Sometimes good people are assigned to bad lives that lead them into carrying out bad actions, but that does not define them as bad people. Johnny from The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (a young adult fictional novel) is a 16 year old boy who comes from a broken home and is abused. Johnny finds himself living in the midst of a local gang rivalry between the Socials and the Greasers. S.E. Hinton's use of imagery, flashbacks, metaphors, similes, and literal language, portray Johnny as an innocent and scared child, who should be tried as a juvenile.
S.E. Hinton's use of imagery allows the reader to visualize Johnny as a scared, innocent child because his is constantly being hurt by his parents in his own home, so he would not dare lay a finger on anybody else. In the quote, "If you can picture a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you'll hace Johnny." (page 11) the author mentions the fact that Johnny is abused, and what it has done to him. Due to the fact that Johnny's parents have abused/ are abusing him, it made Johnny become lost among a crowd of strangers. It has also turned him into a little dark puppy, meaning that he has become someone that would do anything for the ones he loves and would do anything to protect them from someone who could potentially hurt them like Johnny's parents hurt/have hurt him. This has also made him more reserved among others, he does not let just anyone into his inner circle. The quote "Last month in Sacremento, a 15-year old Yuba City youth who reportedly claimed he was mimicking a TV program about little girls who rob a bank was given a 26 years- life prison term.2 talks about a child who DID plan his murder. He obviously had to set up just how he was going to play out the murder he was bout to commit. In order to mimick the alleged TV show, he wouild have had to map out everything that was about to go down.
