Why does Johnny think Dally is a hero?

In The Outsiders, Johnny thinks Dally is a hero because he sees Dally’s roughness as courage and loyalty, especially when Dally protects his friends at real cost to himself.

Johnny’s clearest reason comes while he and Ponyboy are hiding in the abandoned church and reading Gone with the Wind. Johnny admires the Southern gentlemen in the novel and says they remind him of Dally. Ponyboy does not understand at first, because Dally is harsh, criminal, and frightening. Then Johnny tells him about a time Dally took the blame for a petty crime Two-Bit committed. To Johnny, that kind of loyalty is noble. Dally may look like a "hood," or a delinquent, but Johnny sees that he will suffer for a friend rather than betray him.

Dally also proves that loyalty through action. After Johnny kills Bob in self-defense, Johnny immediately thinks they should go to Dally for help. Dally gives Johnny and Ponyboy warm clothes, money, a loaded gun, and directions to a hideout. He later lies to the police about where they went, even though helping them could get him in serious trouble. Johnny has very little dependable protection at home, so Dally’s fierce protectiveness matters deeply to him.

Dally’s heroism is complicated because he is also hardened and violent. He does not act like Ponyboy or Johnny, who run into the burning church to save children they do not know. Yet he does risk himself for the boys: Ponyboy later remembers “Dally pulling Johnny through the window of the burning church; Dally giving us his gun, although it could mean jail for him; Dally risking his life for us, trying to keep Johnny out of trouble.” That is why Ponyboy finally accepts Johnny’s judgment: “But Johnny was right. He died gallant.”

Johnny’s view of Dally presses against the novel’s divide between reputation and character. The outside world sees Dally as a delinquent, while Johnny recognizes the honor that underpins his loyalty to the greasers.