I've done one of these Happy Birthday posts for Johnny Cade for three years, I think. Johnny Cade is one of my favorite characters from The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (one of my all time favorite books). What many of you probably don't know is that my favorite character from the book is actually Dallas Winston. But every year that I've had this blog I haven't done a Happy Birthday post for him. Why? Well, putting into words some of the reasons that I love Johnny Cade is easy for me. With Dallas Winston, it's not so easy...
Dallas is a really tough character. And maybe a tough character to love, but he is my absolute favorite. And no, this is not because Matt Dillon played him in the movie. I've read The Outsiders five times and the more I read it the more I found myself liking Dallas and he became my favorite character. But to tell you why is harder. The reasons are things that you realize while reading the book. Little things that I began to notice. He isn't really as big of an ass as he comes off as. But admittedly, it took a few times of reading it to pick up on the little things that showed that he actually cared. And they were small, but big for his character.
So I can't quite list several definitive reasons like I do with Johnny Cade every year. But Dallas Winston deserves just as much to get that yearly post honoring his character on his birthday. And really, Johnny and Dally aren't all that different. Their environments growing up were very similar, but they produced two very different people. One of the most obvious signs of Dallas caring (without spoiling the entire book) is trying to keep Johnny out of jail because, to paraphrase, "You get mean in jail. I don't wanna see that happen to you like that happened to me." Dallas is a beautifully broken character (as is Johnny, but in a different way..) and he will always be my favorite character from The Outsiders. Happy Birthday, Dallas Winston. <3 <3 <3 <3
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