I firmly believe every town has its own thing. Whether it be a place or a statue, every town has that element that adds to the culture. For Tratville, it was Greenwater Lake. For as long as I can remember, I had heard multiple stories regarding the mystery of it’s murky color and revolting smell. Of course there was the common assumption of pollution. People used to throw parties around the lake, leaving litter in its waters. Others propose the idea that the government uses it to dump chemical waste, a theory that explains why Tratville had seen an increase in lung cancer and upper respiratory problems. Oddly enough, the people with those ideas can often be found in the local bar; smoking their way through their second pack of cigarettes …show more content…
My grandmother first told me of the Greenwater Curse when I was in middle school. I had to complete a project for science class regarding the environment of Tratville. Grandma Helen, who was an avid gardener, even in her old age, was the first person I went to. She lived a few streets away from the lake and her home was bordered by a small forest. She seemed like the perfect source of information. When I questioned her about it, she ended up rattling on about the history of the lake, rather than its surrounding environment. Her words still linger in my mind, the details crisp. The Greenwater Curse started in the 1920s, during the Prohibition. What was then the budding town of Tratville was home to needy residents who couldn’t handle the lack of drink. People tried desperately to smuggle in any type of alcohol they could get their hands on. A gang of young men who called themselves the Rum Runners became notorious for working around the prohibitive laws. During one of their chases, in an attempt to avoid the police, a few of the Rum Runners rode into the lake. Along with their precious alcohol, the six men drowned in the dark waters. After that incident, the most sensationalistic residents of the town claimed the lake was then cursed. Anyone that went in would never come back
The lake is the main symbol in “Greasy Lake” that symbolizes youth corruption. When the narrator enters the lake, he describes it as already being “ankle-deep in muck and tepid water and still going strong” (Boyle 5). The filthy description of the water is used to show the gloomy and corrupt waters in this lake. The lake also was “fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires” (1). These descriptions revolving around the lake show that this lake was where people went to be “bad” people. Primitive acts were done here,
The lake itself plays a major role throughout the story, as it mirrors the characters almost exactly. For example, the lake is described as being “fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans” (125). The characters are also described as being “greasy” or “dangerous” several times, which ties the lake and the characters together through their similarities. The narrator explains, “We were bad. At night we went up to Greasy Lake” (124). This demonstrates the importance that the surroundings in which the main characters’ choose to be in is extremely important to the image that they reflect. At the beginning of the story, these characters’ images and specifically being “bad” is essentially all that mattered to them. “We wore torn up leather jackets…drank gin and grape juice…sniffed glue and ether and what somebody claimed was cocaine” (124). They went out of their ...
The government did not care about the health of the Africville Community when they decided to place a dump at the edge of the community in 1958. This was very unhealthy for the community because the community became infested with rats because the dump was a food source for them. This is a problem because rats and carry many diseases. Many parents did not allow for their children to go near the dump but as kids being kids they went anyway. Kids loved going and playing at the dump because there were so many interesting things in there that it made this imagination go
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.
There a number of urban legends from where I live in Cleveland, Ohio, but one struck me more than others. The man who told me the story had attended the same high school as I, St. Edward High School, an all-boy high school, in Lakewood, Ohio. Lakewood, Ohio is a suburb of Cleveland located directly on Lake Erie. It is a small town that does appear to have anything special about it. It was very hard to find an urban legend concerning this small town where I attended high school, but my friend’s father knew the perfect story. He was born and grew up in Lakewood, and so knew the area very well. He had not heard the legend before attending St. Edward, but heard it during his first week of high school. After that, the story became so common, that it did not seem weird to him. The students of the school simply seemed to acc...
In ?Greasy Lake,? water is a powerful entity. The lake works to reveal the true nature of the narrator and his friends. Water is in itself the most influential character of the story. It submerges the protagonist, both physically and metaphorically, in his own mentality. The lake serves as a great equalizer. It creates and resolves conflict, all to force the narrator to confront his weakness and reveal his strength.
In November, a big flock of ducks, oh, about forty or more, landed right smack in the middle of that lake, and while they were sitting there, that afternoon, a fluke thing happened. The temperature dropped so fast that the whole lake froze over, as solid as a rock, in a matter of three seconds. One, two, three, just like that…. They just flew off and took the lake with ‘em. That lake is somewhere in Georgia, to this very day…; Idgie’s exaggerated use of humor allowed the wanderer to settle down and relax.
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…”
The lake is one symbol that helps illustrate the theme of this story. “The Indians had called it Wakan, a reference to the clarity of its waters” (573). The lake is used in the story to symbolize the narrator’s moral condition. “Greasy Lake was once known for the clarity of its waters but now its fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires” (Grace). What imagery probably stuck in my head the most was "there was a single ravaged island a hundred yards from shore, so stripped of vegetation it looked as if air force had strafed it." as Boyle put it. Throughout the years the lake turned into a party place where wild teens went to drink, smoke pot, and cause trouble. The characters go to “Greasy Lake” because everybody goes there. They wanted to experience the remot...
In the Lake of the Woods is a fictional mystery written by Tim O'Brien. Through the book we learn that our lovers, husbands, and wives have qualities beyond what our eyes can see. John Wade and Kathy are in a marriage so obscure that their secrets lead to an emotional downfall. After John Wade loss in his Senatorial Campaign, his feeling towards Kathy take on a whole different outlook. His compulsive and obsessive behavior causes Kathy to distance herself from him. His war experience and emotional trauma are a major cause for his strange behavior. We remain pondering about Kathy's mysterious disappearance, which becomes fatal for her. Possible scenarios are presented in eight chapters marked 'Hypothesis', these chapters add a mysterious twist which can change our train of thought to 'maybe' or 'perhaps' this is the truth.
This vacation spot White describes through memories of his boyhood days always seemed to be so wonderful no matter what had gone wrong. White recalls the time when "[his] father rolled over in a canoe" and another time when "[they] all got ringworm" but none of this mattered in the long run, after all, this was the best place on earth. To White the mountain lake is seen as "constant and trustworthy", and on the trip back there with his own son, White wondered if "time would have marred" the appearance of the lake. Thoughts of the time spent there summer after summer continued to revisit White throughout the trip and everything from thunderstorms to the stillness of the water
The author seems to want to clear guilt of the proposal from the club members. The author's point of view seems to be of someone who is involved in the Sierra Club organization itself, whether the author is or isn't a member they have something to do with the organization. The author is in a protective mode, "The Board (of the Sierra Club) pulled this idea out of thin air" (www.glencanyon.net/club) trying to state the fact that not all members are in favor of the plan to drain the lake.
“The greatest devastation occurred, however, along the south shore of Lake Okeechobee. There, the 10 feet surge washed over the lake’s 5-8 feet dikes and flooded an area 75 miles wide” (Hurricanes: Science and Society). The most prominent similarity between the event described in the book and the event in reality, is the fact that the dikes surrounding Lake Okeechobee burst causing the lake to rapidly burgeon. Janie and Tea Cake walk through the rainwaters and as they are escaping for higher ground, they turn around and see the inexorable lake rushing towards them, destroying everything in its path. “The lake was coming on. Slower and wider, but coming. It had trampled on most of its supporting wall and lowered its front by spreading. But it came muttering and grumbling onward like a tired mammoth just the same” (pg. 163). Hurston describes the lake using personification, acting as if the large body of water is a monster. With this literary device, she incorporates the point of view of the victims, who saw the lake as a significant bane of the storm.
Buckeye Lake is a very important place to a lot of people in central Ohio. After the Ohio Canal was shut down in 1894 the lake became a state park, with the lake itself covering 4000 acres and having thirty miles of shoreline (Buckeye Lake, para. 12). The lake became a vacation spot for families across central Ohio, looking for a day or weekend of leisure, earning it the nickname “Playground of Ohio”, a place close to home where they could swim and play in the water. It became even more popular when cottages, hotels, businesses, and even an amusement park starting popping up along the banks of the
One of the most unique creatures are fish. As I am sitting here in my room, my fish are swimming about with not a care in the world. I wonder what it would feel like to be a fish.