Rumble Fish

Were a reader to know nothing about S.E. Hinton, they might complete Rumble Fish thinking that she is a male author. In addition to the fact that she goes by the gender-ambiguous initials “S.E” rather than “Susan Eloise,” Hinton’s book features a male protagonist and centers on his conventionally masculine concerns about violence, identity, and his standing in relation to other men. Hinton has said that her preference for writing from a male perspective came from the fact that she “was a tomboy when [she] was young”:

Most of my friends were boys. I liked riding, hunting, playing football. I couldn't find anything to identify with in the female culture, which was pretty rigid at the time. I felt I thought like a boy. Writing from a male point of view always came easily for me; being a lazy person, I will usually take the easiest way (Sozio, Lauren. “Some of Hinton’s Stories.” Vanity Fair, 14 May 2007, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/05/hintonqanda200705. Accessed June 26, 2021).

Here, Hinton associates activity, competition, and the aggressive mode of thinking that accompanies these pursuits with masculinity.

While Hinton grew up as a girl who identified more with male culture, that is not the experience she seeks to portray in Rumble Fish. Instead, she channels this boyishness into Rusty-James, a male protagonist whose love of gang culture and preference for impulsive action over reflection make him almost a caricature of masculinity. For example, he experiences an adrenaline and endorphin rush while anticipating fights, to the extent that he becomes “kind of high, like [he] can do anything” (15). Similarly, his tough-guy diction, which is full of exaggerations like “I’m gonna stomp Biff Wilson’s guts tonight” (10), seems an imitation of the speech of movie gangsters and conceals his real self.

However, Hinton salvages her protagonist from becoming a macho caricature by showing that he possesses human traits that transcend gender. For example, he prefers the less competitive and more companionate dynamic he has with Steve over the tension with boys who are continually trying to advance their reputation at the expense of his. This indicates that Rusty-James instinctively knows that friendships based on compassion rather than competition are more fulfilling. Additionally, his adoration of the Motorcycle Boy is childlike and enthusiastic—traits that are at odds with his aspirations to be cool. This is evident when his reaction to spotting the Motorcycle Boy in a magazine is a gushing, “Wow […] wait till I tell everybody” (46). As the novel progresses, Rusty-James increasingly leaves the macho persona behind and becomes an emotionally driven person who if anything relies too much on others. This costs him his reputation as the Motorcycle Boy’s successor in the neighborhood, while simultaneously making him a sympathetic character to the reader.

However, when it comes to women, Rusty-James remains locked in sexist machismo for the duration of the novel. He judges girls exclusively on their appearance. Unlike Steve and the Motorcycle Boy, who admire Cassandra for her more natural appearance and intelligence, Rusty-James dismisses her as an unglamorous, eccentric “dingbat” whom he cannot relate to as he does more gender-conforming girls like Patty (77). His sexism is further apparent in his division of girls into those who stand out to him as girlfriend material versus the undifferentiated “chicks” whom he can have “a really nice time with”—i.e. experiment with sexually without any responsibilities to them. He also prefers to visit Patty at home because he does not “like other guys looking at her” and thinking that she is available (74), like the “tough chicks” who hang out at Benny’s. Here, Rusty-James’s attitude reflects the traditional belief that “good girls” stay at home and away from men, whereas “bad girls” roam the town.

Patty, however, is not a caricature of passive femininity and in fact has some similar territorial and aggressive traits to Rusty-James. For example, when a girl called Judy McGee flirts with Rusty-James, she “[takes] after [her] with a busted pop bottle” to defend her territory (15). Moreover, her key role in the book is to punish Rusty-James when he cheats on her and diminishes her status as his girlfriend; she responds by taking up with Smokey and making him leader of the group. While her demonstration that there are consequences to mistreating her is empowering, Patty also objectifies herself by making herself the bargaining chip between men. This sort of sexual leverage was more readily accessible to women than other forms of power in Hinton’s youth, and was perhaps one of the reasons why the author preferred to identify with the opposite gender. Writing from a boy’s perspective, she could have far more freedom from gender restrictions.