To What Extent Do You Feel Sympathi For Dally

Through out the novel the writer makes us feel sympathy for dally for various reasons, here I will prove my point of view, explaining different things of his life and personality.

We are told that Dally has been in trouble has been in trouble since he was very young. We are told that he was in jail when he was 10 years old, “… had been arrested at the age of ten”. This shows that in Dally’s house there were some problems and he wasn’t happy. I feel really sorry for him because you become what you are taught in your home. Values come from home and good manners too. We can see that dally has a family that lacked of this, and wasn’t bonded. For a kid to be in jail at this age is no were near good influence or family guide, he wad no one to teach him values.

More over in the novel we are told that his parents didn’t give him support at all. They left him alone and as a consequence of this he joined the gang with Pony and Darry, etc. they were his only family. His gang was his support for everything because he had one else. With them he found love too. With dally we get a clear sense of gang loyalty, that thing of you for me and I for you. He gave everything for his gang because it was a very important part of him; his gang was who he was. “If you don’t stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn’t a gang any more”.

When Johnny killed Bob the Socs to protect Pony from being drowned they went to Darry for help. He told them what to do because they didn’t know anywhere to go. He gave them money to buy food. He was risking his freedom by helping them because the police went to him and asked him if he knew something and he said that he thought the had gone one way when they had gone the other, when doing this he was obstructing justice. Maybe some people think this is not the way to go because as a grown up he should have told Johnny and Pony to go to the police station and tell them what had happened and follow the consequences but it wasn’t in his nature. The only thing members of gang knew was that when they got in trouble they should run away or hide, do something to hide what they had done if it was something really important in matters of law. It was in his nature to avoid the law and that was what he was telling Johnny and Pony to do for their safety. Dally knew that law was really influenced by social statues in the country.