Vietnam War vs. Greasy Lake War in T.C. Boyle's Short Story "Greasy La

He, obviously, is the narrator, and the person whom we see the story through. He gives us his opinions on the matters at hand, and we see the book through his viewpoint. The traits described above allow him to be such a great narrator, for he can get people to confide in him, and relay this information to the reader.

In almost all stories, the main character or characters usually have many personal experiences that change their views in one way or another. Three good examples of this are Abuela Invents the Zero ,Little Women ,and Home .One of these stories has one major experience that quickly affects that character's views. Another story includes many small events and moments that in the end affect a certain character's views and habits. The last story shows how previous life experiences turnout to not only not benefit but actually hurt. Notice that there can be many different kinds of situations that have an influence on a character and can change a character for better or for worse.

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.

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:

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.

Greasy Lake is described by the narrator as an aura of possessiveness and suspense to the average reader. However, while somewhat stereotypical, the narrator and his friends see the lake as the most ideal location to get together on late nights. This can be translated as the beginning of setting a scene for a location in which the adolescent youth can meet, with the reference to Bruce Springsteen’s words from a song that opens the story: “It’s about a mile down on the dark side of Route 88” (Boyle, 125). The words from the song create a scene of how the youth had essentially treated the lake as their own place. The image is further made clear when the faint island in the middle of the lake is described as “a single ravaged island a hundred yards from

These bad kids with leather jackets, toothpicks in their mouths, and shades at all times. Tough, scary looking boys, stereotyping what “bad” is and that they do nothing but crazy, stupid things. “Bad” is what all boys are, they are up to no good, they drink, rape, and fight. As lost as these kids are, they feel like they belong nowhere, but they find a place, a place called Greasy Lake and there they want to find an escape. Realize that Greasy Lake is not all that fun anymore, these boys pretend to be rebels to be crazy teens, keeping the stereotypes about teens alive. With that, they start to do horrible events, start fighting a stranger, raping a woman, and destroying their car. Scared and afraid they all disappear to the forest and end up

In TC Boyle’s story “Greasy Lake” the meaning of the story could be taken in different ways depending on how you see the story. In the story, we learn about three teenage boys who think doing terrible things is good. Throughout the story we learn just how much these boys don’t care and realize that their consequences will be bad in the end. By analyzing character, symbolism and setting in TC Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” we can see the theme of having a bad character is not the way of living life.

In "Greasy Lake" by Tom Coraghessan Boyle, we find out the fate of three young men who wanted to define them as bad guys and went looking for trouble. However, there are many symbolic clues and suggestions that tells the reader that these bad guys are not who they claim to be. Even though it is obvious for the reader as the story progresses, the teenagers do what they are expected and ignore them. Consequently they pay a price. However, at the end of this episode, they become wiser and all hope is not lost. The purpose of this short essay is to discuss some of the symbols that make this story an excellent work of fiction.

Greasy Lake, musty, fetid, and uneasy to one’s eyes, still intriguing to explore. This lake was mysterious, yet it was a clear invitation for these teens. It was the only place where one could go and not worry about the real world, it was as if it was fantasy. As grimy and evil the lake was they still felt an attracted to it because it was a mirror reflection of their lives. Digby and Jeff did not know what they wanted to do with their lives, lost, young, and hopeless. In addition, these kids wanted an adventure, wanted to stop thinking about school and real life. These kids wanted an escape, yet in Greasy Lake they actually found how cruel the real world is. The nineteen-year-olds felt like they did not care for a single thing and as they

In a short story of “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle points out the characters from going “Good to be Bad” where everything happened in Greasy Lake. It all started with the main characters, The Narrator, Digby, and Jeff, being bad characters and drinking underage. One night they all went up to Greasy Lake, and they did any terrible act that was possible. Later that night, they were driving and Digby spotted Tony Lovett’s car. The story gets worse when the narrator loses his keys, and realized it was not Tony’s car. Digby and Jeff were involved to fight off the bad character and the narrator had no choice but to use a tire iron he kept under the driver’s seat and smash the bad character head. Another car shows up to scene and everyone ran away, once the narrator ended up in the lake and found the dead body floating. Right where

As most of the people in American spent time thinking about clothing and feeding themselves and their families, the rarely spend time thinking about philosophical issues. Tim O’Brien says that he jars people to look into important things, meaning that he makes people look into the deeper meaning of the issues reflected in his novels instead of focusing on the basic issues alone. This paper will analyze the important aspects that are reflected in the Novel In the Lake of the Woods and the article The Vietnam in Me by Tim O’Brien.