Epiphany In Greasy Lake

The short story, Once More to the Lake, is about a father who takes his son on a camping trip to a lake in Maine. The father sees that the camp is exactly how he remembers it as he goes through time of reminiscence. As he goes back to nostalgic memories, he sees, through his son, that the camp is the same as when he was a child; however, his time at the camp reveals the true meaning of what time is. Time is a continuing process of the past, present, and future.

Nature has a powerful way of portraying good vs. bad, which parallels to the same concept intertwined with human nature. In the story “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, the author portrays this through the use of a lake by demonstrating its significance and relationship to the characters. At one time, the Greasy Lake was something of beauty and cleanliness, but then came to be the exact opposite. Through his writing, Boyle demonstrates how the setting can be a direct reflection of the characters and the experiences they encounter.

“Greasy Lake” was published in 1985 along with other stories from the author, T. Corahessan Boyle. The story is a gripping tale of three teen boys ‘living on the edge’, in which the author presents himself and his friends as a group of dangerous individuals. One would think that the narrator has truth in his words, but all events in the story point to the contrary. T. Corahessan Boyle, or T. C. Boyle for short, is an unreliable narrator. The truth of this story is not in the text, but in the underlying meanings and subliminal nuances. This hidden reality really helps the reader make a direct judgment of the characters. After reading between the lines, one quickly finds out who the characters are, but more

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.

In T. Coraghessan Boyle’s short story “Greasy Lake,” there are many subtle historical references. These references pertain to different events that were happening during the time period that the story takes place, and help to describe different parts of the plot. Casual readers may not even notice these interesting little bits of information, but upon paying closer attention; they would become aware of the small, almost unnecessary references that make this story so fascinating.

The story “Greasy Lake,” by T.C. Boyle, is about a man recounting a tale from his younger days. The man and his two friends, Jeff and Digby decide to go looking for trouble, and take the narrator’s mother’s Bel Air up to the local hangout spot, Greasy Lake. They see a car that believes is their friend Tony’s and decide to harass Tony, but it happens to be not the one which caused stranger greasy guy to fight the three. Originally losing, it takes the narrator sneakily using a tire iron to beat the greasy guy. The girl gets out of the car, and when the narrator, Jeff and Digby see her, they attempt to rape her. However, they are interrupted by an approaching car, and in their guilt flee. The narrator flees into the lake where he comes across a body. He waits in the lake however, while the men that arrived in the car damage his mother’s Bel Air. Eventually they leave though, and the young men come out of hiding after a long time of waiting. They decide it’s time to go after the dead body’s friends had arrived. Boyle’s central idea is that young society does what they can to be seemed cool; however, in reality they

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,

He is forced to conceal himself in the dark waters next to a dead body while witnessing others vandalize and destroy his car from a distance. “There was a smell in the air, raw and sweet at the same time, the smell of the sun firing buds and opening blossoms. I contemplated the car. It lay there like a wreck along the highway, like a steel sculpture left over from a vanished civilization. Everything was still. This was nature.” These words are how he observes the nature surrounding him after the events take place. Where only a short time ago everything about Greasy Lake was full of life and promise it is now dead and still. He no longer sees nature the same way, or looks at the world as he once did. He beholds the world in a different manner, he will never view life in the way he used to. Everything has changed for him.

The author symbolizes the water as transition and spirituality, the lake is symbolized as the elusive badness the boys want so badly. The narrator notices that none of them are as bad as they try to act. After that night the narrator realizes he cannot make it in that life, rather the narrator wants to go to the safety and security of his home and parents.

Greasy Lake can be seen as a “typical” teenage hang-out and it can be seen as a breeding ground for troublesome and malicious acts.

The primary theme of. Boyle's "Greasy Lake" is the journey that people take to their own dark sides, although the propensity of males toward violence is also a theme. The story begins with three men heading out for an adventure that soon goes wrong and ends up changing the narrators personality by making a change of maturity towards the end .

“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.

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.

"Greasy Lake" by Tom Coraghessan Boyle, is the story of a group of adolescents, searching for the one situation that will proclaim them as bad boys and how their minds change. As the story begins, the narrator gives the impression that he feels he and the others boys should have taken notice of some obvious clues about themselves. These clues would have led them to the conclusion that they were far from the bad guys they wished to be. However, the oblivious teenagers ignore these obvious signs and continue in search of their goal.

It was at one time, but not when the speaker and his friends were at it. “The Indians had called it Wakan, a reference to the clarity of its waters. Not it was fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires” (1). In a way, the lake represents the speaker. At one time (before the night he spent at greasy lake), he was like the lake. He was free of litter and garbage. He was clear and pure. After the night at the lake, the speaker was changed. He experienced what fear really was. He also learned what “being bad” was all about. He let go of his innocence. His childhood was over after the night at the lake. He was a man. He was a man who committed a