Rusty-James is the toughest kid around. In the book “Rumble Fish” by S.E. Hinton, he proves this several times by getting in fights and other trouble. He loves maintaining his tough reputation and hopes he can be just like his big brother, The Motorcycle Boy, until one day everything falls apart. He gets expelled, his girlfriend dumps him, and his brother gets killed. Throughout the story the author uses the literary elements conflict, point of view, and characterization to add drama, suspense,and excitement to the story. Throughout the story there is a lot of conflict. The story begins with a knife fight, the main character gets in multiple fights, the story ends with The Motorcycle Boy getting shot. There is also a lot of emotional conflict for Rusty-James. He gets dumped and his brother, who he looks up to and loves, gets killed. The use of conflict in this book adds a lot of drama, excitement, and suspense to the story. There is a lot of drama that comes with Rusty-James’ expulsion. When he gets expelled he then has to go to the same school as Biff Wilcox, a kid who had it out for Rusty-James and the kid who ad cut him at the beginning of the story. “Now I was getting sent to Biff Wilcox’s turf. So I didn’t have much time for seriously thinking about my life.”(p.64) The fights …show more content…
The way that S.E. Hinton characterizes Rusty-James makes the story as interesting as it. Rusty-James is a tough kid who always gets into fights, trouble, and does whatever he wants. He drinks, fights, does bad in school and stays out as late as he wants. He is always in trouble, “ “Kid,” he said to me, “ don’t go getting into trouble, okay?” I must have looked at him like he was nuts because he continued on: “ I mean any trouble you can’t handle.”” (p.65), that’s who he was. Without Rusty-James being such a trouble maker he wouldn’t be in all the drama and excitement that he is constantly a part