In small town Oklahoma during the 1970s, a rough-and-tumble teenager learns to navigate the world with his older brother and a mostly absent father in S. E. Hinton’s young adult fiction novel Tex. Published in 1979, the book was subsequently made into a popular movie starring young Matt Dillon in the title role. Hinton herself has written that Texas McCormick is the favorite of all her iconic characters, so good natured and even tempered that he is “the least ‘tough’ yet the strongest of my narrators.” Tex explores the titular character’s coming of age with a backdrop of rural life, feminist ideas, and learning one’s own identity.

The novel was a finalist for The National Book Award for Children’s Books in 1981. Tex also won the American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards award for young adult literature for the award’s debut in 1988. The award specifically went to a grouping of Hinton’s work, including Tex, Rumble Fish, That Was Then This Is Now, and The Outsiders. The quotations cited in this guide come from the First Delacorte Press Trade Paperback Edition of 2013.

Plot Summary

In this coming-of-age tale, Texas “Tex” McCormick hails from Garyville, Oklahoma, a small town with two different kinds of people: those who leave, and those who stay. The novel opens with Tex riding his beloved horse, Negrito. Tex speaks to the horse as if he were human and the two have an obvious bond. However, Tex is also a modern teenager and enjoys riding with his best friend, Johnny Collins, on Johnny’s new motorcycle. The two head to school in the morning—double riding is illegal, but Tex doesn’t bother with that—and by the time Tex comes home that afternoon, his older brother Mason has sold his horse.

Tex is distraught and angry but Mason, at 17 years old, has been caring for himself and his brother while their itinerant father, Pop, follows the rodeo circuit. The money has run out, and the horses must go. Mason and Tex engage in an intense physical fight over Mason’s decision to sell Negrito. Tex runs away and decides to go looking for the horse, knowing full well that Mason would be smart enough to send him far enough away that Tex cannot find him. Mason eventually finds Tex walking down a road and forces him to return home.

Tex announces his intention to go the Fair, and Mason declines to join him. This response surprises Tex because Mason has always attended the fair. Even though it’s the first time he’s gone without his brother, Tex enjoys the fair with Johnny. The two pair off with Jamie and her friend, feeling as if they have girlfriends for the first time. After the Fair, Tex and Johnny ride with Bobby, Johnny’s older brother to Charlie’s place. Charlie is another sibling of Johnny’s, and he encourages Johnny and Tex to drink alcohol.

Recovering from his hangover, Tex hears a vehicle blasting its horn outside their house the next afternoon. The brothers run to greet Mason’s friend, Lem Peters. Lem stops by to announce the birth of his new son, and Mason expresses skepticism at Lem’s teenage marriage and parenthood. Mason announces he must go to the city to have some tests run, and Tex insists on joining him. In the city, Tex browses stores in the mall feeling out of place and is accused of shoplifting. The brothers visit Lem while in the city and find out that Lem is selling drugs to support his family.

On the way back from the city, Tex picks up a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker holds the brothers at gunpoint, kidnapping them and demanding to be taken to the state line. When Tex spots a police cruiser behind their truck, he slams on the brakes and turns the wheel hard, sending the truck careening into a ditch. The hitchhiker is shot as he tries to escape, and Tex and Mason become local celebrities for a moment.

Pop saw the coverage of their encounter on the news and calls to say he will finally be coming home—two months after he promised. While the brothers greet him with enthusiasm, Mason is resentful of the responsibilities he has had to shoulder. Pop promises to buy Negrito back for Tex, but when the time comes to follow through, he forgets. Mason and Tex go to look for the horse—with a check from Pop, which Mason hopes won’t bounce—but the new owners won’t sell Negrito back. Tex tells Mason, “I am going to hate you for the rest of my life for this. I mean it” (145).

Tex pursues his crush on Jamie, who prefers her independence over a relationship. The two make out and spend time together, but Jamie rebuffs Tex’s advances to go any further. After Jamie’s rejection, Tex returns to acting out in class and gets into trouble at school. Mason and Pop arrive at the school as Tex’s guardian after the school day ends, and the brothers verbally fight with one another. Pop finds Tex’s antics amusing, which infuriates Mason, who finally blurts out the truth: “He is my brother even if he isn’t your son!” (177). This information sends Tex reeling, and he sprints out of the school.

Tex comes across Lem in the school parking lot while he waits for a drug connection and asks for a ride. Lem agrees to take him on an errand to conduct business with an illicit drug supplier. During Lem’s conversation with the supplier, it is revealed that Lem took drug samples without returning with money. The supplier becomes agitated, and Tex—irritated at what he sees at nonsense and stuck in his own whirling thoughts—decides to leave. The supplier accuses Tex of being a “narc,” and he pulls a gun on him. Tex, overwhelmed and enraged by what he’s just learned about his father, charges the man, and grabs the gun. He manages to wrestle the gun away from the supplier, but not before a shot is fired. Tex aims the gun at Kelly, blinded by anger, but Lem talks him out of shooting the man. When they finally leave, Lem learns that Tex has been shot. Lem hesitates to take Tex to a hospital because he fears repercussions. Instead, they find a pay phone, and Tex calls Jamie because he can’t remember his own phone number. Jamie’s father calls an ambulance to take Tex to the emergency room.

While in the hospital, Pop tells Tex the story of his parentage. While Pop was in prison, Tex’s mom took up with another rodeo rider. He has always harbored resentments about what happened and says that the marriage was damaged from that point forward. Pop also admits that therefore he has never had much time for Tex. Tex is deeply hurt by Pop’s words, but he finally understands why Pop has not been much of a father and why Mason had always acted like one.

After Tex recuperates completely, Mason admits that he is thinking about turning down his basketball scholarship to stay with Tex. Astonished at this confession, Tex insists he goes. Tex makes a deal with Mason that when he goes to college, Tex will drive him to the airport. The novel ends as the brothers make plans to go fishing the following day.