Greasy Lake Essay-Violence Breeds Adulthood

Violence Breeds Adulthood

During the time my parents grew up the world was very different. They played outside at all hours of the night and they got into more trouble with each other and less with the law. Growing up I had always heard my dad’s stories of wandering around the small town with his friends, getting into fights, and meeting girls. Somehow things have changed but remain the same. For instance, we often act like boys fighting at a young age is stupid or “childish”. However to a boy these fights are often something he will need to for the rest of his life. Almost as if the fights begin to shape a boy physically and mentally. Fights prepare him for the physical struggles he may face later. If a man cannot endure physical pain, he

will quit at the first sign of a physical challenge. It will mentally prepare him for the internal battles he will face in the ever changing world. Because life, much like a fight can be sporadic and change at any moment.

Similarly, to this the short story the “Greasy Lake” by Boyle Coraghessan teaches that adulthood is not achieved without hardship or struggle.

First, Boyle shows the boys experience violence in a struggle. The boys learn how to fight and survive to overcome the odds. In the short story “Greasy Lake”, Boyle writes, “The very bad character in greasy jeans and engineer boots ripped out of the driver’s door” (page 571). The term bad and character are used specifically to analyze the man is not just your average joe. He is someone with a creepy and mean look to him. With more than likely some form of scars or disfigurement. Indicating he has a large or scary stature in comparison to the boys. He is likely stronger than them, and has the look and the shape of someone who has been in several hairy situations. Boyle combines his harsh looks with his clothing such as engineer boots and greasy jeans to create the image of a biker type or someone who works in construction. This adds to his visual representation of a large manly stature that would send any boy running the other way in fear. Men typically are greasy when they have low income, live near the ghetto, or are

in low income suburbs. Often this means they had to learn the harsh reality of the streets. For example bare knuckle brawling, drugs, or drinking alcohol. The boys do not have adequate experience with a man with such edge. Then, Boyle writes, “I came at him like a kamikaze, mindless, raging… I came at him and brought the tire iron down across his ear” (572). The boys were in a situation with odds not in their favor. They try their hardest to fight back but part of being a man is to adapt to new situations, but the boy’s primal instincts took over. Boyle seems to use the terms kamikaze and mindless because to throw yourself at something without fear or worry of death. As if to say it is to become strong mentally in the fact that you may die or wind up in jail. The boy is forced to adapt to his situation. He uses a tire iron knowing his fist would be worthless, adapting to survive as he fears for his life. The tire iron is most likely used in this story because tire irons represent change and replacing the old with the new. For example the boy is losing his childhood and overcoming this to become a man.
The boy learns the reality of violence and death. Boyle states, “In one of those nasty little epiphanies for which we are prepared by films and TV and childhood visits to the funeral home to ponder the shrunken painted forms of dead grandparents” (573). The boy may have been prepped since childhood to understand death but nothing could compare to the true reality of death. Which is why Boyle uses childhood visits because when a child finds death he can’t quite grasps the concept of what is really happening. When he sees it, scared and in the dark of night he realizes it is not some childhood vision he once had. Therefore, he says prepared by TV and films because they often romanticize death. The boy are trying to avoid facing the harsh reality of death in the swamp. Next, the boy says, “I was circling in the car, as dazed and bedraggled as the sole survivor of an air blitz” (575). Seeing death can often cause a shellshock feeling or strong emotional numbness. The boy is still new to the world and trying to find his path to adulthood and death can often speed up the process. This is most likely why he feels “air blitz” because it happens so fast it can shock you. Boyle uses it to show that he is speeding his path to adulthood and shocks the boy at how fast everything in the night had happened, and shook him towards adulthood.
Boyle then shows that struggles are necessary to adulthood. The struggle of the day taught the boys a lesson of maturity. Boyle states, “shaking off pellets of glass like an old dog shedding water after a bath” (576). The glass blowing off the car is an allusion that the boys are shedding of the skin of their childhood and entering maturity. The boys learn adult skills in survival and when to run. When they leave the lake it’s as if their leaving their childhood behind them. In a baptism, your sins are shed and you are born again. The shedding of the water is as if they were baptized in the lake with the dead body and they emerge as an adult. Also, the boy says, “the sun firing buds and opening blossoms” (575). The sun symbolizes a new day, and a fresh start since the sun fosters growth. The boys having entered the new day are entering into adulthood. The firing of the buds to the boys means they are young and opening to the world. The opening of blossoms symbolizes these boys have not grown physically but mentally. They have grown from a small boy or bud into a full adult or flower. They grow towards the sun to show that they are moving into the world and finding the real light in being an adult.
Similarly, the boys denying childhood antics shows their struggles have advanced into adulthood.

Boyle writes, “I wanted to go home to my parent’s house and crawl into bed” (576). Often children find comfort in their parents and safety. By wanting to go home to his parents instead of acting on his temptation of a beautiful girl we see he has reached maturity. Often when a young boy has a sexual temptation it will over rule any situation and control his mind. Therefore, people often say he’s thinking with his other head. By thinking of “crawling into bed” he is not thinking of sex he’s thinking of home, safety, and love instead of an impulse decision. Similarly, the boys when talking to the girls, “Finally she held out a handful of tablets in glassine wrappers” (576). Drugs are often seen as a childhood antic or for kids to experiment. Because the girl is attractive and offering the boys a temptation, she seems to be attracting them to childhood. By denying the drugs and leaving, the boys show they have evolved from a child who believes in smoking cigarettes and doing burnouts makes them hard, to an adult who resists drugs, fistfights, or danger. They simply want to be home and see life and not

partying.
Boyle teaches that to reach maturity we must face a series of struggles and overcome them. He gives their struggle a face by using words such as greasy and describing the appearance of rough mountainous man. That leads us to create an image for coming of age in general that is not so appealing. Maturity is often something kids idealize and early adults fear. Men in war zones or in countries facing difficulties often mature much faster as they are faced with many struggles at earlier ages. For boys to become men they must overcome their fears and hardships. This why most American teens struggle to reach maturity until after high school. We don’t allow them to face the reality that to become a man is not necessarily a nice thing but a brutal endeavor that will prepare them for life.