dallas winston and i will protect him from your lashings

for those who cheated in 7th grade english:

okay i think everyone has seen or read the outsiders but ummm dally is typical no good 60s hoodlum, already been to jail by the age of 10, moved to tulsa from new york. he has a terrible life and no family and is terrible to most with the exception of sweet little johnny cade. (he’s still kinda shitty to him but he cares.) johnny has been through a lot but he’s really a good natured person and he still has that innocence dally lost. we learn this when johnny is in the hospital on his death bed, suffering severe burns after saving some kids from a fire, and we see dally finally drop his facade for a moment. he tells johnny that the whole town knows he’s a hero. they’re writing about him in the paper. he tells johnny he’s proud of him. then johnny dies right there. we see dally cry. he doesn’t know what to do so he does what dallas winston does. he robs a convenience store, gets the cops called on him, points an (unloaded) gun at the cops and is shot to death.

character analysis

so about the character of dallas winston. many among the fandom disagree on whether or not dally is a good person. i have a few thoughts on this (this entire post). first things first, i must admit my biases in regards to him. unfortunately i can justify many of his actions on screen simply because they’re coming from beautiful matt dillon and spoken in that beautiful deep new york accent of matt dillon. pretty privilege is real and dallas winston is patient zero.

for the entire span of the story, save the final couple of minutes of his life, dallas is essentially wearing a tough guy persona. when he’s with the gang or really interacting with anyone, he feels the need to exert dominance over them and prove his strength and what not. but it’s pretty obvious that this is a front. yes, it’s true that we don’t know how dallas really feels, but if we really analyze him as a character, we see that his actions speak louder than his words. so what does he do in the story?

• runs to ponyboy’s rescue in literally the first couple minutes of the movie, chasing down the car of soc’s and throwing a stick at them
• tells johnny that he will find the soc’s who cut him up while dally was in jail and jump them (okay, we didn’t see him do this, but we know he would + the plot of the movie happened so he couldn’t)
• generally looks out for pony and johnny like an older brother, inviting them to come along to his shenanigans
• after johnny kills bob, pb+j come to dally first - he tells them step-by-step how to hide from the cops coming after them and gives them $50, a gun, dry clothes, etc (note also that dally is broke) (note that this is over $500 in today’s money)
• he comes to check in on them at the church and takes them to get food
• he rescues johnny and pony from the church fire
• he comes to the rumble despite being in the hospital, in his words, ‘for johnny’, including threatening the nurse with a knife so he could leave
• also threatens the nurses to let him see johnny (literally will do anything for johnny)

does he utter a single kind word or comfort pony or johnny in any way over the course of the movie until johnny is about to die? no, but that’s the point!!! does he call johnny a little shit?? yes he does. but it’s so obvious the one thing he can’t do is show any vulnerability. that’s his fear.

some people take this to mean that he wants pony and johnny to become tough like him. this is completely wrong!! the whole reason why he did so much to keep pony and johnny out of jail is because he sees their relative innocence, probably is reminded of a very young version of himself, and wants to protect them from what he has been through. he literally tells johnny “you get hardened in jail, i don’t want that to happen to you like it happened to me”. he feels like johnny is the only pure, good, thing left in his world and feels it is his responsibility to protect him (and to a lesser extent, ponyboy, but i have the suspicion that he isn’t as kind to pony because pony already has two loving brothers, unlike dally and johnny who are all alone). johnny dies saving innocent kids from a fire. and if people like johnny can have life taken away from them, literally for being good, dallas doesn’t know why he would continue living.

a note about dallas winston's treatment of women

something that some fans tend to do is forget that this book/movie takes place in 1965. am i condoning his behavior towards women? no. he catcalls and refers to women as broads and such and that’s pretty shitty. but people’s outrage over his behavior with cherry is a bit overstated in my opinion, not to mention the fact that CANONICALLY, every greaser catcalls and is gross towards women. two-bit literally pulls up a poor girl’s skirt at the drive-in and we don’t get think pieces about how he’s mysogynistic. i don’t know, maybe it’s because matt dillon and diane lane are love interests in like 3 other movies and they have insane chemistry, but also after dally does his whole routine with her at the drive-in, she literally says she hopes she doesn’t see dally again because she’ll probably fall in love with him. like have you guys never heard of banter!!! regardless, it’s a valid point being brought up by the fandom. but if we want to understand his motivations, it’s worth mentioning what i think is his complete lack of self-esteem. it seems like an insane conclusion because dally is so cocky, but that’s what he wants you to think! what he actually says is that his old man doesn’t care where he is or if he’s dead in a ditch somewhere. his family either abandoned him, or he escaped their abuse and came to tulsa. he also has basically given up on himself and any chance of living a straight edged life, rather embracing his fate as a delinquent. it’s 100% partly because the book is set in the 60s and he’s a general asshole, but i think it’s also him wanting to engage in the only form of intimacy or relationship that doesn’t force him to be vulnerable.

is dallas winston a good person?

well by the standards most of us abide by, especially in the 21st century, not really. he’s kind of a piece of shit. and like significantly more so than the rest of the characters. he’s mean and rude and he steals and gets into fights and slashes people’s tires. but i think that should be okay. he is oftentimes treated like an outlier among the relatively more kind greasers who don’t get up to the stupid stuff he does, but not one of them is perfect. let’s not forget that johnny literally stabbed someone to death. bob was a terrible person and waterboarded ponyboy, but he was also, at the end of the day, a drunk and stupid teenager and i don’t think we can so definitively say he deserved to die in that moment. the point is, they’re all morally grey, even if dallas is a much darker shade of grey than the rest of them.

a tangent about his death

dally’s death is pointless and that’s the whole point. ponyboy says so himself. he didn’t die a hero, he didn’t die saving someone else like johnny did. not only does the pointlessness of his death make it tragic, but so does the way in which he does it. now apologies here for how in detail i’m going to talk about suicide but i think it’s an interesting analysis. many people have different interpretations of why he chose suicide by cop and we don’t really know what was going through his head, but what i think is the most accurate is this: he wanted it to happen as quickly as possible and minimize the time others would spend finding out about/mourning his death. i would infer also that he didn’t want to do it himself as he didn’t carry a loaded gun.

here’s why i think this is the case. what’s really shocking is how quickly he executes this plan which seems to have a lot of moving parts (rob the store, get the cops’ attention, get the whole gang to witness it, point the gun at the cops). then i realized this probably means he’s thought about this at least for some time :( :( :( and then i put that thought in the back of my mind because i like being happy! now on the note of him getting the greasers to watch - some people see this as a selfish move, because he knew they, especially ponyboy who is essentially the only one with any innocence left, would witness his brutal death. others see it as him acting irrationally overtaken by shock and grief, which i think is definitely more likely. now this whole discussion might be a bit cornplate but if we keep the assumption that this was a calculated decision rather than a frantic attempt, i think this comment on the subreddit sums this up pretty perfectly: “He wanted to die, he didn’t want the fanfare Johnny or Bob got with shocked faces, long goodbyes, and terrible news. He just wanted to die and be dead, so all the gang had to know as soon as it happened.” 🙁

my last point about his death and then i can move onto more normal discussion. his final word being ‘pony’ is so interesting and to be honest i still don’t really get it. again, complete speculation ahead. it could be seen as a general cry for a person who he cares about as he’s about to die, and ponyboy was the one person on his mind. he could have also had something to say to pony but died before he could get it out. now i’m not even going to consider the second option for my own mental well being so we will ignore it. i think that a key point about dally’s relationship to the gang is his hidden love/care for ponyboy. like everyone knows he cared about johnny the most, but i think he also genuinely wanted to protect ponyboy - ironically, we as the readers know that ponyboy actually liked dallas the least. towards the end of the story, johnny urges ponyboy to show dallas a sunset because he doesn’t think he has seen one before (read: i know dally is depressed like i am and has nothing to live for so you need to help him see that he has people who care about him and life is worth living). the only problem is that it was too late. pony could never show dally a sunset. the point is that i don’t really have an answer for why those were his last words, it’s just really sad.

on dallas winston and general character gay allegations

sorry for the drastic shift in tone but this must be addressed! also i would like to say as a general psa that i am a part of the community and therefore am allowed to poke fun at some of its members a bit.

so here is my criticism. you guys want to make everyone gay i’m sick of you 😭😭😭😭

some say that the reason why inter-greaser shipping is so common in this fandom is because there aren’t really any developed female characters, and like, yes, that is true. we really only have cherry, who i think is a cute character and all, but her only purpose is to serve as an example of a ‘nice soc’ and any sort of shipping between her and ponyboy doesn’t really hold up because they have like two sweet mildly flirtatious interactions. but i don’t think s.e. hinton only developed the male characters so that the boys would be shipped with each other. dare i say i don’t think she wrote the book with any real romantic intention at all?

it kind of reminds me of the harry potter series, the author of which (who will remain unnamed) so obviously did not want to include any deeply fledged-out romance but wanted to make it a hollywood blockbuster so she went, ‘fine freaks here is harry and ginny they love each other apparently and kiss once whatever’. i don’t mean to compare s.e. hinton to her like that, but the point is that’s not the plot or the genre of the books. the outsiders is about friendship and brotherhood and adolescence and growing up. that’s why there is literally no romance in the book.

now just to be clear, i am not making the argument of ‘it was the 60s so they can’t be gay’. someone needs to tell those people that gay did in fact exist even back then. maybe the time period of the story would force the author to make homophobia a plot point and make the relationship more hidden, but it certainly shouldn’t take away the existence of the community as a whole whatsoever.

anyways. i’m all for people having fun. it’s fun to make stories that expand on the existing material and make your own theories and et cetera, but the line is crossed when you claim that is the actual, intended-by-the-author plot. also, generally, i think that assuming all intimate relationships between men are in some way romantic or sexual perpetuates the idea that men can't have deep, vulnerable friendships. and i think representation of these friendships in media platonically is really important!

this is where dally comes in. i have to address the very popular ship between dally and johnny and come out and say that i don't really see it. honestly, the relationship between the gang as a whole reads very brotherly, but particularly between dally and johnny #TOME- that is literally his little brother like i’m sorry i don’t know what to tell you! okay, i might be projecting a tiny tiny bit because one of my favorite fanfics of the outsiders is this one giving dally a backstory of how he had a little brother in new york who died in a rumble with him and that’s why he’s so protective over johnny oh my god i am going to tear up. please read this it’s actually beautifully written and so sad and it’s the only explanation for his backstory that i accept.

but yeah, in my expert opinion, i don’t think he’s gay, and you should probably listen to me because i am a byler and so i can literally make a gay boy ship out of nothing but this is less than nothing. sorry gays.

who is dallas winston? (i hold the answer)

at the end of the day, dallas winston is a 16 year old boy who has been in and out of jail since the age of 10, has essentially no family and sleeps on the 2nd floor of a bar alone, and his only sense of community is a gang of other impoverished greasers who express their love through physical fights. and some people are all ‘he’s such a dick’. DUH!!!

guys he does NOT want to be alive. he has nothing to live for besides a 16 year old boy who he later watches die in front of him. he refuses to show any affection or vulnerability or kindness towards anyone because he has learned that kindness gets you nowhere! he learned he needs to be tough and mean to survive and to not let anyone touch him! so yes, he is an asshole. but like at the end of the day, i think you can be both an asshole and a good person. it’s clear there is some love and kindness and caring nature deep within him which is covered by many many layers of trauma. and if you disagree, then i think you just don’t like him very much and that’s fine, because the evidence is clearly there. also if you disagree please don’t tell me because i will be prompted to write more and my hands hurt so bad.

or maybe he is actually just a terrible person and i simply find matt dillon attractive. i don’t know, could be either one really.