Greasy Lake By Tom Boyle

There are an infinite amount of unique responses to the question “What is the meaning of life?”. However, the majority of people will agree that the true meaning of life is to find happiness and what is really important to one’s self. In Jon Krakauer’s, Into The Wild, Chris McCandless conveys this idealism through his life’s journey as he bravely defies all limitations. Chris McCandless isolates himself from society in his Alaskan Odyssey as a way to defy accepted expectations and to begin discovering the meanings of life without any corrupted influences.

John Foulcher writes interesting poetry because he can make the reader see, feel, and think. Summer Rain , demonstrate to the reader that Foulcher’s poetry is not only thought provoking and realistic, but it is also able to capture aspects of society through his unique use of imagery.

Eggs by Jerry Spinelli is about a nine year old boy named David Limpert, who is a loner. His mother died in an accident when a janitor didn’t put up a wet floor sign. She fell down the stairs head first, and never woke up. Before the accident, David and his mother had made plans to watch the sunrise the next morning, but they never got to do that. David swore that he would never look at the sunrise again. He also swore to never break a rule again.

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.

They feel as if they are all, “real cool”. However, as the poem continues, the repeated "We" is seen not at the beginning, but at the end of each line. This simultaneously displays a certain aspect that was not seen in the first line. It shows certain confusions and distinct uncertainties about the group’s identity, or even as an example of protesting too much, whether there's a group identity at all. Who is “We” that they are so insistent about? Repeated as it is, the “We” gets smaller and smaller. She is saying that in life it may seem like “we”, but it all comes to a point where the “we” gradually starts representing one individual, rather than a whole group. The poet has in fact said that the "we" is supposed to be read in a small and uncertain way, thus the reason for the unpunctuated "we" at the end of each line after the initial “We” in the beginning of the poem. That word kind of becomes a question, as well as a refrain. The unity that was seen in the beginning becomes less and less apparent as the poem continues.

“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

“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.

Amy Tan’s short story, Fish Cheeks, outlines the general idea of self-acceptance. As the narrator, fourteen year old Tan declares her love for her minister’s son, Robert, who unlike herself, is “as white as Mary in the manger” (Tan 1). This crush is anything but healthy, primarily because Tan is reluctant to reveal her true self to him. This hesitance she portrays is strikingly recognizable in the teenagers of today’s world. Amy Tan 's story, "Fish Cheeks," is significant to the adolescents of today 's society through the overall structure, quality, and applicability of the piece as the struggle to accept oneself as an individual is still as present as it ever was.

“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.

The fundamental characteristic of magical realism is its duality, which enables the reader to experience both the character’s past and the present. In the novel, Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson uses this literary device to address the the trauma and mistreatment of the Haisla community in Canada by unveiling the intimate memories of the protagonist, Lisamarie, and the resulting consequences of this oppression. Monkey Beach illustrates how abuse in the past leads to another form of self-medication in the future - a neverending, vicious cycle for the members of the Haisla community. Many characters in Monkey Beach are scarred from childhood sexual abuse and family neglect, and resort to drug and alcohol abuse as a coping mechanism. These

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.

Upon reading the title to the reading “Camping for Their Lives” by Scott Bransford, A lot of images come to mind as they do for many people. Whether it be family outings, military experience or just plain adventure. Scott Bransford takes a good long look at camping in a different way. The author’s topic is about tent cities and their homeless populations. He argues the struggles that they have with little or no help from the government and highlights a location in Central Valley California. The author structures the article well starting off with an example of a married couple that does not have enough money to sign a lease or take out a mortgage. He then goes into the day to day life and difficulties that are accustomed with living as a homeless person. He mentions statistics and the government’s temporary remedies to deal with the homeless population and the complications when imposing restrictions. The author goes into depth about the lack of jobs within the areas but does not go deep into the addictions, the crime networks that operate out of the areas nor the filth associated with enabling these tent cities to pop up.

Mary Jane Ramirez was assigned the task of boosting morale and improving work place results on the third floor of her company, which was referred to as “the toxic waste dump”. During a chance meeting with Lonnie from the world famous Pike Place Fish in Seattle Washington, which was in walking distance from her work site, she began to believe that turning her department around for the better was possible. Lonnie taught her about the 4 step system of the fish market. Mary Jane knew she wanted to implement his ideas, and get her staff involved in the fish philosophy of: choose your attitude, play, make their day, and be present.