Growing up is a trap. S.E. Hinton knew it when she wrote The Outsiders, but she really twisted the knife when she published her follow-up. If you’re looking for a That Was Then, This Is Now book summary, you’re probably expecting a nostalgic trip through the 1960s Tulsa streets. But honestly? This book is a gut-punch. It’s about that messy, inevitable moment when your best friend—the person who is basically your brother—starts moving in a direction you just can't follow.
The Setup: Two Brothers in Everything but Blood
Bryon Douglas and Mark Jennings have been inseparable since they were kids. They live in the same house. They share the same bed. They even share a philosophy on life: us against the world. Bryon is the narrator, a guy who knows how to hustle and has a bit of a reputation as a lady-killer. Mark is something else entirely. He’s charming, golden-eyed, and possesses a strange, almost cat-like ability to get away with anything. He’s a thief, a fighter, and a professional "borrower" of cars, but because he’s Mark, nobody ever stays mad at him.
They’re poor. They’re bored. They spend their nights at Charlie’s Bar, pool-hopping and looking for trouble. At the start of the book, they feel invincible. But things change. People change.
The catalyst for everything is M&M, a sweet, hippie-adjacent kid who just wants to live in peace. When Bryon and Mark save M&M from a beating, it feels like a win. But it’s actually the beginning of the end. Bryon starts seeing the world through a different lens, mostly because he starts falling for M&M’s sister, Cathy.
The Shift: Why the "Then" and "Now" Matter
The title isn't just a catchy phrase. It’s the entire theme.
Bryon starts growing a conscience, which is a dangerous thing to have in their neighborhood. He looks at his life and sees the cycles of violence. He sees the death of Charlie, the bartender who was shot protecting them. He sees his mother’s hospital bills piling up. Suddenly, the "hustle" doesn't feel like a game anymore. It feels like a dead end.
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Mark, however, stays exactly the same. He’s stuck in the "Then." To Mark, loyalty is the only law. If you need money, you take it. If someone hits your friend, you hit them back harder. He doesn't understand Bryon’s new moral compass. To him, Bryon is becoming a stranger. This tension isn't just about growing up; it’s about the fundamental difference between a person who learns from pain and a person who is numbed by it.
The Turning Point: M&M and the Hippie House
If you want the real heart of a That Was Then, This Is Now book summary, you have to talk about the drug culture of the late 60s. M&M runs away from his abusive father and ends up in a "hippie house." When Bryon and Cathy finally find him, he’s having a horrific LSD trip. He thinks spiders are crawling out of his skin. He’s broken.
Seeing M&M—the kid who used to love candy and peace—transformed into a screaming, terrified shell of a human being breaks something inside Bryon. He realizes that the "fun" and the "hustling" have real-world casualties.
The Betrayal: The Most Controversial Ending in YA Literature
This is where the book goes from a coming-of-age story to a tragedy. Bryon comes home, exhausted and grieving for M&M’s lost innocence, and finds a stash of pills under Mark’s mattress.
Mark isn't just using; he’s selling.
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To Mark, it’s a logical move. They needed money for the hospital and for food. Selling "whites" (amphetamines) was just another hustle. But to Bryon, who just saw what drugs did to M&M, it’s an unforgivable sin.
Without thinking—driven by a cold, detached sense of justice—Bryon calls the police.
He turns in his best friend.
The Aftermath: No Easy Answers
The fallout is brutal. Mark is sent to a reformatory. When Bryon visits him, hoping for some kind of closure or forgiveness, he finds a different person. The golden-eyed, charming kid is gone. In his place is a cold, hateful young man who tells Bryon that he’s "dead" to him. Mark has adapted to prison life the only way he knows how: by becoming truly dangerous.
Bryon gets what he thought he wanted—a cleaner life—but he loses everything else. He loses Cathy because he becomes too numb to love her. He loses his "brother." He ends the book wishing he were a kid again, back when he had all the answers and none of the guilt.
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Why This Story Still Hits Hard in 2026
You might think a book from 1971 would feel dated. Sure, the slang is a little old-school ("tuff," "dig it"), but the core conflict is timeless. We all have those friends from our youth who we eventually outgrow. Maybe it’s not because one of us became a drug dealer, but the feeling of looking at someone you once loved and realizing you no longer speak the same language? That’s universal.
S.E. Hinton wrote this when she was barely out of her teens, which is why it feels so raw. It’s not an adult lecturing kids about the dangers of drugs. It’s a young person screaming about how unfair it is that doing the "right thing" can feel so much like a betrayal.
Key Takeaways for Today’s Readers
- Loyalty has limits. Mark’s brand of loyalty was blind. Bryon realized that loyalty to a person shouldn't mean loyalty to their destructive behavior.
- Change is violent. We often talk about "growth" as a positive, leafy thing. In this book, growth is a jagged edge that cuts ties.
- The "good guy" isn't always the hero. Was Bryon right to call the cops? Some readers say yes. Others think he was a "narc" who destroyed a life over a moral epiphany. Hinton doesn't give you the answer.
How to Apply These Insights
If you’re reading this for a class or just for personal growth, don't just summarize the plot. Look at the mirrors. Mark and Bryon are two sides of the same coin. Mark represents the impulsive, survivalist past; Bryon represents the complicated, guilt-ridden future.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Understanding:
- Compare it to The Outsiders: Notice how Ponyboy has a support system (his brothers) that Bryon lacks. This makes Bryon’s isolation at the end much more profound.
- Research the "St. Paul's" setting: Hinton’s Tulsa is a real place with real socio-economic divides that still exist today. Understanding the poverty of the characters explains why Mark felt selling drugs was his only option.
- Evaluate the Ending: Write down whether you would have called the police in Bryon's shoes. It’s a classic ethical dilemma that has no "perfect" solution.
The tragedy of the book isn't that Mark went to jail. It’s that Bryon became a person who could put him there. That’s the "now" he has to live with forever.