The Great Johnny Debate

Johnny’s Loss of Innocence

By: Elias Dorsey

Lately, there has been an ongoing debate on whether Johnny, From The Outsiders, has lost his innocence or not. I for one think that he hasn’t lost anything besides his life. Bob and his obviously intoxicated friends were drowning his best friend and laughing about it. What would you have done if you were in that same situation? Would you have let them drown him/her?  No you wouldn’t have, unless you’re utterly terrible friend. All Johnny had was a switchblade and the “fear factor” to scare the drunken Soc’s away. Honestly I would’ve done the same exact thing if I were in that predicament. What else could he have done? Ran away? Hid? Who knows, but I know that he wouldn’t ditch Ponyboy while he was becoming a victim of attempted murder. Aside from the death of Bob, he saved kids from a church fire. I think that that’s basically proving that he’s still the same way as he was before he stabbed Bob. The other side though has one valid point. Johnny did kill someone. Also rather than turning himself in or explaining that it was indeed self defense to his prosecutors/the police, he ran away from the crime scene. Who am I to talk though. I probably would've done the same thing with all the adrenaline racing through my veins and into my brain. That’s one point. Still, you can’t deny that he redeemed himself by saving those startled people from the fire, and sacrificing himself in the process. Either way against or with Johnny’s innocence you still can’t say completely. Even though I think his innocence was carried with him to the grave, it’s a fly ball. Mostly because when you sum it all up for both sides, eventually you have to realize the sides are dead even. Just think about this though. What would you have done, and would you have considered yourself still innocent if you were just trying to defend your best friend and yourself? Think about that.