Brotherhood, Loyalty, and Betrayal Theme Analysis

Although Bryon and Mark are not actually related to one another, Mark lives with Bryon and his mother as an adoptive part of the family, and they often tell people that they’re brothers. To them, brotherhood isn’t limited to biological brothers. Instead, Bryon and Mark see brotherhood as an irreversible pact wherein they are unconditionally loyal to each other—something that is integral to their survival in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is overrun by gang violence. But when Bryon and Mark betray one another in big and small ways, their brotherly bond permanently shatters, and the boys develop a seething hatred for one another that runs deeper than anything they feel for other people. While Hinton shows the value of brotherhood—its loyalty, support, and protection—she also suggests that when brothers betray one another, brotherhood is difficult, if not impossible, to rebuild.

Early on in the story, Hinton illustrates how Mark and Bryon’s brotherly bond is in part about physical protection. Bryon explains in the first chapter that he and Mark have been best friends their whole lives. After Mark’s parents killed each other in a drunken fight when Mark was nine, he moved in with Bryon and his mother, which brought the boys even closer. From an early age, Mark was able to take refuge in his brotherly friendship with Bryon, and it gave him a roof over his head. Years later, Mark is beaten up while he and Bryon are at a party. When Bryon sees the large gash on Mark’s head, he nearly cries at seeing his friend in pain. He drops everything to care for Mark, getting him to the doctor and staying with him in the ambulance to calm him. Mark later expresses his appreciation, saying, “Bryon, you’re the only family I got, you know that? […] I feel like you're my brother. A real one.” Bryon’s friendship makes Mark feel like he has the same physical protection that a biological family might provide. Mark reciprocates this protection later on in the novel when Bryon is beaten up badly and has to have stitches in his face and his ribs taped. Mark takes him to another boy’s house to help him recover and then to the hospital. When Bryon wakes up in the hospital, he sees that Mark is almost crying—something he has never seen Mark do before. Hinton thus reinforces their reciprocal bond, as they care about each other more than anyone else and want to protect each other.

The boys’ mutual protectiveness also speaks to their deep loyalty to and emotional support of one another, which are also foundations of a strong brotherly bond. That Mark and Bryon grew closer to one another after Mark’s parents’ tragic deaths implies that from an early age, the boys provided each other with crucial emotional support. They’re also fiercely loyal to one another. Bryon recalls how, in their younger days, they “had never had a fight. [They] had never even had an argument”—the boys were always on the same page about things and backed each other up. Bryon and Mark have a stronger bond than even some brothers, because their loyalty to each other cancels out any potential conflict. When Mark and Bryon meet a boy named Mike, Mark tells him that he and Bryon are brothers. Bryon thinks, “For a minute I really felt good about Mark’s telling this guy we were brothers.” Later, when Bryon expresses the same thing to Mark, saying, “I always think of you as my brother,” Mark smiles in response. Hinton thus illustrates how the fact that they think of each other as brothers, and express that to each other, is a valuable display of loyalty that also constitutes a kind of emotional support.

But when Bryon and Mark eventually betray one another, their brotherly bond shatters irreparably, suggesting that brotherhood, once broken, is hard to piece back together. When Bryon’s new girlfriend, Cathy, casually remarks that Mark is attractive, Bryon seethes with jealousy. He thinks, “You know what the crummiest feeling you can have is? To hate the person you love best in the world.” Notably, Bryon’s hatred isn’t directed towards Cathy for making the comment, but towards Mark, because he feels it’s a betrayal of their bond that Mark could end up with a girl that Bryon likes. This dynamic intensifies later in the book when Cathy’s brother, M&M, disappears, and she and Bryon frantically search for him every day. When Mark eventually admits that he knows where M&M is, Bryon is furious at him for withholding this information and letting Cathy panic, which he sees as another betrayal. Bryon and Cathy find M&M in a hippie house on a bad drug trip—one that warps his brain so thoroughly that doctors say he’ll never be the same. When Bryon learns that Mark has been selling drugs, he quickly makes the connection between Mark’s dealing drugs and M&M’s lethal drug trip. Bryon feels exceptionally betrayed, describing Mark as “the cause of all this misery.” Even though Mark claims that he didn’t sell drugs to M&M, the fact that Mark sells drugs at all implicates him in the tragedy, because he could have easily caused this kind of devastating trip in someone else. Bryon feels so betrayed that he commits a betrayal of his own, calling the cops on Mark for selling drugs. Mark is imprisoned for five years, and when Bryon visits him in jail, Mark looks more hardened and tough than ever and scathingly tells Bryon that he hates him. Indeed, Bryon thinks Mark would kill him if he had the chance. In betraying one another, both boys violate the contract of their brotherhood, permanently destroying the loyalty and care that once existed between them.