Dally's Character Development

In the Life of Dallas Winston
By: Alex Caraulia
(This is about Dallas Winston and how he is a Static character)


The Outsiders is a fascinating book about a century-old crisis and rivalry. The boy telling the story is fourteen year old Ponyboy Curtis; a smart kid who gets his face in a whole lot of trouble. However our focus will be pointed on Dallas Winston. In the past he went to jail at the young age of ten. When he came out, it seemed that it had taken no effect on him at all. So you can tell that he isn’t a normal kid, no; he is ruthless as he doesn’t care about getting arrested. [As said on page twenty two, “You’d better leave us alone,” the redhead said in a biting voice, “or I’ll call the cops.” “Oh, my, my”-Dally looked bored-“you’ve got to see my record sometime baby.”] He is a static character, and I’m about to tell you why.

Dally plays a small part in a feud between the Greasers and the Socs. The Socs are the rich/popular kids that almost everyone looks up to. They have wealth and could buy their way out of prison any time and so they can get into trouble a lot. The Greasers are, presumably, the hooligans. They are the poor outcasts of society and live on the ‘wrong side of town’. Dally is a Greaser; but maybe you found that out already. But he may be the only person to break the rules exceedingly.

We all have someone who cares. It may be a brother, sister, aunt, or uncle; but Dally doesn’t have a relative in sight. But he does have a family. He considers his family all of his fellow Greaser friends. These are the only people he has that are close enough to family. No one knows of his families current whereabouts and I don’t think he doesn’t want to find out. Now at first you might think that Dally doesn’t care about them, but later on in the story, you will find out differently.

Now before ‘The Killing’ Dally was out with Ponyboy and Johnny to go watch a drive-in-movie. This is where he meets Cherry Valance, a Soc with a pretty head and a big bark. After the movie he heads over to a party at one of his friends house. Yet instead of partying his pants off, he doses off into a deep sleep in one of his friends extra bedrooms. Not soon after (maybe) his slumber is interrupted by his friend. Then he soon finds that Ponyboy and Johnny had killed Bob. Of course he is happy to hear this, so he decides to help the boys’ out. He gives them money (fifty dollars) and some supplies along with directions to an abandoned church. Maybe three weeks after, he comes to the church and gets the boys out. Then came the fire.

Then over grief of his best friend’s death, he robs a store. He strategically planned all of this last bad deed out. First he would rob the store, then he will pull out a gun; just pull it out nothing else. Then he would, by then, be surrounded by cops. So a cop would shoot him and he would die. All until then would he never hear what Johnny told Ponyboy to tell him about a sunset. [I want you to tell Dally to look at one. He'll probably think you're crazy, but ask for me. I don't think he's ever really seen a sunset.] Dally stayed the same throughout the book; even though it seems as though he changed by killing himself to be with Johnny, he has always felt the same. This is why Dallas Winston is a Static character.