Shawn Hunter

Shawn Patrick Hunter (Rider Strong) is a fictional character from the television series, Boy Meets World and from the spin-off series, Girl Meets World. He is the only character other than Cory Matthews to appear in all 158 episodes of Boy Meets World.

Shawn was born in Ohio and lived in Oklahoma for a while as a child. He had been in five different schools before he was 12. Shawn has always been the best friend of Cory Matthews. The two met when Cory fell into an animal pen at a zoo and Shawn came to his rescue. Shawn has a personality almost opposite of Cory's. Shawn takes more risks and has more of a bad boy image. Their personality differences do cause problems between the two a few times, but these problems can never destroy the friendship between Cory and Shawn. Later seasons depict the relationship between Cory and Shawn as being so intimate that Topanga is jealous of it. Several innuendos are made as to the subconscious homoerotic nature of their friendship.

In the first season of Boy Meets World, not much is known about Shawn Hunter except that he is Cory's best friend. He seems to be a typical boy who is beginning to become interested in girls. He does not do well in school, mostly due to a lack of effort and a great deal of apathy, much the same as Cory.

In season two and thereafter, the show began to focus on Shawn's life as well. In the beginning, Shawn lives with both his parents, Chet and Virna Hunter. One day, Virna runs off with the trailer and Shawn is left under the care of the Matthews family when Chet chases after his wife. When the Matthews find that Chet will not be returning for a while, Jonathan Turner, a teacher at John Adams High School, offers to be Shawn's legal guardian. About a year later, Chet comes back and eventually Virna rejoins her family temporarily before taking off again. Shawn goes through many issues, including joining a cult briefly and at risk of succumbing into alcoholism as his father. In a later season, Shawn's half-brother Jack arrives in town for college. Shawn moves in with him and Eric Matthews, Cory's older brother, which leaves Chet free to take off again. However, on a trip back to town, Chet dies of a heart attack. Towards the final episodes of the series, Shawn discovers that Virna was not his biological mother when she sends him a letter after Chet's death. Apparently, Chet was left to take care of Shawn after his biological mother, who was actually a stripper, left shortly after his birth. Despite the Matthews declare that they would take Shawn in as a part of their family after Chet's death, Shawn declines and declares that he still has Jack as a blood kin.

In season two and thereafter, the show began to focus on Shawn's life as well. In the beginning, Shawn lives with both his parents, Chet and Virna Hunter. One day, Virna runs off with the trailer and Shawn is left under the care of the Matthews family when Chet chases after his wife. When the Matthews find that Chet will not be returning for a while, Jonathan Turner, a teacher at John Adams High School, offers to be Shawn's legal guardian. He becomes extremely close with Jonathan and it is revealed in Girl Meets World that Jonathan still considers Shawn a son. About a year later, Chet comes back and eventually Virna rejoins her family temporarily before taking off again. Shawn goes through many issues, including joining a cult briefly and at risk of succumbing into alcoholism just as his father did. Although he comes across as lazy when it comes to his schoolwork, he proves on many occasions that he is actually a very deep thinker. He even dresses up as a girl for an episode as a social experiment in order to determine what it is like to be a girl in high school, done in the same vane as the autobiographical book, Black Like Me.

Shawn is a ladies' man, something of which Cory sometimes is envious. Conversely, however, Shawn is jealous of Cory's close, long-term relationship with Topanga. He takes their wedding very hard, unsure what will happen to their friendship after they are married. Shawn does fall in love with a girl named Angela in high school. They have a tempestuous relationship, but genuinely care for each other. Things get rocky when his best friend Cory breaks up with Topanga. After an on-and-off again relationship throughout college, Angela eventually leaves for a year to travel with her military father in Europe.

The episode, "Fraternity Row," reveals that during high school, Shawn is challenged in writing, but in the episode, "Poetic License: An Ode to Holden Caulfield," during college it is shown that he has improved significantly and becomes good at poetry. He is also a skilled photographer, and nearly chooses a job for a glamour magazine company over college.

At the end of the series, Shawn moves to New York with Cory, Topanga, and Eric. By the events of Girl Meets World, however, Shawn left New York the day after the birth of Cory and Topanga's daughter Riley, ultimately making a name for himself as a world-traveling writer and photographer. Returning to the city, he forms a bond with Riley's best friend Maya, as they both come from broken homes and her childhood is similar to his. He also forms a bond with Maya's mother Katy who also shares a sense of abandonment, particularly in relationships. By the second season, Riley has come to depend upon his presence, and hopes he will become Katy's suitor. Although Shawn still has unresolved feelings for Angela, Angela returns with news that she has since married a military man, like her now-deceased father, and wants advice on whether she'd be a good mother or not. Shawn encourages her to be a mother, and Angela encourages Shawn to pursue a relationship with Katy. in Season 3, Shawn proposed to Katy and they become engaged and later married, with Mr. Feeny, Cory and Shawn's longtime teacher and mentor conducting their wedding.^[1]

After directing two first-season episodes of Girl Meets World, Rider Strong has become a fixture behind the scenes, while also making appearances in a recurring role.

References