The young men that Boyle, T. Coraghessan create in “Greasy Lake” are described an ill-behaved teens who find themselves rethinking their poor actions so they can start a journey to maturity. For these young men a series of bad events continue to occur that push them to a point a realization. It took traumatic events to make the boys realize there juvenile ways need to come to an end in order to get on the path to maturity. Through traumatic events and obstacles, “Greasy Lake” puts three young men through a series of tests so they can start the journey toward maturity.
In order to start making changes about the immature decisions these young men are making, they need to see the outcome. The three young men in the story fill their long summer
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nights with trouble they see fit for such “bad characters” (191), such as themselves. During this time it was “good to be bad” wearing “torn leather jackets” (189), and cruising thru the city down the highway to Greasy Lake. This lake had a reputation of once being called “Wakan, a reference to the clarity of its waters” (189), but now reveals the remains of nights that lead to nothing but trouble. Greasy lake is where the series of mistakes begin for the young men. Beginning when the young man loses his keys which leads him to mistake his friend’s car for a “very bad characters” (190) that puts him in a sticky situation. This will set the stage for the other mistakes that will make him rethink the decisions these young men have always made. There are many contributing factors that put these young men in the bad situations they are in.
From losing his keys, to mistaking a car for what he thought was his friends put him in a bad situation from the start. By mistaking this car for his friends it starts trouble with this “greasy character” (190) who starts a fight with them. The young man than strikes the bad character with his tire iron, and knocks him to the ground. This allows the young man into thinking the strike killed him. After all the commotion a woman emerges from the “greasy characters” car and begins to throw around accusations of what the young boys have done to her friend. (190) The young boys don’t have time to process her actions and begin to attack the woman and attempt to rape her when suddenly they are stopped by “a pair of headlights” shining right at them. (191) They all run for the woods trying to find an escape. This shock puts all the young men in a traumatic state leading them to rethink the actions they had …show more content…
made. Throughout the story these young men have been able to reflect on the decisions they have been making.
The young men begin to realize this is reality, the bad decisions do not end up making them feel cool, and it puts them in a life or death situation. “We’ll kill you” are the words from the “bad character” that make them run to the woods for safety (192). Stumbling into the greasy lake the young man sees “the dead man rotating” (192) in the water beside and can’t help but think what happened to him. That maybe the dead man ended up in the lake by making similar decisions as the young men. He regrets going to the lake at this point his “jaw aches, knee throbbed, his coccyx was on fire” (193). Making sure it is safe to emerge from the lake he witnesses the “greasy character” beating up his car than he “fired up the 57’ and was gone” (193). The young men head back to the car and decide that they are ready to home, when “two woman emerge from a Mustang” and they offer to participate in some “bad” activities (194). When the young men decline this offer, it sparks a change inside him. He is starting his journey to maturity and this shows their disinterest of the “cool and bad”
activities. At the end of it all the young men begin to see all the trouble they have gotten themselves into by acting immaturely and realize they need to begin to mature. They all saw the worst outcome of their actions, realizing they did not want that for themselves. That moment one of the young men had in the lake set his mind up to really reconsider all the harm he was causing to himself without knowing it. As he emerged from the lake “there was a smell in the air, raw in sweet at the same time” that showed although all those traumatic events took place a new beginning can always come to light (193). When they declined the lady’s offer it showed a new mature side to young men. They can leave the past behind them, “I looked back” signifies the step the young men took to go on a road to maturity (194).
He changed what he thought about this rebellion he was a part of and decided he did not want to be involved with it anymore. Their personalities showed how they were frauds in their lives. In “Greasy Lake,” T. Coraghessan Boyle uses the lake, the keys, and the car as symbols to develop the theme of corruption in youth.
In the short story Greasy Lake, Boyle told of the changing of boys to men in one night. When it was cool to be bad. Senior year in high school, 19 years old and stupid. Not having any real clue as to the real world works, Driving mom's cars using dad's money. In Greasy Lake, T.C. Boyle used the theme of being bad by using the different characters to symbolize someone always trying to be more than they really are.
The main character says, “Look under the seat for my flashlight, boy” (Pancake 87). The narrator then notes, “He bends forward, grabbing under the seat, and his head is turned for me. But I am way too tired now, and I don’t want to clean the seat” (Pancake 87). From the context you can observe that he starts his process in killing the hitchhiker but decides against it. As he has gotten to know the hitchhiker throughout the ride he sees that he no longer wants to kill him. Then, the main character comments, “He hops to the ground, and I watch him walking backward, thumbing” (Pancake 87-88). You can conclude that he finally comes to the realization that these hitchhikers deserve to live despite his recent losses. In sum, this is the major turning point in the story because this is when he finally overcomes his obsession of murdering the
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...
Burke intentionally places frequent flashbacks throughout the novel to ignite curiosity in the readers. The novel soon reveals that not only did Daniel’s illegal action cause him to “lose his spirited outlook on life” (Burke, pg 123), but it also uprooted everything Tom once had. Nevertheless, lesson by lesson, the tragic incident succeeds admirably in teaching Tom to overcome his weaknesses. In addition to drink driving, Burke has significantly addressed the common issue of a teen’s sense of insecurity in numerous ways.
Nature has a powerful way of portraying good vs. bad, which parallels to the same concept intertwined with human nature. In the story “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, the author portrays this through the use of a lake by demonstrating its significance and relationship to the characters. At one time, the Greasy Lake was something of beauty and cleanliness, but then came to be the exact opposite. Through his writing, Boyle demonstrates how the setting can be a direct reflection of the characters and the experiences they encounter.
His observations of surrounding nature changes after a few ironic incidents occur. The role he plays reverses itself and he finds that he is merely a scared child who is lost and alone in a big scary world. While at Greasy Lake, he is involved in a terrible fight where he almost kills another person, and attempts the heinous crime of rape onto an innocent girl. As he begins to gang rape an innocent victim he is forced to run for his own safety when more people show up at the scene. Ironically, within minutes he converts from being the bad guy, forcing himself on an unwilling victim, to becoming a scared kid hiding in the woods from attackers. While...
Although he makes it out alive, the protagonist and his outlook on life are forever changed. Proximity to death is more than a recurring theme in “Greasy Lake”. Mortality is almost synonymous with growing up and the inevitable change from adolescence to adulthood. The older people get and the more life people have, the closer death is to everyone. After each incident, the narrator grows and finds himself one step closer to demise, barely able to escape from the vise of death.
From death to drug use “The Ascent”, teaches a crucial moral lesson in how decisions affect more than one individual. In Ron Rash’s, “The Ascent”, he tells a story about a boy named Jared who has a rough life due to his parent’s decision making. While Jared is on Christmas break he begins to explore in the woods. As he was exploring he discovers a crashed plane that went missing recently. As the story continues Jared reveals little details, or inner thoughts that his young mind does not understand what is happening around him. Rash’s use of naïve narrator, critical foreshadowing, and imagery to create an effective setting that leads to a character revelation.
Jake considers himself free because he has no job holding him down, he knows in order to have a “steady occupation” (248) he would be giving up his freedom. Jake thinks about a steady job once “A steady occupation had its advantages, and he couldn’t deny thinking about that too.” (248). Gilbs lets the reader know that Jake is well aware the results of having a job would give him the necessities to make his life easier as well as help achieve his goals. But instead, Jake went back to thinking about the interior of his dream car, which caused the car accident. Immediately after the accident, Jake begins to think of quick lies and begins womanizing the woman he hit. Jake begins to flirts with the women by saying “So maybe we should go to coffee somewhere and talk it over” (249). And although she rejects the invitation the reader starts to realize Jakes motive. Jake was also trying to impress the women by telling her “‘I act too’, he lied to enhance the effect more. ‘Been in a couple of movies’,” (250) Ironically in this situation he had to stop thinking about his fantasy life and had to think of lies to make everything believable. What becomes revealed is that Jakes has it worse than originally thought “She was writing down the license plate number on his Buick, ones that he’d taken off a junk because the ones that belonged to him had expired so long ago” (250). Because Jakes license plate
There are many themes highlighted in the short story Greasy Lake, by T. Coraghessan Boyle. Some of these themes include being adventurous, violence, and being young and restless. However, there is a main message that stands out more than the others and is the most centered theme of the story. This is the theme of coming of age through the narrator’s journey to finding out what it means to be “bad,” and whether or not he wanted to make bad choices.
	Boyle’s evolution from "Greasy Lake" to "Big Game" has also provided for a progression in his style. Evident from the two stories is the contrasted amounts of detail and abstract detail. In some sense, Boyle has mellowed over the two stories by leaving out many of the twists and turns of "Greasy Lake" in "Big Game," but in the same sense has become more exciting with more violence and action. The plots in the two stories are similar in structure and pattern of action. They both include violence and regretful lessons learned the hard way, and seam to involve similar events and characters. A definite change in Boyle’s plot over the course of the two stories however, is the loss in significance and importance of the plot and the take over by setting and character instead.
They are relaxed to see a car stop for them to give them a ride to their destination, until they soon realize the person driving was an escaped convict named "The Misfit. " The convicts partners began taking the family into the woods one by one to assonate them, the grandmother starts to beg for her life even though s... ... middle of paper ... ... als these events within their novels. Sometimes leaving the reader scared, frightened or mysterious.
This story is driven by the inner and outer conflicts faced by Frank, Kenny, and Tub and how they connected to Wolff’s view of the human nature and the world surrounding it. Frank represents the human need for social interaction. He is always in the company of another. Such as when he clung to Tub after Kenny was shot; up until that point, he sided with Kenny instead of helping him because Kenny’s dominance over the threesome was stripped from him by Tub. Frank’s affair with the teen girl pleasures his body but scars his mind because he knows how vile and twisted his actions are. However, Frank’s disregard for what little morality he seems to have is an extreme example of Man’s overwhelming desire to be with one another, Tub represents absence of innocence and plethora of
This classic story shows the way things along the road of life can change your full outlook on it, even if you are as young as 6 or 7. The emotional change and change in tone greatly demonstrates this for the reader. In addition to that, the complexity shows the reader these changes in many different forms.