Examples Of Heroism In The Outsiders

S.E Hinton created this amazing book, The Outsiders with lots of characters and depth; this book was so good that they made a movie out of it. For me, my personal definition of hero would be someone who is brave, compassionate, and someone that is willing to save lives. The character that I believe that best fits this definition would be Johnny Cade because he is Compassionate, brave and is willing to save lives. Johnny Cade best fits my personal definition of a hero. Johnny Cade displayed his willingness to save his friends in the middle of the story. This is what happened before that, Ponyboy was smacked by his older brother and ran, he met up with Johnny and they both went to the park. There they were attacked by socs, and Ponyboy was getting drowned; so Johnny decided to do something about it and he accidently killed bob. After Johnny took action, he said this to Ponyboy, ¨Yeah¨ his voice quavered slightly,¨I had to, they were drowning you Pony, (Hinton 57). In other words, Johnny is saying that he’s terrified that he killed someone, but that he did it because they could have killed his friend. Heroic is what Johnny is because if he hadn’t intervened, Ponyboy would probably be dead and because he saved someone that is an act of heroism. …show more content…
The reader learns this after Johnny and Ponyboy run into a burning church to save some kids that went into the building. After they found them, this is what happened, “One was screaming his head off and Johnny yelled,’Shut up! We’re goin’ to get you out,’’ (Hinton 92). In other words, Johnny went into a burning building and saved the kids even though he didn’t have to. This event illustrates heroism because he went into a burning building that could collapse anytime to save kids he didn’t even know; this shows that he is not scared if what he’s doing is