Previous
Terms
Hustling means to misrepresent one’s skill in a game in order to deceive someone, particularly when gambling. In the novel, Mark and Bryon often seek out pool players in Charlie’s bar whom they know they can beat and challenge those players to a game. At first, Mark and Bryon intentionally play poorly and lose money betting on the game so that their opponents will feel confident in their ability to win games and will consequently continue to play with the boys. But once the opponents are lulled into this false sense of confidence, Bryon and Mark suddenly begin playing at their full capacity, winning several games in a row in order to ultimately make up for—and far exceed—the money they initially lost when they were pretending to be bad at pool. While hustling is not strictly illegal, it is considered a form of cheating. This is why, after discovering that they’ve been hustled, the Texans attempt to beat Bryon and Mark up.
Hustling Quotes in That Was Then, This Is Now
The That Was Then, This Is Now quotes below are all either spoken by Hustling or refer to Hustling. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
“It’s just as well,” Charlie said. “You guys are going to get in real bad trouble one of these days. Some guy’s going to get hacked off when he finds out what you’re doin’, and you’re gonna get a pool stick rammed down your throats.”
“No we ain’t,” Mark said. “Give me a Coke, Charlie.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2
Quotes
I was the hustler and Mark was the thief. We were a great pair. One thing about it, though. Mark couldn’t see anything wrong with stealing stuff. I could. It didn’t much matter to me whether or not Mark was a thief, but I still felt that stealing was wrong—at least it’s against the law. I think Mark was only dimly aware of that fact. Stealing was a game to him, something to do for fun and profit, and he was careful not to get caught because that was one of the rules.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7
Quotes
“You can’t walk through your whole life saying ‘If.’ You can’t keep trying to figure out why things happen, man. That’s what old people do. That’s when you can’t get away with things any more. You gotta just take things as they come, and quit trying to reason them out. Bryon, you never used to wonder about things. Man, I been gettin’ worried about you. You start wonderin’ why, and you get old. Lately, I felt like you were leavin’ me, man. You used to have all the answers.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire That Was Then, This Is Now LitChart as a printable PDF.
