Respondes+To+Literature

Essay

The book I read over the summer for summer reading was a interesting novel called, rumble fish; which was written by S.E.Hinton. The setting takes place around the 1950’s in the slums or as said in the story "one side of the river." The main character who was also the narrator was Rusty-James. The central conflict of the novel was about Rusty-James trying to be the toughest kid in the neighborhood like his older brother the motorcycle boy so he starts trouble pretty much everywhere he goes almost. The central theme of the novel is to choose your choices wisely because you never know what can happen in the future.

As stated in paragraph 1 the theme of rumble fish is to choose your choices wisely because you never know what can happen in the future. I think that’s the theme of the novel because in rumble fish some character made the wrong choices and got a bad reaction or something bad happened later in the novel. Like when Rusty-James got cut with a blade on his side and motorcycle boy broke Biffs’ wrist. Or when motorcycle boy got shot in the pet store and had to go to the hospital. Those two events represent the central theme of the novel because in both events the characters did something bad and a bad reaction occurred later in the novel. The theme can also be applied to real life because some people don’t realize the choices they make and they end up being in a situation they don’t want to be in and no one is there to help them or get them out. I would recommend this book to a high school student because it gives you something to relate to or that someone else could relate to, and the novel makes you feel like you’re actually in the novel. Like when Rusty-James and Biff fought; it made me feel like I was there just watching the fight because it seemed so real. The part I felt was effective was when motorcycle boy came back from his trip because Rusty-James didn’t think he would ever come back. What I could change to improve the story is, the part when the novel started off with Rusty-James and Steve meets up at a beach years later and then it goes into the past talking about flashbacks. But overall I really liked the novel Rumble Fish and would recommend it to anyone.