That Was Then, This Is Now

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1971

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-11

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

“That Was Then, This Is Now”

The phrase “That was then, and this is now” appears twice in the text, and it also serves (minus the conjunction) as the title of the novel. Bryon first says it to Mark while the two of them are reminiscing about the past. Mark says that he misses the “one-for-all, all-for-one routine” of the past (69), but Bryon’s response implies that he disagrees, preferring the way things are now, with each of them developing as independent individuals. Later, at the novel’s conclusion, Mark repeats the phrase to Bryon in a different context. This time, Bryon is the one longing for the past, when he and Mark used to be so close.

Mark’s reiteration of the phrase suggests that he now prefers the present to the past, with each of them reversing their previous position. It also links his current hatred of Bryon to events going back to that moment in time, when their paths started to diverge. By selecting this phrase at the title of the novel, Hinton draws attention to the central theme of The Choices and Responsibilities of Adulthood, reminding readers that the present is a result of choices and events that happened in the past, but those past events cannot be changed, no matter how much someone like Bryon might dwell on them.

Lion

In his narration, Bryon repeatedly compares Mark to a lion, which both reveals Mark’s characteristics and suggests Bryon’s evolving concerns regarding their actions and beliefs.

Visually, Mark resembles a lion for his golden hair and eyes. Throughout the first part of the novel, Bryon’s references to Mark as a lion are consistently positive; he mentions that Mark has a “grin like a friendly lion” (13) and how Mark smiles “like an innocent lion” (75). As the novel progresses, however, Bryon’s descriptions of Mark become more ambivalent, even wary. As tension between Mark and Cathy mounts, Bryon compares Mark to a “teased lion who’s had enough” (98). On another, he recognizes the source of Mark’s popularity: “Who hasn’t dreamed of having a pet lion to stand between you and the world? Golden, dangerous Mark” (113). That others view him in this same way is confirmed when Mark and Bryon visit the commune house together, where everyone refers to Mark simply as “Cat.”

By the novel’s climax, Bryon’s descriptions of Mark reveal his newfound fear of Mark’s violent prowess. Mark the prisoner reminds Bryon of an “impatient, dangerous, caged lion” (157); his eyes are “the golden, hard, flat eyes of a jungle animal” (158). By subtly shifting the tone of the leonine descriptors applied to Mark throughout the novel, Hinton reveals Bryon’s shift in perspective as well as Mark’s unchanging, fierce nature.

Peace

Various references to and symbols for peace appear throughout the novel. The peace sign was originally designed in Britain in the 1950s by activists campaigning for nuclear disarmament. Today, it is widely associated with the American anti-war protesters of the 1960s, who adopted it as a general symbol for world peace. Within the novel, M&M wears a peace medal to show his support for such philosophies. It also marks him as a “hippie,” which leads the Shepherd gang to attack him in Chapter 1; his attackers notably single him out as a “hippie” and a “flower child” and take pains to cut the string holding the medallion. The peace symbol thus ironically leads to violence in this instance, and M&M accidentally drops the symbol as he runs away. Mark pockets it for the time being and goes on to wear it for a while “as a joke” (27), showing that he has little interest in peace as a symbol or a practice, though he eventually returns the necklace to M&M.

In spite of Mark’s apathy, Hinton demonstrates that all the talk of peace did have real, positive impacts. Bryon reflects that “with all that love, peace, and groove stuff, the fights had slacked off” between the Socs and the greasers (70). Later in the novel, Bryon makes a related peace sign with his fingers and says, “Peace,” to win back the goodwill of some “hippies” after he implied that they were negligent toward M&M. This pattern of peacemaking contrasts with The Vicious Cycle of Revenge theme and suggests troubling implications: It is peace rather than violence which requires a symbol due to the normalization of violence in society.