S.E. Hinton's Rumble Fish is a novel that explores the impact of fate and free will on the lives of the poor and socially ignored youth of urban culture. This is portrayed through the various techniques in the book, which include the foreshadowing that prepares readers for the fatal outcome of the novel, symbolism of various cultural and legal systems to represent the characters in the book and their traits, as well as parallel characters to show that the paths that they headed to could lead them to different lives or to the same cycle of those before them.
Susan uses foreshadowing in the novel Rumble fish to portray the theme of fate and free will. During the first chapter of the novel, we find out about the unlucky fate of Rusty-James' life, compared with the life that Steve acquires over the years that passed since they had separated until the day when they find each other again. The two of them finally have had the fate they deserve based on their own free will. Hinton also uses symbolism in this paragraph to describe his best friend Steve.
Rusty-James is just the symbolism of a man looking for his own identity, trying to find it through…show more content… He had dark-blond hair and dark brown eyes and a face like a real sincere rabbit". However, as the story progresses Steve becomes stonger and is described as a "brave rabbit". Steve is the personification of the hope against all odds, a character able to rebuild his story, but at the same time, a man that doesn't want to refuse where he comes from and the people he cares about. At the beggining of the novel Steve is seen as weak and small from Rusty's point of view, but when he leaves Rusty and decides to make the best decision for his own future he becomes the boy who is determined to change his future. The author contrasts Steve with Rusty and how their attitudes, choices and actions affected their own fates in their parallel
