Authors Note: I am writing about how family is important and that your “gang”, like the Greasers or your friends, can be a substitute for the lack of a family.
Family is important to all people. Some people are unfortunate because they don’t have a "family". Having a family doesn’t always mean you have to be related through blood, but you can be close to other people that act like they are your family. Best friends that are close to you could be considered family. The Greasers are a gang and they are a family to each other. Some of them don’t have parents or they have parents that abuse them. Family influences your life in positive and negative ways.
Darry turns down an amazing scholarship to help take care and be the guardian of his brothers. If he would have accepted the scholarship, he could have lived the life of a Soc. Instead, he chose to raise his brothers so they could stay together as a family. Ponyboy thinks that Darry doesn’t love him, but Darry loves him so much that he worries about him and is strict. He doesn’t want anything terrible to happen to Ponyboy or Soda. “Are you all right, Ponyboy?”Darry said to Ponyboy when he found Socs trying to jump Ponyboy. He was really scared for him and wanted to protect him. This shows compassion and caring for another person he loved.
Johnny had a mom and a dad, but they abused him. He got whipped by his dad and ignored by his mom. The Greasers were family to Johnny. Sometimes Johnny didn’t go home at night, because his parents fought so much. “We were used to seeing Johnny banged up- his father clobbered him around a lot, and although it made us madder then heck, we couldn’t do anything about it.”(pg30) This quote relates to family because the Greasers tried to help Johnny by caring for him like a brother. They became Johnny’s family because his parents weren’t there for him. “If it hadn’t been for the gang Johnny would have never known what love and affection is” says Ponyboy (pg14). Ponyboy pretty much says it all. If Johnny would have never been a part of the gang no one would have loved him as much as the Greasers did. While Johnny was in the hospital, his mother wanted to see him. He told the nurse that he didn’t want to see her because it was too late for her to care about him. He realized that she only came to yell at him, not because she loved him. The Greasers obviously love him more than his parents ever loved him.
Dallas Winston was tough, mean and someone you didn’t ever want to run into. Deep inside Dally was a good guy, because he loved someone. The person he loved the most was Johnny. Dally never really had a real family. He was in juvenile detention at the age of ten. That is when he lost his innocence. Family meant so much to him, even if it didn’t seem like it. Dally was there when Johnny died in the hospital. He was so heartbroken that he bolted out of the hospital room. “How can I take it? I (Ponyboy) wondered. Dally is tougher than I am. Why can I take it when Dally can’t? And then I knew. Johnny was the only thing Dally loved and now Johnny was gone.”(pg133). This quote explains that Dally really loved Johnny, like a brother or son. Having someone that close to you die, is very heartbreaking and Johnny was all Dally had.
In conclusion, having great friends that you consider family can sometimes be better than having your real relatives love you. The characters in the book, The Outsiders, are all Johnny and Dally could rely on. They were their families because no one else loved them like the Greasers did.
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