Greasy Lake Essay

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.

“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 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

In the story, Greasy Lake (1948-1955), Coraghessan Boyle wrote about three teenagers friends who were looking for trouble and finding it. Boyle talks about a time when it was good to be bad. The author used conflicts and plots as an evidence in the story. In the story three friends on third night of their summer vacation night were driving around to look for trouble. Digby, Jeff and the narrator all head out for the evening in the narrator's mother's Bel Air.

Jordan Ford Mailin Barlow ENC 1102 27 Feb 2018 The Theme of Adolescence Found Within T. Coraghessan Boyle’s Greasy Lake Adolescence is a terrifying ride that everyone experiences. Often times we butt heads with one another. We go to places that reflect on who we are or want to be. At the endo of it all the irony of it is palpable.

Throughout the story the protagonist and his friends try to embody what typical “bad boys” do. The story opens with the narrator talking about his past of being as a “bad boy”, when he says “We were all dangerous characters then. We wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue and ether and what somebody claimed was cocaine.”(168) Still pursing his rebellious image, the narrator talks about his wild nights at Greasy Lake. A lake that used to have clear waters but was now a murky and dirty body of water filled with beer cans

In the short story “Greasy Lake,” the author T. Coraghessan Boyle introduces us to the narrator and his group of friends who are going to Greasy Lake to have some fun like the rest of the kids their age. Although the author does not give us the name of the narrator, we learn that he is nineteen just like his other two friends. As the story progresses, we learn that after arriving at the lake, they confuse someone’s car for their friend Tony Lovett’s car, so they decide to play a little joke. They soon learn that it is not Tony but rather a stranger who is looking for trouble and wants to pick a fight with them. After looking for trouble with this bad character’s girlfriend, they bolted out of the scene when a second car arrived.

Speaking about the narrator and his friends being remorseful by the conclusion of the story, they aren’t as bad as they claim to be because real “bad” guys aren’t regretful. The moment that started the feeling of regret and led to a series of events was when he drops the keys jumping out of the car. He says, “knowing things had gone wrong, that I was in a lot of trouble, and that the lost ignition key was my grail and my salvation” (58-59). Now, he has no escape from the situation and what makes it even worse is when a “bad character in greasy jeans and engineer boots ripped out of the driver’s door” (58). The narrator and his friends are prepared to run from this altercation with an actual “bad character” which diminishes their claim of being bad as he’s feeling contrite and wants to

Adults look back on what they did as a child at one point or another. Perhaps while looking back they can pinpoint where it all went wrong. Others may pinpoint where it all went right. In the case of “Greasy Lake,” the narrator reminisces about where he learned about life. One event in a persons’ life can stand out to them in their adulthood, and remind them of where they learned to truly appreciate life as a whole.

Often when people think of Olympic host cities, they conjure up massive cities in their minds. Lake Placid does not align with that ideal. We prefer the term village to city. Because of our smaller size, people do not think that we are equipped to host the Olympic Games. We may be small, but the village of Lake Placid is a specialized city that focuses on recreation, especially winter sports. Lake Placid has been engineered to host events such as these Olympic Games.

In the short story “Greasy Lake” the young men were peer pressured into being someone that they thought was cool. These boys represented the average teenage boy trying to figure out who they are and what they want to be. During the boys century it was cool to be the bad guy that smokes and drinks. The author states in the short story that “There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad, when you cultivated decadence like a taste (Faulkner).” The boys believed if they were the “bad boys” that girls would like them. However, the protagonist were portrayed as being raised in a middle class home with parents trying to raise their children the proper way. This short story more so about how a group of young men try to against what they have been initial taught by their parents.

They have been driving for over 9 hours. The bumpy road was really getting on Caden’s nerve and as he was about to complain, the two back wheels on the car flaten. “Fuck! What’s wrong Now, Tristen.” Caden glares at him. Tristen just sighs and parks the car and walks outside to check.

Once they got home, they paid the driver $50 and told him not to tell anyone. He agreed and drove

When they see the idiot stroll into the flow of traffic, some drivers come to a screeching halt, almost hitting the seemingly confused soul. Jumping back from the honking car Freddie bangs on the hood of one of the vehicles, causing others to slow down.