all fandoms walk a notoriously fine line with trauma survivors and i feel like johnny cade is a good example of that. specifically, the often-seen portrayals of traumatized characters in ways that either romanticize their experiences or completely ignore their experiences (the latter of which is often done to favor another character’s journey).
i feel like the outsiders fandom (book, movie, and musical are lumped together here) at times leans heavily into the second one (minimization of trauma). now. i understand the fandom reversal of johnny’s role as being like. Not Innocent (and while i partially agree and think it’s a based take sometimes) i feel like some people do kind of turn him into a character he’s not by instilling a kind of confidence in him that he never had the opportunity to get. people tend to brush past the fact that he is, canonically, by far the quietest of the gang and RARELY talks. he is also, quote, “the gang’s pet.” (while pony IS an unreliable narrator, many of his descriptions of johnny, especially toward the beginning, are just descriptions of his physical reactions to his surroundings as well as past events like johnny getting jumped.)
He gets nervous around strangers. he’s hyper vigilant—two-bit surprises him at the drive-in and he pretty much has a panic attack. he’s 16 and has been borderline homeless for years. he has ptsd from a life of simultaneous abuse and neglect. he’s afraid to take up space because his life is so inconsistent he never knows what his existence will be met with—will it be ignored completely, or will it be met with an unforgiving hand? so he listens, and he watches, and he does hang around dally and the gang, but a big part of who he is comes from his upbringing - he tries as hard as possible to Not be noticed at all, because when he does, it’s bad. i think he would like to be a more confident, “normal” version of himself, but that person isn’t someone who he ever really had a chance to be.
