Rumble Fish Group

Question:

deluxe92
deluxe92
Student
High School - 12th Grade

Describe the feeling, idea,or issue as presented in Ruble Fish. And how it comes up or occurs.

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Posted by deluxe92 on Sunday December 28, 2008 at 11:37 AM and tagged with feeling, idea, issue, rumble fish, s e hinton.

Answers:

  1. allizerby
    allizerby Student
    High School - 10th Grade

    there are several themes in Rumble fish, those bieng hero-worship, alienation, gang life, and drug abuse.

    the older brother of the main character, The Motorcycle Boy, feels the pressure of hero worship, saying that he finds it "A bit of a burden to be Robin Hood, Jesse James, and the Pied Piper."

    Rusty-James experiences alienation. although he is tough, he fears being alone. we later find that when he was a toddler, his mother took The Motorcycle Boy (who was six at the time) and left. Their father went on a three-day drunken binge, leaving Rusty-James alone. He often seems to worry that The Motorcycle Boy will leave him. He feels he loves The Motorcycle Boy, Patty, Steve, and his father, though he knows he can't rely on any of them. In the end of the book, his father is proved worthless, The Motorcycle Boy is killed by a police officer, and Patty, his girlfriend and Steve, his best friend, leave him. In the end, he is left alone and alienated.

    On the theme of gangs, while The Motorcycle Boy ended gang fights some time before the story takes place, Rusty-James is obsessed with them. He was in a Peewee branch of the local gang when he was 11. Rusty-James tends to get upset when people disregard "The Rules," being a set of rules to be followed for fights, such as telling your opponent if there are going to be knives involved beforehand, or that fights have to start out with insults.

    Not only the teenagers have drug problems in this novel. The protagonist's father was once a lawyer, but became an alcoholic after his wife left him. The Motorcycle Boy hates junkies, and Rusty-James is also opposed to drug use. Weston McCauley, former second in command of the Packers, the local gang, is a heroin addict. Cassandra, originally a student teacher, who "thought she was The Motorcycle Boy's girlfriend," also does heroin, although she claims she is not addicted. The Motorcycle Boy doesn't drink on a regular basis, but does when he wants to. Steve was originally opposed to alcohol, but does eventually get drunk, after his mother had a stroke. Rusty-James frequently drinks.

    hope that helps=]

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    Posted by allizerby on Thursday March 12, 2009 at 10:55 AM