Greasy Lake
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, [sniff] glue, and ether and what somebody [claims] [is] cocaine.”(112) What starts out as a harmless prank on the third night of their summer vacation turns into a situation where they get into a fight, attempt to rape a girl, find a dead body and see first hand the destruction a bad character can do to an automobile.
The night they lose their “badness” is nothing special. After the requisite bad character activities: egging mailboxes and hitchhikers, driving up and down Main Street, eating, drinking, and smoking pot. They decide to go up to the local hangout, *u*Greasy Lake*/u*, to see if anything is going on. They cruise up to the lake with their “lemon-flavored gin,” requisite pot and the itch for some action. There is no better place, for these three bad characters to hang out - *u*Greasy Lake*/u*, is an important place for bad characters to learn an important lesson. The lake, like the events about to unfold, is “fetid and murky…mud banks glistened with broken glass [,] strewn with be...
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...alizes: they may look and act like bad characters but they not, looks are deceiving. He and his friends learn a valuable lesson, “There will always be a character badder then they are” (a posting by T.C. Boyle at www.tcboyle.com, Boyle’s homepage) they also realize that but for an act of fate, anyone of them could be the guy floating in the lake.
The three friends learn valuable lessons from the experience they went through; never judge a book by it’s cover, never underestimate their opponents and most importantly, there truly is a difference between a bad character and a bad character wanna-be.
Works Cited
Boyle, T. Coraghessan. “Greasy Lake.” *u*An Introduction to Fiction*/u*. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. 111-119
Panza, John, “Rough Draft Essay Response.” 25 Nov. 2000
www.tcboyle.com. Homepage. 12 Nov. 2000
In the beginning we find the family and its surrogate son, Homer, enjoying the fruits of the summer. Homer wakes to find Mrs. Thyme sitting alone, “looking out across the flat blue stillness of the lake”(48). This gives us a sense of the calm, eternal feeling the lake presents and of Mrs. Thyme’s appreciation of it. Later, Fred and Homer wildly drive the motor boat around the lake, exerting their boyish enthusiasm. The lake is unaffected by the raucous fun and Homer is pleased to return to shore and his thoughts of Sandra. Our protagonist observes the object of his affection, as she interacts with the lake, lazily resting in the sun. The lake provides the constant, that which has always been and will always be. As in summers past, the preacher gives his annual sermon about the end of summer and a prayer that they shall all meet again. Afterward, Homer and Fred take a final turn around the lake only to see a girl who reminds Homer of Sandra. “And there was something in the way that she raised her arm which, when added to the distant impression of her fullness, beauty, youth, filled him with longing as their boat moved inexorably past…and she disappeared behind a crop of trees.
In the beginning of the story the narrator and his boys considered themselves to be bad boys because of what they did, what people thought they were, and what they wore. To them, it was cool to be dangerous and bad. The people who wasn’t, were irrelevant. The narrator and his boys “wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue and ether and what somebody claimed was cocaine” (par.1). Also they “struck elaborate poses to show that we didn’t give a shit about anything” (par. 1). The narrator looked forward to the nightlife and the bad stereotypes along with that, including: drinking, drug use, sex, violence, etc…. even though the narrator was only 19 years of age. The three of them would go uptown to Greasy Lake regularly, to party a hang out with others. Until one night the narrator and his boys encountered a rude awakening at Greasy Lake.
The narrator in “Greasy Lake” does not know what bad means until his own “badness” is put to the test in the real world. From his experience, Sammy learns that he will...
The narrator and his friends in “Greasy Lake” tries to make themselves look like rebels. They wanted to appear to be bad to everyone around them. Boyle writes “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” (529). The narrator and his friends also did many other things to produce the effect of being cool and intimidating. In the end of the story the narrator and his friends have the chance to keep up their false bad guy image; however they decides to choose a higher road.
In order to better understand the premises of the story a short summary is needed to get to know the narrator better. The protagonist, although not named tries to enjoy his summer with two of his friends Jeff and Digby by being rebels. Initially looking for trouble, they ride around from place to place using the protagonist’s parents’ borrowed car. They go looking for trouble at a place called Greasy Lake where they mistake a car for their friend’s car and try interrupt him while getting busy with a lady. When they interrupt the couple in the car, they find out that their friend Tony wasn’t in there, but a stranger, a real “badass”, their foil, was interrupted who proceeds to beat down the protagonist and his two friends. Out of rash thinking he hits the “badass” in the head with a tire iron just enough to knock him out. Once he is down the protagonist and his friends try to ravage the “foxy” lady the re...
The viewpoint of the world that the narrator has, completely alters as certain events take place throughout the story. His outlook on nature transforms into a wholly different standpoint as the story progresses. As his tale begins, the narrator sees himself as a tough guy or “bad character”. He believes he is invincible. There is nobody as cool as he is or as dangerous as him and his friends are. With his followers, the narrator goes to Greasy Lake, he takes in the nature that surrounds him. He thinks of himself to be a kid who knows everything. To him, the lake represents a night of misbehavior and partying. The unhealthy, treacherous atmosphere of Greasy Lake is alluring, fun, and exciting to someone as threatening as he is. “We went up to the lake because everyone went there, because we wanted to snuff the rich sent of possibility on the breeze, watch a girl take off her clothes and plunge into the festering murk, drink beer, smoke pot, howl at the stars, savor the incongruous full-throated roar of rock and roll against the primeval susurrus of frogs and crickets. This was nature.” This quote gives a clear idea of what the narrators perception of what not only nature is, but of what the world is. He lives to have fun. He is fearless and lives for the moment. All that life is to him is sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
In 'Greasy Lake,' the dualism of the characters' nature is ever-present. They are self-proclaimed bad guys who 'cultivated decadence like a taste' (79). As the story progresses, however, it is revealed that just the opposite is true. While they are essentially caricatures of themselves, it is this dynamic that drives the story. Their tough exterior is just that, an exterior veneer that permeates their actions as 'dangerous characters.' The narrator is somewhat detached from the younger self of his story. It is an ironic detachment'a parody of his moral ignorance. He recalls the 'bad? antics of his youth: driving their 'parents' whining station wagons,' but doing so as bad as humanly possible, of course. He mocks both himself and his friends in his retrospection of their experience in Greasy Lake, the consummate locale of 'bad.' To the boys, the lake serves as a kind of haven for bad characters such as themselves. Truly, however, the lake is an extension of the dynamic between who the boys are and who they parade around as. It is here where the previous and false understanding about their world is shattered, and they are thrust into a moralistic reformation. Ultimately, the dichotomous nature of the protagonist is resolved by his visit to the lake, and perhaps, the lake itself.
Can you recall the very last night that you spent with your high school buddies before packing your bags and leaving for college? The films American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused bring you back to that through the recreation of those great experiences. American Graffiti is based on a closely-knit group of teenagers who will all be leaving each other the next day for new adventures. This gang of teenagers, despite their differences, all goes out together and share their last memorable evening. Throughout the night, friendships are strengthened, conflicting struggles arise, and romances are created and disrupted. Dazed and Confused dealt about life during wartime – the wartime of high school, where the faculty is irrational, the parents are
Greasy Lake was once beautiful and clear until the actions of humanity changed it to something that was filled with chaos and destruction. The Native Americans used to call Greasy lake Wakan, which was a reference to its clear waters (Boyle 570). The narrator says that, “Now it was fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of the bonfires” (Boyle 570). The lake acts a symbol because this was where the youth went to party and have the times of their lives. These characters went to Greasy Lake because to them, this was “nature” (Boyle 570). Moreover, the desolate lake could have been a representation of the people who went there in search of fun. The “bad” characters who visited Greasy Lake were associated with the transfiguration of the lake. This once beautiful lake was now a party site which, “…is associated with decay and destruction…”
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The nature of life reveals, through its dark accidents, the limitations on being bad in order to be viewed as hip or cool and that there always will be someone who is worse than you. This is the lesson that the narrator learns in T.C. Boyle's "Greasy Lake" through a series of accidents as a result of his recklessness. The narrator, in the beginning of the story, believed himself and his friends to be dangerous characters and that "it was good to be bad, when you cultivated decadence like a taste." However, painful lessons were learned that reveals to the narrator that there will be a price to pay in trying to appear bad. It also goes to show him that there are limits to how far he is willing to go and not care about the consequences.
Harmon, William, William Flint Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
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