Characters In Greasy Lake

During the story the author often uses foreshadowing to give hints to the reader of things that will happen in the future. When the story starts, a storm is coming on a late October night. The storm symbolizes the evil approaching the town. Usually it seems a storm would resemble something dark and evil, because a stormy night is always a classic setting for something evil. At the

It is ironic that not only is the lake named Greasy Lake, but the individuals who hang out there are also referred to as being greasy characters as well. The 3 main characters find themselves surrounded by “dangerous” characters, and get stuck in the middle of a huge fight. As if things aren’t bad enough, the main characters then attempt to rape a girl that is with the man they just fought. Very soon after more people show up ready to join in the deviant behavior, all while in the presence of this dirty, disgusting lake. “I’d struck down one greasy character, and blundered into the waterlogged carcass of a second” (128). No matter what the main characters do, or how they react to the conflicts presented, they constantly find themselves in the presence of more greasy characters at the greasy lake.

The discovery of the biker’s body is the turning point in not only the story, but also in the narrator’s life. In a short time, he has been beaten, has knocked out someone with a tire iron, almost raped a woman, found a dead body, and watched his mother’s Bel Air station wagon be destroyed. Which was all done for the rush of excitement. While hiding in the water that was previously seen as a tarn of doom, with all the nights occurrences spinning in his head, he has an epiphany. Standing there he realizes what becomes of “tough-guys” and discovers that he has found his salvation within his true self. Accordingly, as the narrator emerges from Greasy Lake, he is a new person with a newly discovered perspective. As the sun is rising and the songs of birds replace the sounds of crickets, he leaves the pool of once dismal waters (Boyle 118). This signals his rebirth and his baptism as a reformed adolescent.

T. C. Boyle uses many military and political terms from the Vietnam War to describe events in the story. In “Greasy Lake,” T.C. Boyle describes the mistake that worsened the situation ten fold:

In one of the very first sentences in the story, readers can already observe the usages of foreshadowing. The island they land on is referred to as “Ship-Trap Island,” which hints at the danger it holds for sailors who may be passing by. A few paragraphs later, it is mentioned that the island holds a very unpleasant

Foreshadowing was a commonly used literary device the the author used in order to illustrate the point of view of Rainford, a character oblivious of what was to come in his future and what he was going to experience pertaining to emotional problems associated with hunting. Before Rainsford aborted his ship and swam to the mysterious island, he wasn’t sure of what laid ahead besides remarks his shipmates made before portraying the nature of an island close the area they were sailing in. (Connell pg 1) “The place has a reputation, a bad one.” This shows that Rainsford is in dangerous waters, but he doesn’t quite understand why. He also questions the words of his shipmates with a cleverly placed word. (Connell pg 1) “Cannibals?” A cannibal is when a member of a specific species eats its own flesh. This is hinting toward the idea of murder in the form of hunting for sport, one human harming another, without considering their victims emotions. Another somewhat iry form of foreshadowing which the

Greasy Lake is the story of three friends who are bad characters. Until they run into a situation where they question, just how bad they are. Just because they act badly and look bad does not mean they are. They are teenagers in a period, “when courtesy and winning ways [are] out of style when it [is] good to be bad, when they [cultivate] decadence like a taste.” (112) They look bad, wearing torn-up leather jackets, slouching around with toothpicks in their mouths and wearing their shades morning, noon and night. They have the attitude, they drive their parents cars fast, and burn rubber as the pull out of the driveway. They have the bad habits. They drink “gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunderbird, and Bali Hai,

“Greasy Lake is a short story written by T.C Boyle. The short story mostly focuses on three nineteen-year-old boys. The three of the boys went one night on a summer vacation in an area close to a shiny and muddy lake. The teenagers were looking for trouble on a summer evening and end of finding it. In the story at the author tells the reader, that it was a time when it was "good to be bad." But the story shows that the three boys are truly lost. The story shows the reader the changing of time in culture that these teenagers want to be a part of. Even though, they lack to leave the comforts of their upper middle class lifestyle.

The characters in “Greasy Lake” can be viewed in different lights. The narrator and his two friends, Digby and Jeff, are three mean boys whose lives seem to be centered around getting drunk and high from dusk until dawn. The narrator praises Digby and Jeff for their slick and dangerous lifestyles. Their skills consist of dancing, drinking, and “rolling a joint as compact as a Tootsie Roll Pop stick” (65) while on a bumpy drive. These characters scream trouble. They seem like harmless teenagers out to have a good time but it can be interpreted that these characters will attract mischief. After a night of bar-hopping, dancing, eating, drinking, and smoking, they decide to continue the party with a bottle of gin on the shores of broken glass and charred wood. These characters can be interpreted as young, naive, wild, reckless fools. The decisions these kids have been making the entire night have not been good ones. They have driven to bar after bar, consuming drink after drink. Obviously, their decision making is impaired. The reader should realize that the road the boys are travelling on is one that leads to a bad place. It is a place that has everything to do with Greasy Lake. It’s a place where dangerous things happen. The allegorical element that is found in the boys is

“Greasy Lake” by T. C. Bolyle narrated from the perspective of an unnamed narrator, told as a reflective account of his youth. In the story, he recounts details of his experiences on a summer evening with two friends. The reader experiences the misadventures of the protagonist that night along as told from the viewpoint of the now mature narrators retrospective. Exposed in the story are two character traits of the protagonist. Those traits are immaturity and rebellion, along with the trait of introspection on the part of the narrator.

When they are out being bad they like to drive to greasy lake were they can drink beer, smoke pot and howl at the stars. One night they go down to greasy lake and mistaken a car for there friend Tonys and they lay the horn and flash there high beams at it. Turns out not to be tonys car but some strangers. The stranger gets out not happy and begins to fight the gang of kids in the mist of it all the narraighter drops his keys to his car. The stranger seems to be winning the fight until the narratoir grabs a tire iron from under his seat and hits the stranger across the head with it knocking the stranger out. Then another car comes down to greasy lake unable to find the car keys the group of kids runs away into greasy lake. While the narrator is in the water he finds a dead body. The other car turns out to be the strangers friends and they wreck the group of kids car. The narratoir and his friends wait till morning for greasy lake to clear out. Once it does they head back to there car when two girls arrive asking if they seen there friend who we presume is the dead guy in the lake. They tell the two girls no, and they respond by saying how it looks like they had a rough night, and ask if they want to party with them. The narraitoir says no and they get in the car and head

In his short story “Greasy Lake,” the lake with the community teenagers create a stereotypical scene of current youth pop culture. Many youth who read this story can find the ironic references and similarities with their lifestyle in today’s world. T. Coraghessan Boyle uses the setting of the story to expose a world lacking self-discipline and showing immorality amongst a community youth, which can sometimes be rather common today. This also aids in creating an atmosphere that surrounds suspense and impaired judgement to better develop the characters of the story. Boyle is able to achieve this by creating a setting with the story of the Greasy Lake and describing the Lake as both a setting and main character.

The "Greasy Lake characters , Digby whose guardians paid his educational cost to Cornell; Jeff who had a risky identity; and the "wanna-be bad storyteller savor their awful kid picture "bad Boy" picture. T.C. Boyle portrays their "bad Boy" conduct: "we wore torn-up calfskin coats, slumped around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed paste and ether… " An ethical predicament happens yet is not straightforwardly uncovered, following the characters; covet an "bad Boy" picture. The essayist Boyle composes: "There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style when it was good to be bad… "

Greasy Lake In the story, “Greasy Lake", three weak men in their late teens plant out on a summer death to look for molest. Digby, Jeff and the rehearse all individual out for the evening in the narrator's dam's Bel Air. The ignorant men issue up at a local hang out spot above town known as Greasy Lake. They locality a car that they think is an approver's vehicle and decide to gall him.

In “Greasy Lake,” T. Coraghessan Boyle uses setting to portray the theme of the journey that one goes on to transition from childhood to adulthood. At the beginning of the short story, “greasy lake” was seen as this fun place that “bad guys” went to hangout. They smoked cigarettes, drank liquor, and gave their best attempt at finding girls. By the end of the story, it was a completely different place. The speaker found a dead body, his buddies almost raped an innocent girl, he nearly ruined