Rumble Fish

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

There are a few major themes. They are: fate, alienation/abondonment, hopelessness, and poverty. The main character has to grapple with a sense that his life is hopeless and that nothing can...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

One of the most interesting life lessons displayed in the book is whether or not individuals can transcend their environment. Motorcycle Boy and Rusty- James are characters that are attune and...

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...

After that tragic evening when Motorcycle Boy was shot to death by the police, Steve decided to do everything he could to leave town. He began to believe that, if he wanted to get anywhere in life,...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

The antagonist in Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton is Biff Wilcox. Biff threatens Rusty-James because he talked to Anita. Instead of trying to resolve the misunderstanding in a humane manner, Biff tells...

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...

Probably the main internal conflict that arises in S. E. Hinton's Rumble Fish concerns the relationship between Rusty-James and his brother, the Motorcycle Boy. Rusty-James idolizes his older...

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....

When identifying tone in a story or novel, you are looking at how the subject matter is treated by the narrator. Mood is the feeling you get from the story. In the novel Rumble Fish the narrator is...