Revende Is Pointless

Pori 1
Connor Pori

Ballek

English 8

October 17,2012
Revenge Is Pointless

When people get angry they often seek revenge on the person or person that hurt or pushed them into this state of anger. Revenge seems fulfilling for the moment, but usually hurts you over a long term of time. Revenge is never the answer and is in fact pointless. In S.E. Hinton's novel That Was Then, This Is Now seeking revenge does not benefit the character's lives, the lifestyle they grew up in, and the eventual tragic outcome of the story.
When talking about That Was Then, This Is Now and the theme “revenge is pointless”, most turn to chapter eight when Bryon is beaten up by the Sheppard’s for what Mark did to Angela when he cut her hair as punishment. Bryon takes the high road. Bryon asks to speak to Mark on his own, and when they are together, he says to him that he doesn't want anybody to fight the Sheppards in revenge for what they did to him. He goes on to explain his reasoning, “I don't want to keep this up, this getting-even

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jazz. It's stupid and I'm sick of it and it keeps going in circles. I have had it--so if you're planning any get-even mugging, forget it.” “Stupid” and “keeps going in a circle” goes in the process of revenge that Bryon talks about. Certainly the cycle of violence that the novel presents is something that doesn't help anybody, and only hurts those involved in it again and again. That’s a truth that Bryon, through his experience and his relationship with Cathy, comes to realize, though Mark, of course, has not discovered this truth for himself as yet. Yet although Bryon realizes that “revenge is pointless” not everybody in this story does.
Another circumstance that comes to mind when think about the theme of That Was Then, This Is Now is when Bryon reports Mark for drug abuse. Bryon says when he gets out of jail he “will be vengeful and never come home again”. That completely ruins his future. Everyday he drags on the weight of not...