The Outsiders Essay

Outsiders Argumentative Essay
S.E. Hilton’s novel The Outsiders is filled with violence, strife, and death. In the novel, Johnny Cade and Ponyboy find themselves in a violent encounter with the Socs. One Soc, Bob, is killed during the encounter. Although some may disagree, Johnny Cade is completely innocent of murder because he was terrified and only acted in self-defence.
Johnny is guilty because he committed murder because there were other things he could have done instead of resorting to killing. First of all, the police were already on their way, so Johnny and Pony could have held out a little longer and everything would have been alright. Furthermore, Johnny could have easily injured Bob, but Johnny wanted revenge for when the Socs

Johnny’s parents beat him, ignored him, and constantly abused him which started his PTSD. “His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignored him, except when she was hacked off at something, and then you could hear her yelling at him clear down at our house”(Hinton, 12). Then on top of that the Socs jumped and beat him and Bob was the Soc that nearly killed Johnny with his rings. “I knew it was Bob when you told me the story. He was so proud of his rings”(Hinton, 128). After Johnny had been jumped the first time was scarred, so he started carrying a switchblade and would use it if he had to. “And Johnny who was the most law-abiding of us, now carried in his back pocket a six-inch switchblade. He’d use it, too, if he ever got jumped again”(Hinton, 34). This is what made Johnny murder because Johnny was a kid, afraid of his own shadow, who grew up in a rough environment, and killing was his last

When they got jumped the Socs were drowning Pony and going to beat Johnny. “I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you. And they had a blade… they were gonna beat me up….”(Johnny Pg,57 ). “Like… -I swallowed- like they did before?”(Ponyboy Pg.57). This evidence is proof that Johnny only wanted to defend them. Johnny committed a homicide kill, only to protect himself and Ponyboy.
Johnny’s personality and actions are confirmation that he wouldn’t kill someone on purpose. Johnny is a kid, kind, brave, gallant, and terrified of everything. Johnny had never done anything really bad, killing Bob was the first time he did. “I ain’t got no record with the fuzz and it was self-defence”(Hinton, 87). Also, if Johnny was awful then he wouldn’t have saved those kids from the fire, but he did, with courage. Johnny regretted killing Bob and wanted to take responsibility because he didn’t want to drag anyone else down for his