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Jordan Senderson
Mrs. Henry
ELA\Reading 1/5
8 December 2016

Outsiders Criticism Essay

Authors judge the moral quality of the work by how accurately it portrays the character.
Works that have positive morals are good and works that are negative are usually bad. This novel
had positive and negative morals throughout the story. The Theory of moral criticism cultivates
the positive morals as one of literature's main purposes. In the novel The Outsiders, author S.E.
Hinton explores moral and ethical issues through Johnnys character by presenting several
conflicts that eventually lead the reader to learn an important life lesson.
One of the first main conflicts S.E. Hinton made through Johnnys moral decisions was
when he murders a soc, Bob. Johnny and Ponyboy were in the park when they got jumped by
Bob and his friends. Pony was being drowned in the fountain and Johnny knew he had to do
something to save Ponyboy. Bob, the handsome Soc, was lying there in the moonlight, doubled
up and still (50). Johnny morally decides to kill Bob because he felt that Pony was going to die
in the fountain. This results in a conflict because Johnny committed murder when he stabbed
Bob. Johnny determined it would be wrong of him not to turn himself into the police. This leads
to the revealing of a life lesson. At this point, Johnny is too scared to make a decision and is
under the influence of Ponyboy who tells him to run away. S.E. Hinton continues this conflict
through Johnny when he thinks about what would happen if he actually did turn himself in.
Johnny realizes that he is in serious trouble as a result of his actions. They will put you in the

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electric chair for killing people (52). Johnny knows what he has done and knows the
consequences. During that time Johnny is trying to figure out if he wants the punishment of
murder or to try to find a way out of getting caught for his act. This is an important paragraph in
my paper because it leads the reader to one of the life lessons learned from this conflict and the
decision morally made by Johnny.
S.E. Hinton additionally adds another important conflict through Johnny when he saves
the children with Ponyboy. Johnny and Pony run into the burning church without hesitation to
save the children. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the door was blocked by flames
then pushed open the window and tossed out the nearest kid (82). This was one of the major
moral decisions made by Johnny through a conflict because so much is at risk in this situation.
The childrens lives are at risk and once Johnny and Pony entered the church, theirs was too.
Even though Johnny and Pony entered the church to save the children, they knew they could die
at any moment if the church collapsed. S.E. Hinton makes the next conflict where the moral
decision result is not necessarily positive. As the church collapsed, Pony and Johnny made it out
alive. However, Johnny was injured when a fiery timber from the church fell on him. I had
watched them bring Dally and Johnny in on stretchers
(85). Dally had also been injured trying to save Ponyboy. Johnny's moral decision was to
go into the church with Pony to save the children. As the reader progresses they start to see and
understand the real meaning of the life lesson. The life lessons that S.E. Hinton put in these
conflicts may not be the clear message. Johnny does not understand what the consequences of his
moral decision could be until he is in a life or death situation inside the church.
In the novel The Outsiders, author S.E. Hinton explores moral and ethical issues through
Johnnys character by presenting several conflicts that eventually lead the reader to learn an

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important life lesson. Johnny killed Bob to save Ponyboy from drowning in the fountain. Johnny
saved the children from the burning church with Ponyboy. Johnny gets badly injured on the way
out of the burning church. The conflicts S.E. Hinton makes through Johnny are moral and ethical
decisions, Johnny makes his moral decisions for specific reasons which help the reader
understand and process the life lessons throughout the novel.