Dan+O

"That Was Then, This Is Now" by: S.E. Hinton

1. Who are Bryon and Mark?

Bryon and Mark are two sixteen year old boys who are so good friends they consider themselves brothers. Bryon and Mark live together with Bryon's mom. Bryon has dark brown hair and eyes. Mark has golden hair and eyes.

2. Who are the two young people Bryon meets at the hospital?

While at the Hospital, Bryon meets Cathy, M&M's older sister, who works at the snack bar. Bryon also meets a boy named Mike who is in the hospital because he was beat up by African-Americans because he is white and he drove a black girl home.

3. What kind of relationship does Bryon have with Charlie?

Bryon and Charlie are friends. Charlie owns a bar and Bryon frequently hangs out there. Bryon used to date Charlie's sister.

4. What happens at the dance?

At the dance, Bryon is dancing around and having fun with Cathy when Mark comes up to Bryon with Ponyboy Curtis and tells him that there is a bunch of alcohol in Terry Jones's car. After Mark and Ponyboy Curtis leave to go out to the car, Angela Shepard approaches Bryon. They have a short conversation, and Bryon realizes that he doesn't even care about Angela anymore, and that he likes Cathy better. While Cathy and Bryon are dancing together, a scream is heard from the back parking lot. Ponyboy Curtis runs in and tells Bryon that Mark was hurt. Curtis tells Bryon that Mark and him were just minding their own business when this guy came up to them and started to fight him. Mark tried to stop Curtis and the guy from fighting, but the guy took an empty beer bottle and cracked Mark's head with it. Mark was hurt very badly, and he would recover for a couple days.

5. What does Bryon begin to discover in his private conversations with Mark?

Through his private conversations with Mark, Bryon begins to discover that Mark and him are growing apart, but still love each other like brothers. He also begins to discover Mark's true feelings about Bryon and his mother. Mark treats Bryon as if he were his brother, but he does not think of Bryon's mom as his mother. Lastly, Bryon finds out Mark's real feelings about what happened at the dance. He found out that Mark was so scared that he was going to die after being hit with the bottle, and that the event really traumatized him.

6. What happened to Charlie? How do Bryon and Mark feel about it?

After successfully hustling some money from a game of pool with two Texans, Bryon and Mark were walking home from Charlie's bar. All of a sudden, the two Texans show up behind them and tell them to step into the alley. Bryon and Mark agree because they didn't want to provoke the two men. As soon as they are all on opposite sides in the alley, Bryon and Mark notice that one of the men has a gun. The Texans start walking toward the two boys when a voice tells the Texans to put the gun down. It was Charlie. Bryon and Mark went out of the alley to thank Charlie, when one of the men dove for the gun and fired at them. Charlie immediately slammed Bryon and Mark to the ground while the Texans climbed over the alley wall and ran away. After the men were gone, Charlie was still on top of Bryon. Bryon told Charlie to get off, but then he noticed a bullet hole right above Charlie's left eye. Charlie was dead. Bryon and Mark were both scared at the time of this incident. However, the event had more of a lasting effect on Bryon than it did on Mark. Mark was only sad and scared at the moment, and he soon got over it. Bryon, on the other hand, was traumatized by this. Charlie's death really scarred him and had a lasting result on Bryon. This event made Bryon realize even more that Mark and him were growing apart.

7. What do Mark and Cathy think of each other?

Mark and Cathy do not think very highly of each other at all. In fact, some people might say that they hate each other. This hate is most likely caused by each of them wanting to spend more and more time with Bryon. Mark and Cathy hate each other only because they are both extremely jealous of the amount of time the other person spends with Bryon.

8. What did Mark do to Angela? Why?

Mark got Angela drunk then cut off all her hair because she set him up to get hurt at the fight at the dance.

9. In chapter seven, what does Bryon begin to discover about his good friend Mark?

Bryon discovers that Mark's parents shot each other due to their feelings towards Mark.

10. What happens to Bryon at Terry Jones' house? How does his attitude change?

At Terry Jones' house, Tim and Curly Shepherd show up to get their revenge on Bryon for what they did to Angela and instead of lying to them, Bryon decides to tell them the truth. That was a main change in his attitude.

11. In chapter nine, what happens to M&M? Why does this move Bryon?

M&M runs away and starts taking powerful drugs that give him crazy visions. Bryon is moved by this because M&M was like a little brother to him.

12. What shocking discovery does Bryon make in Mark's bedroom? What does he do?

Bryon discovers that Mark has been selling drugs so he called the cops on Mark.

13. How does Bryon's relationship with his friends and his attitude toward life completely change?

Bryon's relationship with his friends has been ruined, and he never dated again. His attitude had changed because he now is a better person and doesn't mouth off to anyone. Bryon's attitude became a mixture of things he had picked up from his old friends.

14. How does Bryon feel at the end of the book?

Bryon feels that he wasted his time with some people. He wishes that he was a kid and that he had all of the answers.

15. What do you think about this book and what life message does it teach?

I think this is a very emotional book and it teaches that no matter what you do there will always be problems and you have to overcome them anyway you can.