After Johnny’s death, Ponyboy wanders alone for hours until a man offers him a ride. The man asks Ponyboy if he is okay and tells him that his head is bleeding. Ponyboy feels vaguely disoriented. At home, he finds the greasers gathered in the living room and tells them that Johnny is dead and that Dally has broken down. Dally calls and says he just robbed a grocery store and is running from the police. The gang rushes out and sees police officers chasing him. Dally pulls out the unloaded gun he carries, and the police shoot him. Dally collapses to the ground, dead. Ponyboy muses that Dally wanted to die. Feeling dizzy and overwhelmed, Ponyboy passes out.
When Ponyboy wakes, Darry is at his side. Ponyboy learns that he got a concussion when a Soc kicked him in the head during the rumble, and that he has been delirious in bed for three days. Ponyboy worries that he didn’t ask for Darry when he is delirious and panics about it until Soda puts his mind at ease. This highlights how we make up issues in our head that have no basis in reality.
Questions:
1. Why do you think Dally decided to have the police kill him? Does this reveal anything to us about the real Dally?
2. How did you feel when Dally was killed? Were you surprised by your reaction?
3. Ponyboy worries about hurting Darry’s feelings in this chapter. Did you learn anything about human behaviour from the way Ponyboy acted?