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The role of a narrator
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The narrator in “Greasy Lake” is a very interesting character and really changes throughout the story. The narrator thought that he was “bad” until an interesting night that had which changed all that. “We were 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.” The narrator did things that were wrong and he didn’t care what his parents thought. He even took his “parents’ whining station wagons out onto the street and left a patch of rubber half a block long.”
The narrator would drink “gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunderbird, and Bali Hai.” He was nineteen years old when he did these things and he was “bad.” The narrator “didn’t
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Instead of doing things with his friends at home like playing sports or games, they would just go up to Greasy Lake and do really bad things. “We went up to the lake because everyone went there, because we wanted to snuff the rich scent 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.” Some of the things that he would do when he went up to the lake were totally wrong especially for someone of that age. He was only nineteen years old and drinking beer. Back then it was common for teenagers of that age to be drinking but it is still wrong. It was also wrong for him to be smoking pot and watching girls take off their …show more content…
He and his friends then “hit the horn, strobed the lights, and then jumped out of the car to press their witty faces” to the windows of the car. But the narrator then makes a mistake and loses his grip on the keys and he spills them in the grass-“in the dark, rank, mysterious nighttime grass of Greasy Lake.” The narrator then makes another mistake which is that the car that they just went up to and bothered was not their friend that they thought and it was some stranger. The stranger of the car then gets out and he kicked the narrator right under the chin, chipped his favorite tooth, and left him sprawled in the dirt. The narrator then realized that he “was in a lot of trouble, and the lost ignition key was his grail and salvation.” The narrator later on in the fight grabs the tire iron that he had kept under the driver’s seat and he “brought the tire iron down across his ear.” After the character gets knocked out and is on the ground the narrator realizes that “we were bad characters, and we were scared and hot and three steps over the line.” This incident was just one of the ones that the narrator and his friends got into that night. The narrator later on realizes that the way that he acts and the things that he did were wrong and that they need to
Crow Lake is Canadian author Mary Lawson's first novel,which is narrated by Kate Morrison, the second child in the Morrison family. A serious car accident left seven-year-old Kate, her one and half year old sister, Bo, and her two older brothers, Luke and Matt, orphans. Rather than live with relatives separately, they chose to live together and grow up. Luke and Matt made many sacrifices to support their family and they also got many helps from their community. The story took place in Crow Lake, a remote small farming community in northen Ontario.
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 ...
paragraphs. Greasy Lake and Pet Fly are both very specific and descriptive. Both writings are not complex but rather simple, straight forward, and easily understood. Pet Fly is more direct then Greasy Lake. Greasy Lake started off on the humor side and then switched over to a more serious ending when somebody almost died. Pet Fly started and finished making the main character look and feel like a fool. Both writings are fairly clear and obscure.
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.
Written as part of a short story collection, author T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” presents itself as a climactic account of one night in a less than savory young man’s life. Upon closer inspection “Greasy Lake” reveals a complex series of foreboding events that incorporate the innocence and ignorance males have when presented with different social scenarios and the female gender. Through his masterful use of the protagonists internal dialogue, Boyle’s artistry shows an evolving dynamic of indifference, aggression, and intimidation towards and by the women of “Greasy Lake”.
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.
... the narrator truly wants to leave “Greasy Lake” because he sees the simple appearance of keys as something precious. This could also be symbolic of the narrator wanting to get away from the person he was trying to be. The biggest sign of the narrator’s character change is when they meet the girls that are looking for Al. These girls ask the guys if they want to party and do drugs. At the beginning of the story, the “bad” guys would have been all about it. It took that crazy, scary, life changing event to make those “bad guys” realize they really were not that “bad”!
...rich 363) We know that for Lyman, the car doesn’t mean anything to him without his brother, so he sends the car off into the river just as his brother had done. The car has always symbolized the bond between the brothers, sometimes sad and sometimes happy, the car always shows the readers the type of bond the two brothers shared.
The opening paragraph of “Greasy Lake” written by T. Coraghessan Boyle, displays the fact that the following passage is nothing but a mere recollection for the narrator. In this recollection, the unnamed narrator speaks about how life was like during the days of his youth. The narrator describes his youth in a very descriptive way displaying what actions surrounded his life and what he acted like. For example, in the opening sentence he said, “There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad, when you cultivated decadence like a taste. We were all dangerous characters then” (Boyle 569). This statement describes the societal norms of his generation and the type of behavior he was striving to model
Although he promises to think about her “warm proposition,” the movie never again explores this possibility. Alternately, he can buy the engine, which serves both as an assertion of masculinity and—as his friend notes—as a signifier of class. While he opts to try this, the entire plan is ill-fated; the scene where he picks up the engine contains some of the most imbalanced sequences in the entire movie, and the extreme and off-putting diagonal of the street effectively communicates to the viewer that the engine will fall long before it actually occurs. His only ways out of his job slaughtering sheep are through unfaithfulness or by being an accessory to murder.
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.
P2: He woke his brother up with the shock from the scene in front of him but the car made impact anyways.
When a child is born, he or she does not see the same things an adult sees. The baby does not understand language and cannot make the distinction between races or gender or good and evil. While it is impossible to go back in time, novels allow readers to take on a new set of eyes for a few hours or days. They give a new perspective to the world, and sometimes provide a filter to the things seen in the world. Unreliable narrators give authors the flexibility to lie to and withhold information from readers, providing new perspectives into the narrator as well as the other characters of the novel. Authors use unreliable narrators not to give more information to the reader, but to withhold information in order to further character development.
...t home and tells his wife that he nearly crashed the car again (Miller 8).
In “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White expresses a sense of wonder when he revisits a place that has significant memories. Upon revisiting the lake he once knew so well, White realizes that even though things in his life have changed, namely he is now the father returning with his son, the lake still remains the same. Physically being back at the lake, White faces an internal process of comparing his memory of the lake as a child, to his experience with his son. Throughout this reflection, White efficiently uses imagery, repetition, and tone to enhance his essay.