Johnny Cade is the best friend of Ponyboy, the main character. Ponyboy describes him as being the “gang’s pet” [S.E. Hilton,12]. He is sixteen years old and already been shown how cruel life can be. He is constantly abused by his parents and after the beating from a gong of Socs (“[…] it’s an abbreviation for the socials, the jet set, the west side rich kids”) [S.E. Hilton 02] that occurred before the story began he resulted in carrying around a switchblade. He vowed that “He would kill the person who jumped him” [S.E.
