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That Was Then, This Is Now is a coming-of age, young adult novel by S. E. Hinton, first published in 1971. Set in the 1960s, it follows the relationship between two brothers, Mark Jennings and Bryon Douglas, who are foster brothers, but find their relationship rapidly changing and deteriorating.
- S. E. Hinton
- 1971
That Was Then, This Is Now Summary. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the late 1960s, 16-year-old Bryon Douglas lives with his mother and his foster brother and best friend, Mark Jennings. Mark’s parents killed each other in a drunken fight when he was younger, and he’s lived with Bryon and Bryon’s mother ever since.
That Was Then, This Is Now takes place in the late 1960s in Tusla, Oklahoma. Several historical events shaped the economic and political landscape of the city. First, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
- Introduction
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Characters
- Media Adaptations
- Themes
- Topics For Further Study
- Style
- Historical Context
- Compare & Contrast
Susan Eloise Hinton, known to her multitudes of readers as "S. E. Hinton," a trick that she and her early publisher used to mask her gender, is credited with revolutionizing the young adult book industry with the 1967 publication of her coming-of-age book, The Outsiders, which she published when she was only seventeen years old. Her second effort, ...
Susan Eloise Hinton, known to her readers as S. E. Hinton, was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1950, a setting that has influenced the majority of her young adult novels. In fact, Hinton is commonly credited as the person who revolutionized the tone of young adult fiction, by using gritty, realistic set-tings such as the Tulsa-like background of her hu...
Chapter One
That Was Then, This Is Nowbegins when the narrator, Bryon Douglas, and his foster brother, Mark, both teenagers, go to one of their favorite hangouts, Charlie's Bar, a rough pool hall where they often try to hustle people for money. Later, they find their hippie friend, a kid with the nickname M&M, who tells them that his sister, Cathy, is home from private school. They hang out for a while, but M&M gets bored and leaves. Mark and Bryon follow, just in time to stop some gang members from beat...
Chapter Two
The next day, Mark and Bryon go to the hospital to see Bryon's mother, who has just had an operation and who says they should visit a beaten-up kid across the hall. Bryon goes downstairs to the hospital's snack bar, where he meets Cathy, M&M's sister who is back in town, and asks her out. Bryon talks with the severely beaten-up boy, Mike Chambers, who tells Bryon that he got beaten up after he saved a young black woman from being harassed by his own gang members. Mike drove the woman home, an...
Chapter Three
Bryon looks for a job but does not have any luck, even with Charlie, who tells him that he needs to change his ways before anybody will hire him. Charlie lets Bryon borrow his car, however, and Bryon asks Cathy to the school dance. At the dance, Bryon and Cathy are the center of attention, since nobody recognizes her. Mark gets knocked unconscious with a bottle, after he tries to stop somebody from attacking Ponyboy Curtis, one of his friends. Bryon realizes that his ex-girlfriend, Angela She...
Cathy Carlson
Cathy Carlson is Bryon's girlfriend; it is out of his love for her and concern for her brother M&M that Bryon decides to turn Mark in for dealing drugs. Cathy is a shy, innocent teenager, who comes back from private school when she runs out of money. Unlike Bryon's ex-girlfriend, Angela, Cathy does not get jealous and is a good influence on Bryon. This influence puts her at odds with Mark, who feels he and Bryon are starting to grow apart. This becomes more noticeable after Charlie dies savin...
Mr. Jim Carlson
Jim Carlson is Cathy's dad, whose constant criticisms of his son, M&M, help to drive M&M out of the house and into using drugs. Bryon first meets Mr. Carlson when he picks up Cathy for their date, and he can see how he antagonizes M&M over the length of his hair and because he is flunking math and gym. When M&M leaves home, Mr. Carlson thinks that it is a phase and that he will be back, but as Cathy projects, he does not. Mr. Carl-son likes Bryon, especially after Bryon helps find M&M and get...
M&M Carlson
M&M Carlson, Cathy's thirteen-year-old brother and one of Bryon's friends, has a bad experience with LSD, which motivates Bryon to turn in Mark for dealing drugs. Even M&M's family call him by this nickname, which he earned for his addiction to the candy of the same name. M&M is the consummate hippie. He wears his hair long, wears an old, loose-fitting army jacket everywhere he goes, and has a metal peace symbol on a rawhide cord around his neck. He is extremely trusting, and even tough chara...
That Was Then, This Is Now was adapted as a film in 1985, directed by Christopher Cain, written by Emilio Estevez, and starring Craig Sheffer as Bryon, Estevez as Mark, Kim Delaney as Cathy, and Mo...
Coming of Age
That Was Then, This Is Nowis the story of Bryon Douglas's coming of age during his adolescence. When the story starts, Bryon is concerned only about himself and Mark. Early in the story, however, he meets Cathy, M&M's sister, and falls in love with her. As they begin dating more, Bryon notes, "I had quit thinking only about myself." And when M&M runs away and Bryon comforts a crying Cathy, he realizes that "it was the first time I'd ever felt bad for anyone except Mark." Bryon also makes the...
Violence
Bryon's and Mark's lives are saturated with violence, and they jump at the chance to save M&M from getting beaten up by Curly Shepard and his gang: "Me and Mark looked at each other, and Mark flashed me a grin. We both liked fights." M&M, however, does not like fights and criticizes Bryon and Mark when Mark notices a black guy and suggests they "jump him." Says M&M, "You just rescued me from some guys who were going to beat me up because I'm different from them, and now you're going to beat u...
The Vietnam Warinfluenced the lives of many young American men who were called upon to fight in a war in which many did not believe. Research the political and social climate in America during this...Hinton was a teenager when she published her first young adult novel, which she hoped would resonate with other teens who had similar experiences. Write a onepage synopsis for a young adult novel b...Although the majority of reviewers credit Hinton with creating realistic tales, some maintain that teen life in the 1960s, even in gangs, was not as bad as the author's depictions. Research gangs a...In the story, the narrator, Bryon, turns in his foster brother to the police and, as a result, loses the ability to care about anyone. Study current psychological research that addresses instances...Narration
The story is told in the first person viewpoint, from the perspective of Bryon Douglas, which is consistent with Hinton's other teenage novels. By doing this, Hinton imbues her book with a deep sense of emotion. In the beginning, Bryon notes that "Mark was my best buddy and I loved him like a brother." In the end, Bryon is emotionally dead and says, "I don't even care about Mark. The guy who was my best friend doesn't exist any longer, and I don't want to think about the person who has taken...
Foreshadowing
While the ending has impact, the careful reader can pick up on a number of Bryon's statements that foreshadow Mark's drug dealing and his resulting feelings for Bryon when he is put away. The first of these happens after Bryon and Mark visit Mike Chambers in the hospital. Although Bryon sees how Mike could forgive his attackers, Mark says that he could never forgive anybody who hurt him that badly. In an offhand comment to the reader, Bryon responds to Mark's comment by saying that, at the ti...
Irony
Irony is the unique awareness that is produced when someone says something and means another, or when somebody does something, and the result is opposite of what was expected. In That Was Then, This Is Now, the irony is the latter: situational irony. In this case, Hinton employs the irony for tragic purposes. Out of his love for Cathy and concern for M&M, Bryon sacrifices Mark by turning him into the authorities. However, in a cruelly ironic twist, this act causes him to lose his love for Cat...
Vietnam and the Antiwar Movement
The 1960s and early 1970s were turbulent times, and the war in Vietnam did not help abate this tension. The conflict in Vietnam had actually begun in 1946, shortly after World War II ended. WWII had left many areas in Southeast Asia unstable, and over the next two decades, the United States quietly provided support to South Vietnam and those allied with the country, which was fighting against Ho Chi Minh's Communist forces in North Vietnam. The United States, so fearful of the spread of Commu...
1960s–1970s: The United States significantly escalates its military involvement in Vietnam, prompting the government to "draft" its young men to fight and igniting the antiwar movement. Many young...1960s–1970s: Many hippies and other members of the counterculture movement—who are often in their twenties or younger—experiment with "recreational" drugs to expand their minds and rebel against th...1960s–1970s: The peace symbol, tie-dyed shirts, and other wild developments in fashion become symbols for hippies, who use their unconventional clothes as one of many ways to express their desire t...Jan 1, 1982 · Published four years after her phenomenally successful first novel, The Outsiders, That Was Then, This Is Now confirmed S. E. Hinton's place in the canon of young adult literature. Returning to the same working-class landscape, Hinton paints a deeply-felt portrait of best friends Bryon and Mark, as they grow up and grow apart.
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- Paperback
Apr 26, 1971 · Now things are changing. Bryon's growing up, spending a lot of time with girls, and thinking seriously about who he wants to be. Mark still just lives for the thrill of the moment. The two are growing apart - until Bryon makes a shocking discovery about Mark. Then Bryon faces a terrible decision - one that will change both of their lives forever.
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That Was Then, This is Now is S. E. Hinton's moving portrait of the bond between best friends Bryon and Mark and the tensions that develop between them as they begin to grow up and grow apart....
