Rumble Fish

To me, the mood in this book is really quite dark and depressing. I say this because the social conditions that Rusty-James and his family are living in are quite unpleasant. Rusty-James is living...

I'll provide you with the three major themes of the novel. "Alienation and Abandonment" is at the heart of Rusty-James' problems. His mother has deserted the family and he still suffers from having...

The rumble fish in Hinton's novel of the same name is symbolic of the violence and the possibility for violence that exists throughout the narrative. Motorcycle Boy looks to them at the end of the...

Rusty James is a tall fourteen-year-old boy with dark red hair and brown eyes. By the end of the book he becomes color-blind and has a scar on his side from a knife fight. Other characters in the...

The primary conflict in Susan E. Hinton's novel, Rumble Fish, concerns the relationship between Rusty-James and his brother, The Motorcycle Boy. The Motorcycle Boy has attempted to leave his former...

Motorcycle Boy is shot dead by the police near the end of the story. Rumble Fish is basically one big flashback. The story begins with Rusty and Steve Hays randomly meeting each other at a beach...

In the novel Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton, Steve and Rusty James have not seen each other in five or six years. Rusty James tells Steve that he was at the reformatory for five years. One of the...

S.E. Hinton uses figurative language such as similes, metaphors, personification, repetition, and alliteration. California is like a beautiful wild kid on heroin, high as a kite and thinking she's...

Readers get two quotes very early on in chapter 1 that start to clue us in to the notion that Rusty is not comfortable with being alone. Take the following quote for example: Like I said. My...

The river could symbolize a couple of things that are closely related. I think the river is symbolic of rebirth and/or freedom. The Motorcycle Boy uses the term "Rumble Fish" to describe the...

Another symbol in the story is that of the river. The river represents hope, the possibility of rebirth. The Motorcycle Boy wonders if the Siamese fighting fish would be quite so aggressive in an...

I would say that Rusty meeting his old friend, Steve Hays, on the beach at the beginning of the story is the first important event that is narrated to readers. It is not the first event in...

Rusty-James fights with a rival gang member, Biff Wilcox, and wins. Rusty bumps into his friend Steve at a party. Steve notices a scar on Rusty’s side and asks Rusty about it. Rusty admits he got...

At the beginning of the second chapter of S.E. Hinton’s “Rumble Fish”, the author uses foreshadowing to set up events that are yet to come. This literary technique establishes a mood for a scene by...

Rusty-James grows color blind because he is depressed at his brother Motorcycle Boy’s death and his proximity to it. Rusty-James makes several references to color and blindness. For example, he...

Rusty-James’s life is going downhill fast. He gets expelled from school because he generally does not care about school. He will be sent to Cleveland High, “the school where they sent everybody...

Motorcycle Boy compares himself to Robin Hood, Jesse Hames, and the Pied Piper. Motorcycle Boy finds out that the picture a photographer took of him was published in a magazine. Rusty-James says he...

The older brother of Rusty-James, Motorcycle Boy is "...born in the wrong era, on the wrong side of the river, with the ability to do anything and finding nothing he wants to do." He seems older...

Rusty-James is the protagonist of this story, and his conflict is both man vs. society and man vs. self. His tendency to not think of his past or future, to act too much in the moment, is the...

Patty is Rusty-James's girlfriend. She is an older sister to some brothers, and she frequently has to stay at home to take care of those kids because her mother is a nurse that works the night...

Rusty James is fourteen but he acts much older. Like his father he smokes and drinks. Rusty James is detached from his girlfriend the same way that his father is detached from him and his...

Rumble Fish takes place in a southwestern town. It is not clearly identified in the book, but the author has said that it is her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the work, the characters live on...

Rusty-James' admiration for his older brother, the Motorcycle Boy, borders on hero-worship and idolatry. He wants to be just like his brother--tough, intelligent and the leader of his own gang....

Author Susan E. Hinton's third novel (following The Ousiders and That Was Then, This is Now), Rumble Fish was first published in 1975, but Hinton had written most of it much earlier. Parts of the...

There are several literary devices used in the book. One of the most notable is the use of slang. The book is written in a tough, short style, as Rusty-James would speak but without any curse...

One of Hinton's main messages in Rumble Fish is how there is a great deal of sadness in life. The darkness of Rumble Fish speaks to this. There is no restoration, and little redemption in it....

I tend to prefer picking quotes that help illustrate a character or a theme. The following quotes all help show readers that Rusty is a character that appears to be quite tough; however, he does...

In chapter 2 of Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton, Rusty-James refers to Steve as his best friend several times. According to Rusty-James, one of the reasons why is that he has known Steve longer than...

"I get annoyed when people want to kill me for some stupid little reason. Something big, and I don't mind it so much." Early in S.E. Hinton's 1975 novel Rumble Fish, the protagonist and narrator is...

Rusty gets stabbed in Chapter Three. In this chapter, Biff Wilcox threatens to kill Rusty for saying something less than complimentary to a girl named Anita. Biff begins the fight in a bad state....

Rumble Fish is a coming of age story, where a young man learns about life and about himself. The main character does not change much throughout the book though. Rusty-James seems to have no...

I don't think he's a hero at all. His life seems completely pointless. He never accomplishes anything and he never really does anything positive. I think that's why he never gets a name. He's...

Rusty-James is the novel's protagonist, and he is fourteen years old during the main events of the novel. Because of his gang relations and violence-filled life, he acts like someone much older...

Susan E. Hinton's teen novel, Rumble Fish, deals with the gang violence that rules the life of young Rusty-James and, previously, his older brother, the Motorcycle Boy. The former leader of a...

I assume that the Motorcycle Boy sees a symbolic connection with the "rumble fish" in the pet store. The rumble fish are actually Siamese fighting fish--beautifully colored fish that must be...

In the book, Motorcycle Boy seems fascinated with the Rumble fish or Siamese fighting fish in Mr. Dobson's store. When Rusty asks him why each fish has to be kept in a separate fishbowl, Motorcycle...

It's not too surprising that Motorcycle Boy doesn't drink—or do drugs, for that matter—being as how his old man's such a degenerate alcoholic. But more than that, he's a natural leader, a...

By "main problem," I believe that the question is referring to the central conflict. I have to pick two central conflicts because they are woven together and equally central. The first conflict is...

A writer uses the exposition to introduce the characters, setting, events, and any other relevant background information of a story; the exposition is always found at the beginning of a story....

An action-packed novel, the most important scene comes as the climax of S. E. Hinton's Rumble Fish. At the end of Chapter 10, Rusty-James gives up the leadership of the gang to Smokey, who also...

The primary themes of the book relate to alienation and hopelessness - the sense that there is no escape from the forces which determine the life of the main character, Rusty James. Some quotes...

Chapter 1 begins about 5 or 6 years ahead of when most of the book takes place. The reader is introduced to the main character, Rusty-James. Chapter 2 then flashes back to 6 years earlier....

At the beginning of Rumble Fish, Rusty-James is spending time on the beach, having recently gotten out of the reformatory. On the beach, Rusty-James runs into his old friend Steve. The novel...

The first chapter opens in the future, after the events of the book. At the beginning of the book, Rusty-James runs into an old friend he has not seen for a while, “five or six years.” They are at...

When the story opens, Rusty James is on a beach in Southern California. By chance, he meets Steve, a friend he hasn't seen in five or six years. Steve is surprised to see him and tells Rusty James...

S.E. Hinton never does actually resolve the main conflicts of her novel Rumble Fish. Rather, she ends her story of alienated youth with the story's most heroic figure, Motorcycle Boy, dead at the...

One example of the poverty theme in Hinton's work might be in the opening. Rusty- James is shown to be embodying the rootless life of poverty. He lacks economic opportunities, representative of...

When Rusty-James bumps into Steve Hays on the beach, he doesn't recognize him at first. But after a short while, his memory kicks into gear. He now remembers Steve as someone he used to hang out...

The author uses the river as a symbol to represent the opposite of what it usually signifies. Traditionally, a river, or water, would stand for life, cleansing and renewal, but in Rumble Fish, the...

The story centers around tough, young street thug, Rusty-James, and his idol, The Motorcycle Boy (who we eventually find out is his older brother). Rusty-James finds out that a rival gang member,...