Shepard Family

The Shepard Family is a fictitious family in several of the novels of S.E. Hinton (see Continuity within S.E. Hinton Novels.) The family consists of a mother and stepfather (mentioned in "That Was Then, This Is Now"), sons Tim and Curly (mentioned in "The Outsiders") and daughter Angela (first mentioned in "That Was Then, This Is Now"). The family is working class and lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They are notable as a dysfunctional family, and visitors to their house notice that the parents are always yelling, cursing and throwing stuff at each other and at their children, and that the children would join in as well. Despite this, the family protects its own and the older brothers are noticeably protective of their sister.

=Family Members=

Tim Shepard

The oldest brother and leader of a downtown gang known for being rough. Tim is described as being dangerous as well as exactly fitting the definition of a "hood". Like most greasers, he slicks his hair back and slouches. He owns a car, the tires of which were once slashed by Dallas Winston. Despite this, Dallas is his best friend and they would still stick up for each other. Tim makes his first appearance in "The Outsiders" while searching for Dallas after the aforementioned incident. He is later present at the big Soc/Greaser rumble at the climax of the novel, to which he brings his gang. In the rumble he shows his fighting prowess by fighting two Socs at once. His age in "The Outsiders" is given as eighteen.

Tim Shepard makes a cameo appearance in "That Was Then, This Is Now". Though he is in "the cooler" (a common destination for Shepard males) for most of the novel, he gets out in time to help his brother Curly give a revenge beating to Bryon, the protagonist, for getting their sister, Angela, drunk and cutting her hair. It is unknown what happens to him after this, but his absence in "Rumble Fish", which is set in downtown Tulsa (presumably near where he lives) implies that by that point he had either moved on or was serving a lengthy prison term.

Tim Shepard has been played by three different actors - Glenn Withrow in "The Outsiders", Robert Rusler in "The Outsiders TV Series" and Brooks Gardner in "That Was Then, This Is Now".

Curly Shepard

The second son, and presumably second child, in the Shepard family. Curly takes after his older brother but is not as respected, as tough or as intelligent. While his brother is a respected gang leader, Curly is a cheap thug and not even a lieutenant in his brother's gang. Curly is often reckless in trying to earn respect - he and Ponyboy (of "The Outsiders") once played chicken by holding their cigarettes against each other's fingers. This is revealed by Ponyboy upon hearing that Curly wouldn't be at the rumble as he was "in the cooler". Though frequently referred to as a friend of Ponyboy, this is the first clue given to his current whereabouts in the series, as all previous references had been flashbacks or character references. Curly's age in "The Outsiders" is given as fifteen.

Curly is first seen in "That Was Then, This Is Now" when he and two friends ambush M&M, a young hippie and friend of the protagonist Bryon and Bryon's best friend Mark. Bryon and Mark, despite the disparity in numbers, rush to the aid of their friend, pinning Curly and one of his friends, the other quickly running off. Mark takes advantage of this to mug Curly. Later, after Bryon cuts their sister's hair, Curly joins Tim in a revenge beating, each taking turns punching out Bryon.

Angela Shepard

Tim and Curly's sister (her age is never revealed, she is either between Tim and Curly, or younger than both; mostly likely younger), sometimes called "Angel" as a pet-name. She is a very beautiful girl with "long, black hair that hangs down in ringlets and curls" which she keeps long even when most girls are wearing their hair short. She is described as being brave and not afraid of any guy. She is also noted for swearing and drinking, both quite heavily. At one point she dated Bryon Douglas, the protagonist of "That Was Then, This Is Now". Their dates would almost always end either in a fight or a make-out session. She left him when she became interested in Ponyboy Curtis, the protagonist of "The Outsiders". Unlike any other guy, he failed to notice her interest and later revealed that he only knew of her due to her relationship to her older brothers; this, of course, drove her crazy.

Though she is referred to several times earlier in the novel, she makes her first appearance at the dance in "That Was Then, This Is Now". During the dance she dupes a guy into attacking Ponyboy with a beer bottle. Mark interferes and has the bottle busted over his head. Bryon eventually gets revenge for this by getting her drunk and allowing Mark to cut off her hair, for which Bryon earns a beating from her brothers, though she publicly claims that she had it cut at a beauty parlor. By this time she is married to one of her brother's friends, presumably Tim's, but despite this she still allows herself to be picked-up by Bryon. She describes her married life as horrible, as her husband can't keep a job and is always in jail and her father-in-law keeps pinching her on the butt. The reason she gives for marrying her brother's friend is because she thinks she was pregnant, but turns out she's not.

Parents

In "That Was Then, This Is Now", it is revealed that the Shepard siblings have a mother and a step-father. The whereabouts of their birth father are never mentioned. The family seems quite unstable, as the protagonist, Bryon, states that Angela's parents are always fighting and throwing things at each other.

External links

S.E. Hinton website http://www.sehinton.com