she got as an actress but how she turned it away so she could marry Curley. This shows Curley’s wife’s regret in not following her dream to be an actress and living on a ranch where no one cares about her. In The Outsiders Dally dies because he couldn’t take the fact that the only person he ever loved died. This shows that Dally had been living his life, not loving anyone besides Johnny. His walls were up so high that he could never let anyone in except for Johnny. Another reason these two deaths are alike is because the one time both characters let someone in, they end up dieing. In Of Mice and Men, Curley's wife started talking to Lennie and soon, she told him all about why she ended up on the Ranch. Then she let him feel her hair. When she told him to stop he didn’t let