Last Voyages Application
User Name/Nick: Hannah
User LJ: tinurix
AIM/IM: Tinurix
E-mail: tinurix@gmail.com
Other Characters: Isaac Mendez (future-games)
Character Name: Dallas "Dally" Winston
Series: The Outsiders (the novel, with the exception of the film PB)
Age: 17
From When?: Just after his death near the end of the novel.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Don't let his age fool you. Dally is far from innocent. He's already a convicted criminal who's been hardened beyond caring. As far as we know, he hasn't gone so far as to take someone's life, but he's cold, ruthless, and unfeeling with almost no morals. He's known for his lying, stealing, and cheating, and he's broken laws because he want to. As far as Dallas is concerned, the world is dirt and there's no good left in it. He literally has no idea how to feel anything but hatred and negativity.
Abilities/Powers: Nothing special. Just a silver tongue, mad fist-fighting skills, sticky fingers, and he's not half bad at ~rodeo things~.
Personality:
For someone who's still supposed to be a teenager, Dally certainly doesn't act it. He's already a hardened criminal with quite the reputation. It's It's easy to forget that he's only seventeen, and it seems like he forgets it himself sometimes.
Dally gets his kicks out of immoral behavior: stealing, fighting, breaking laws. He's completely dishonest and enjoys breaking laws and wreaking havoc, making him more of a hood than a Greaser. The local police in Tulsa are more than well acquainted with him, and he's the first person they'll drag down to the station when something goes amok. People fear him, knowing how mean and ruthless he can be, and generalize Greasers around his behavior. He's wild and reckless, but there's a certain bravery there as well, which is the part of him that Johnny Cade admires most. He isn't a rat; he'll take a prison sentence or risk his own ass to help out a friend. It's his best quality, albeit almost buried underneath everything else.
Dallas has a temper. There's a lot of anger and bitterness toward the rest of the world in him, likely because it's impossible to win in his world. He has nothing specific to focus his anger on, but knows that he can fight as much as wants, but he can never win. The Socs, on the other hand, no matter how terrible they are, can't be beaten because they get all the breaks. They give him something to focus his rage on, which is an aspect that will be missing on the Barge. Instead, he'll find something or someone else to hate.
The only thing Dally takes pride in his criminal record, bragging about what he's been in jail for every chance he gets. Dallas Winston's criminal record is Dallas Winston as far as the rest of the world is concerned, and he's actually fairly private about the rest of his life and whatever feelings he may have.
He doesn't care about much. Not school (he dropped out) or his family or anyone else. Barge redemption will be difficult thanks to this. Beneath Dally's cold exterior, however, there is something more that he rarely shows. He truly and honestly cares about two things in life: jockeying on ponies (the "only thing Dally did honestly"), and Johnny. It isn't specifically stated, but it's likely that what he sees in Johnny is the last amount of good in the world. Johnny has been beaten by his parents, beaten by the Socs, and yet he remains Johnny. He has a clean record and hasn't gone down Dally's path. When Johnny dies, he can't find any reason more to live, so he does have a soft spot and a breaking point. Always protective of Johnny while both of them were alive, he'll be just as protective of his memory.
As far as the barge goes, Dally will actually be suffering from a bit of ~inner turmoil~. As previously stated, he wanted to die and that's not a feeling that's going to disappear. Dallas is a good actor, however, and will hide these feelings for as long as he can. He will at first attempt to treat his time on the Barge like any other prison sentence, feigning good behavior in order to get out, well, on good behavior. When he figures out that it's going to take a little more effort than that, which is bound to happen extremely quickly, he'll fall back into his old habits and try to avoid his own ~feelings~. Dallas has his soft spots, but he's stubborn and wild, and he won't allow himself to be easily reined in by any warden.
Obviously Johnny is his main emotional trigger: the only thing he ever cared about, so on and so forth. That subject aside, it doesn't take much to make trigger Dally's temper. He's very passionate, and that that passion just so happens to erupt in his anger. It takes very little to make him turn around and belt you across the face. At home, he especially doesn't like the implication that he helps to fix the races at the rodeo and "the last guy to suggest it lost three teeth". then there's also him not punching Cherry after she threw a Coke in his face. He is always prepared for a fight and had a male done this to him, they'd likely be beaten to a pulp. Feeling enough toward something to get offended when someone accuses him of cheating and not punching a lady despite the inevitable flare in his temper implies that there is some code of honor there. While he won't punch a lady, he will go out of his way to verbally harass her. He'll cheat and lie his way through almost anything, but not the rodeo.
Another trigger is his family. For the sake of this application and the lack of the official status of his mother, we'll say she left. According to Dally, his father doesn't care about him. He'll tell you he doesn't care a lick about his father either, but there's likely some bitterness there because his parents couldn't or wouldn't save him from who he had to become in order to survive. There's some part of him that seems to regret growing up that way and doesn't want others to go down his path, hence the way he cares for Johnny and wants him to stay out of jail, tells Ponyboy to "wise up", takes a prison sentence for Two-Bit...But there's also a side of him that seems to want others to act like him. It's obvious in the end that the reason Dally is so hard and uncaring is so he doesn't get hurt. Johnny's death hurt everyone in the gang and it was Dally's wake-up call as to "what you get for helping people".
Dally has a big ego. His record is his pride and joy, and if someone were to tell him he's not nearly as big as he makes himself seem, his temper would flare. When you take Dally away from Tulsa and the gang, his record is literally all he has to cling onto. It gives him a sense of being and importance. Were someone to belittle it, he would begin questioning himself and experience a drop in self-esteem, which would make him lash out even more due to frustration.
The Socs are the concentration of all Dally's anger in Tulsa, and he will continue to be angry about them on the barge for all the easy breaks they got, and how much they figuratively took away from him. It's clear that he's the type who focuses on revenge when the chance for it rolls around, given his wanting to beat the Socs in the rumble "for Johnny". In Dally's roundabout way of viewing things, the Socs put Johnny in the hospital and that's why he wants to get even with them so badly.
Dally's friendship with Tim Shepard is an odd one. The two don't seem to care anything about one. They fight each other when they have no one else to fight, but they're described as being two of a kind and just seem to get along somehow. This shows that Dally can form friendships, but they seem to be more accidental more than anything else. How he stumbled upon Tim or the gang is a mystery, but it's important recognize that Dally is incredibly loyal to those who are close to him. When a friend is in trouble, Dally's "heroic" side is triggered. He's extremely loyal, but only to a select group of people. He does everything he can to keep Johnny and Ponyboy out of trouble. He even mentions how he's glad he didn't break Ponyboy's neck after giving him a good smack across the back to put out the fire on his coat during the church fiasco. He really does care about those who are close to him when you get right down to it, but anyone who isn't close to him is ultimately an outsider who can't possibly be worth his time and energy.
More than anything, he's a complex mystery of a character only because he hides so much from the world. He feels violently and passionately, but he keeps everything deep down underneath his hardass persona. His temper and wildness are easy to trigger, but it takes more digging to get to the really important feelings.
Path to Redemption:
Dallas isn't irredeemable, but won't want to change. There's still a very part of him that actually behaves like a decent human being. This is that "gallant" side of Dallas that Johnny admired so much, but for someone so young, he's set very comfortably in his ways and will likely make attempts to continue to build his reputation even on the barge. He legitimately enjoys a life of crime, and breaking him of that will be a big issue.
His personality aside, a warden's first problem with Dally may be the fact that he doesn't open up. Most people, even the rest of the gang in Tulsa, know Dallas for his criminal record and dangerous personality. It isn't until Johnny mentions wanting to turn himself in that Dally opens up about his past in the slightest, just enough to let Ponyboy and Johnny know that jail was what hardened him so much. He likes keeping his reputation intact and his deeper thoughts are rarely ever voiced, hence Ponyboy's surprise each time Dallas shows his fondness for Johnny. Making meaningful conversation with Dally will be difficult, especially if his temper gets in the way, but a smart warden will eventually be able to realize that the key to his redemption ultimately lies in Johnny. If his warden can get him to talk about Johnny, and he'll open up quite a bit more to show that other side of himself. Easier to tap into is his hatred of the world. Ask him about the Socs and the gang fights, and you'll get exactly what you're looking for.
Everything is going to trigger Dally's temper, but in the end, it's just important that he be convinced that there's still good in the world; exactly what Johnny wanted to convince him of. He'll never be a completely upstanding citizen, but he's more than capable of being something more than a hood.
History:
Due to the point of view the novel is being told from and the fact that he talks more about his record than himself, a lot of Dally's early history is sketchy. At a young age, he spent three years on the wild side of New York City and was forced to turn to crime in order to survive amidst the gang fights. His home was never the best environment, with a careless father (and presumably no mother for whatever reason), and he was arrested for the first time at the age of ten and has long since dropped out of school at the beginning of the novel. When Dallas returned to Tulsa,Oklahoma, his knack for crime was already an established habit and remained with him despite the lack of gang rivalry in Tulsa. The only real rivalry is between two socioeconomic classes: lowerclass "Greasers" and upperclass "Socs", who always got easy breaks despite wreaking more havoc than the Greasers. Without a rival gang to hate, Dallas focuses his hatred on the Socs instead.
Despite being so cold and unfeeling, Dallas becomes part of what could be considered a "family" in Tulsa, consisting of six other Greasers: the parentless Curtis brothers--Darry, Sodapop, and Ponyboy (the book's main character and narrator), Two-Bit Mathews, Steve Randle, and Johnny Cade. Johnny hero-worships Dally, admiring how "gallant" he is in certain situations. He once observed Dallas getting arrested for something Two-Bit did without ratting the real perpetrator out. In turn, Johnny is the only person Dally shows any real compassion towards.
At the opening of the novel, Dallas is seventeen and has just been released early from another jail sentence for "good behavior". After Ponyboy is jumped by a group of Socs from the west side of town, Dally invites him and Johnny to the movies. On the following night, the three sneak into the drive-in (despite having the money to get in legally) and sit down behind two upperclass girls who are, much to the boys' surprise, sitting alone when the richer kids usually see movies in their cars. While Johnny and Ponyboy attempt to enjoy the movie, Dally goes out of his way to harass the girls. He continues his harassment even when one of the girls gets angry and isn't dissuaded until Johnny takes him off guard by telling him to stop. Dallas has a soft spot for Johnny, thus being the one person Dallas can't and won't take his anger out on. Angry and a little dumbfounded, Dally takes off, leaving the other two boys and the girls to finish watching the movie on their own.
While Dally is off fighting with his best friend, Tim Shepard, and earning himself a couple cracked ribs for slashing his tires earlier, Johnny and Ponyboy actually befriend the two girls, named Cherry Valance and Marcia. The girls had been sitting alone because they walked out on their boyfriends when they decided to bring some alcohol along. As they're left without a ride home, the boys, along with Two-Bit who showed up after Dally left, agree to walk the girls home to the west side of town. On the way home, Cherry and Marcia's boyfriends, Bob Sheldon and Randy Adderson, see them with Johnny, Two-Bit, and Ponyboy outside the movie and think the boys are trying to "pick them up". The boys also realize that Bob is the boy with rings who beat up Johnny several months prior, resulting in his cautious, paranoid demeanor and the scar on his cheek. Cherry and Marcia prevent a fight by leaving with Bob and Randy willingly. Johnny and Ponyboy go to the vacant lot and talk for awhile, Ponyboy falls asleep and comes home late. Darry, his eldest brother and legal guardian, gets angry and hits him. Ponyboy storms out of the house and meets up with Johnny. As they wander around the neighborhood, Bob, Randy, and three other drunk Socs confront them in a vacant lot. They chase and catch both of them. Ponyboy is nearly drowned in a fountain by David, another Soc, so a terrified Johnny stabs Bob, accidentally killing him and scaring away the other Socs. The two boys run to find Dally, who is trying to sleep off his cracked ribs in a hotel at the edge of town. He helps the younger boys to flee town, giving them some money, a gun, and directions to an abandoned church not too far out of town to hide in. He tells them to lay low for a few days while the heat dies down, and then he'll come check on them.
The boys do as they're told, hiding out in the church for about five days before Dally finally shows up, looking as though he's lost as much sleep as they have. He drives the other boys to get something to eat and reveals that Cherry has become a spy for the Greasers and that the fights between the two rival groups have exploded in intensity since Bob's death, resulting in the Greasers' inability to walk alone anymore. He also reveals that he's been carrying around an unloaded gun because it "sure does help in a bluff". As the group leaves to return to the church, Johnny decides that he wants to turn himself in, as he can easily testify self-defense and it isn't fair to Ponyboy to have to hide out while his brothers are worried about him. Dally gets angry and fights him on the idea, unable to stand the thought of Johnny becoming cold and mean like him after a few months in jail.
As they leave for home, they notice the church has caught on fire, presumably from one of Ponyboy or Johnny's cigarettes, and that several small children are trapped inside. Johnny and Ponyboy rush to rescue them, with Dally screaming for them to forget the kids and get out of there before the roof collapses. Ponyboy escapes, but a large piece of burning wood falls on Johnny and breaks his back. Dally rushes in only to rescues Johnny from the burning church, burning his own arm in the process. All three boys are taken to the hospital, but only Ponyboy is released straight away.
As Ponyboy is recovering at home, Two-Bit shows up and informs him that Johnny and Ponyboy have been declared heroes for rescuing the kids, but that Johnny will be charged with manslaughter for Bob's death. Also, the Greasers and Socs have agreed to settle their turf war with a major rumble in the vacant lot. When Ponyboy and Two-Bit visit Johnny and Dally in the hospital, they find Johnny in bad condition with multiple burns and a broken back. Dally is recovering well and insists on going to the rumble. The next evening, the Greasers win the fight with the Socs, with Dallas showing up right before it begins. He drags Ponyboy away immediately after it ends, explaining that Johnny is asking for him at the hospital.
After Dally weasels his way out of a speeding ticket by getting Ponyboy to play sick, the two make it to the hospital where Dally uses his switchblade to threaten a doctor into letting them see Johnny, despite the fact that he's dying. Dally tells Johnny that the Greasers beat the Socs, but Johnny only replies that it's "useless" to fight at all. Dally ignores this, not quite sure what to make of it, and tells Johnny that the whole gang is proud of him for being a hero and saving the kids from the church. Ponyboy realizes that all Johnny ever really wanted was for Dally to be proud of him, Johnny utters his famous "stay gold" line to Ponyboy and dies right then and there.
Dally is overwhelmed and runs out of the hospital, leaving Ponyboy to find his own way home. Soon after, Darry and the others get a phone call from Dally, who has robbed a grocery store and needs a place to hide. The boys run out to find him, but the police are chasing him. Dally pulls out his gun, and the police shoot him down and kill him, not realizing that it's unloaded. The boys realize that Dally couldn't bear to live without Johnny, "the only thing Dally loved", and that he wanted to be dead.
At the end of the book, Ponyboy receives a letter that Johnny wrote for him before he died, telling him that "there's still lots of good in the world. Tell Dally. I don't think he knows". Dally, of course, dies without knowing.
Special Notes: This is such a sloppy add, but he's from the 1960s, and thus he will keep a 1960s point of view on many things that go on on the barge. Sorry, Barge. :c Ignore him. He has no room to judge.