Chris and Gordie's talk

A particularly powerful scene of Stand by Me occurs when the boys are walking the tracks, talking. Vern and Teddy are further up the track, while Gordie and Chris are in the rear, conversing and arguing about what the future holds. Chris starts up the conversation by saying that summer is coming to an end, and that the boys will go in separate directions. Gordie can't believe what he's hearing, asking why Chris thinks that. Chris replies that he will be in shop classes with Teddy and Vern while Gordie will take college courses because he will go somewhere in life, and Chris doesn't want Gordie to be associated with losers like them. Gordie is upset because he feels that he is being kicked out of the group, and says that he will stay with them, which in turn, infuriates Chris, who wishes he was priveleged enough and smart enough to make it into college and to be successful. The tone changes when Chris says that Gordie will be a great writer. Gordie says that writing is stupid and a waste of time, clearly repeating what his father has said to him. Chris, like Denny, encourages Gordie to write and is a father figure to him. After Denny's death, Gordie finds solace with his friends, due to his parents lack of attention. If he and his friends separate in school, he believes he will be completely alone. 

This scene emphasizes my argument that Stand by Me is a convergence of horror and buddy comedy due to the serious conversation involving Chris and Gordie, and Vern and Teddy's funny childish conversation. 

Chris crying to Gordie

In another scene, Gordie wakes up from a nightmare of being at Denny's funeral where his father tells him "It should have been you, Gordie." He goes to where Chris has taken watch near a tree while the others are sleeping and asks him if he's okay. Chris says he's upset because he got suspended from school. This, as we know, upsets him because he's a good kid and he wants to go to school and learn. No one asked him if they took the milk money, which was mentioned earlier when Gordie's father says Chris is a thief. Everyone knows that he did take it, but only because he was expected to. He felt sorry and tried to give it back, hypothetically. He returned it to a teacher, and the money was all there, but he still got suspended because the teacher came back to work with a new skirt. Even if Chris wanted to tell on her, no one would believe him because everyone assumes that because of his family, he's a liar and a theif. He begins to cry at the betrayal and the sadness from being unable to trust a teacher. "I just wish I could go somewhere where no one knows me."

 Teddy is also judged because of his "loony" father, whom he worships. Teddy wears army green and often speaks in battle commands. It is probable that he suffers from a mental disorder, taking out an imaginary machine gun and firing it at an oncoming train. Chris is often the one who saves him, both during this train dodge/suicide attempt and a in vague incident at the treehouse. When the boys run into Chopper at the junkyard, they tease him until his owner incites a fight between himself and Teddy, saying that his father is insane with PTSD, and that Teddy is probably a loony, too. Teddy becomes inraged and tries to climb the fence, threatening to kill the junkyard owner. "My father stormed the beaches of Normandy!"

When the other boys are finally able to drag Teddy away, he is crying. "He raked my old man," he bemoans. The other boys try to comfort him, but older Gordie inserts that he couldn't understand why Teddy cares so much about the father who tried to kill him, while he doesn't care about his own father who never laid a hand on him.