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I have posted two video clips, one of Dally right after Johnny's death and one showing the moment of his death.  Because these scenes evoked, I thought, particularly good discussions about Dallas's reactions to Johnny's death, see if you can do a comparison of the book's treatment of these event's versus the movie's. Do you think they both handle Dallas's reaction and death in the same way or does each one--book and movie-- interpret the events somewhat differently.

 

Please watch the clips in order at least twice, then read pages 154-155 of The Outsiders two or three times and think about how similar or different the book and the movie are. Because they are different media, they might focus on different aspects of the same scenes. If they do, please point those out. Then again, the movie may simply recreate the scenes in the book without introducing any new elements. You decide based on your comparison of what you see and what you read. 

 

Also if you can open this link, it contains an audio version of The Outsiders, which you may enjoy hearing. Some of the free Web audio versions of books are perfectly awful. But this one is well done, and I thought you might enjoy it since I think we all liked reading the book. 

https://monteromyp2english.wik.../Audio+The+Outsiders

 

 

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The book and the movie of The Outsiders both create a scene where Johnny’s death drives Dally into frenzy. While the book is mainly centered around Ponyboy, because he is the narrator, the movie, however, provides a more detailed illustration of Dally’s behaviors and his psychological status.

 

The book tells that Dally becomes extremely mad after Johnny’s death. It is previously mentioned that after Johnny killed Bob at a night, he and Ponyboy tried to run away to a deserted church. Johnny proposed to cut his and Ponyboy’s hair to avoid being identified by people as a greaser, and Ponyboy reluctantly agreed. Yet after Johnny’s death, when Dally fails to get Johnny’s hair back, he thinks it is Ponyboy that make Johnny cut his hair. He even scolds Ponyboy for “having done that”. It is simply because Dallas’ emotion has grown out of control at that point, and he cannot just take Johnny’s death in a short time. He needs to find someone who is responsible for Johnny, or at least, someone who has ever hurt him.

 

In fact, the movie clip also shows this, but from a different angle. After Johnny’s death, Dallas bolts through the door in agony, and a doctor tells him he is not allowed here. Dallas’ cumulating emotion, again, bursts out. He raises his gun toward the doctor, and fire several make-believe thrusts. Also, he shouts out with extreme anger and madness that “how do you doctors help people”? Again, Dally wants to ascribe Johnny’s death to the inability of doctors.

 

As for Dallas’ death, the book mainly describes the way Ponyboy thinks of Dally, without a detailed explanation of how Dally robbed the grocery store, which is one of the leading factors of his death. While the movie, focuses more on the scene within the grocery store. First, Dally is looking at the magazine shelf. He picks up one, tears it up, and goes straight to the check-out counter. When he is informed that he needs to pay for the magazine that he destroyed, Dally suddenly takes out a gun to bluff the cashier, forcing the cashier to give him money. He fled away immediately after he got the money. And what follows has already been covered in the book, that he goes to a booth to get the rest of greasers to meet and assist him at the parking lot. On their way to the parking lot, several patrol cars overtake him, and close in on him. When he uses his gun to bluff at the police, he got shot in a second, with the shouting from other greasers indicating that his gun is unloaded. But it is too late anyway. Several bullets went through his body, and he laid to the ground recklessly, dead.

 

The movie clip really shows a feverish guy, Dally, having nothing to fear, eager to do things illegally to release his pressure and depression, and finally looking for death himself. The book also mentions this by saying “grim triumph” when describing Dally’s expression after being jerked by the bullet. What the movie has not shown is Ponyboy’s thoughts toward Dally. At the time Dallas crumpled at the ground and finally died, Ponyboy is too shocked to say a word. He is shocked by the fact that two greaser guys, Johnny and Dally, dies in the same day. But sure, he has expected that this is the way that Dally could die. In Ponyboy’s memory, Dally has been a hero. Dally pulled Johnny out of the burning church; Dally give his gun to Ponyboy although he may get in jail; Dally risks his life keeping Johnny and Ponyboy out of trouble. However this time, he dies desperately, but at least, gallantly.

 

In all, both the book and movie clips clearly unfold the plot of Johnny and Dallas’ death. True, that they have their own emphases of a specific aspect, which can be considered as a large difference. Still, there are a few subtle differences between the two. Ponyboy’s thoughts, as mentioned in the book, build a deeper and greater insight of the significance of Dallas’ death in the whole story. The movie, though, takes advantage of visual and acoustic representations, describing Dally’s tone, figure, and actions more vividly.  

This is a great line, Silver:

 

"...and finally looking for death himself." Also I like the way you tie it to the phrase from the book, "grim triumph."

 

I think what you point out is really important: The movie allows us to experience both rage and death from Dally's point of view, but the book focuses on Ponyboy's response. Excellent distinction between the book and the movie. 

 

I will write more via e-mail. Very nice work. 

For the plot of Dally’s death after Johnny was gone, there are some obvious differences between the movie and the novel. One reason is that in the novel, it is first-person narrator while it is omnipotent narrator in the movie. So in the first clip from the movie, we could just find Dally in the plot instead of Dally called on Pony to watch Johnny with him. Because in the novel, Ponyboy was the protagonist, so that everything should develop around him. Although the plot of Dally told Pony that Johnny wanted to see him showed the intimate relationship between Pony and Johnny, it would reduce the degree of the Dally’s emotion to Johnny. Because Dally was not the main character, so he had to foil the personality of Ponyboy. However, in the movie, we could see Dally was so furious that he rushed into hospital with an unloaded gun instead of a switchblade in novel. That’s another detailed difference between the movie and the novel. There’s no good one or bad one among them. Because they were showed by different media, but just talk about the characterization of Dally, movie really showed us a real Dally, an adequate wrathful Dally.

 

As for the Dally’s death, we could see this plot in the movie and in the novel is quite similar. Dally robbed the grocery after he knew Johnny’s death. And he called Darry to collect him in the park. However, before Dally met Darry and Pony and Soda, the cops caught up Dally. Dally raised up his unloaded gun just for bluffing, and the policemen’s guns spit fire to him. The one difference between two media is that the depiction of Dally’s face. In the movie, the light is so dark that I couldn’t see the expression of Dally. But in the novel, Ponyboy described Dally in a detailed way---“he was jerked half around by the impact of the bullets, then slowly crumpled with a look of grim triumph on his face.” That’s it, Dally died with a happy expression. It shows that Dally really loved Johnny. In Dally’s mind, Johnny was his real relative, so Johnny’s death really gave him a psychological blow. Dally thought Johnny helped lots of people but no one would help him. Dally became mad so that he wanted to revenge on society. This time, Dally just wanted a death so that he could accompany with Johnny. So there was a look of grim triumph on Dally’s face when he was shot. So in the book, it really revealed Dally’s thought, he really concerned about Johnny. Remember, on the bleacher of movie, Dally said no word when Johnny said left those two girls alone. Also, when Johnny killed Bob, Dally gave Johnny and Ponyboy some money and a loaded gun without hesitation. These all things can show how Dally care for Johnny. In this way, as for the plot of Dally’s death, the novel depicted more about emotion of Dally for Johnny.

You make some very interesting points, and I agree, the novel focused a good deal more on Dally's expression at the moment of his death, so that you had a clearer sense of why he wanted to die. I'll send you a more detailed analysis via e-mail, but this is well done and you made some interesting points about how the two media approach the same subject.

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