Everyone has been to Greasy Lake
In T.C. Boyle’s coming-of-age short story, Greasy Lake, three rebellious 19 year old boys, Jeff, Digby, and the narrator, thought it was good to be bad, smoking marijuana, drinking beer, and listening to rock and roll, however when they were out looking for trouble like most, almost adult, teenagers, they taunted someone who ,mistakenly, was not the friend they had mistaken him for, they freaked and almost killed the “greasy” man and his girlfriend, they were startled by a car and hid because they did not know if they man was dead or not and didn’t wanted to be blamed for the incident. After seeing a dead man’s body floating, the narrators mind changes, all of the sudden the rebellious attitude disappears. Now
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“… the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires.” Notice the words “glittering…strewn…charred” his word choice adds even more depth into his imagery and writing. Greasy Lake is also narrated in a dual perspective kind of way, there is the young boy’s perspective and an older perspective. It is quite easy to see where the perspective changes, the narrator goes from talking about how cool one of his friends ear piercings was to how one of his friends fathers is paying for his college instead of earning college money for himself. Showing the different perspective gives us a more depth explanation of what was going through Boyle’s head while he was writing Greasy …show more content…
The young boys think they are “bad characters,” however when they wind up at Greasy Lake with a real corrupt guy, their perspective changes, this is the major irony point in the entire story, the adolescence boys thinking they are so bad, yet they are not bad at all, they are just reckless. Throughout the entire story, the narrator makes us believe that the young boys are extremely “bad,” when in reality, they are immature, irresponsible teenagers. Honestly, I believe that the boys were trying to live out their childhood and try to make themselves seem more independent to prepare themselves for stress of the real world, since they are on the verge of adulthood. Irony brought out more meaning in the
Other stylistic elements between Greasy Lake and Pet Fly are the length and complexity of the sentences. Greasy Lake is lengthier and a bit more complex than Pet Fly. Greasy Lake is eight full pages of writing while Pet Fly is eight pages of small
T. Coraghessan Boyle's "Greasy Lake" and John Updike's "A & P" have many similarities as well as differences. Both are coming-of-age stories that teach some sort of lesson to the protagonist at the end. “A&P” is about a nineteen-year-old boy who stands up against his manager to impress a couple of girls who are dressed “immodestly”. “Greasy Lake” is about many nineteen years olds playing a prank on a couple of bad characters who turn out to show the teens what they can really do in return.
Another interesting factor about this story is the irony and tone in this story and how it adds toward each character.
Someone might’ve had an intention to do nothing but good, and then ends up doing a terrible deed. Situational irony can completely shock and surprise the reader and their expectation of the story. This could be an easy and entertaining way for the author to show a character’s failure, or even a character’s unexpected success. The narrator had said,”I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us.” (pg.425) This quote helps to represent the stories theme because it talks all about irony and how things don’t end up as they are supposed to. It was obviously ironic when the Narrator caused the breakdown of Doodle while he was the one trying to build Doodle up the most. Or even how the Narrator thought he would be stuck with Doodle his whole life, and then he becomes the reason why Doodle is gone from his life permanently. The Narrator does something completely unexpected and leaves Doodle behind in the rain. Throughout the whole story we knew the Narrator didn’t really like Doodle in the beginning, but he still stuck with him. Now when the Narrator and Doodle are at their closest point yet, the Narrator decides to abandon him. It is ironic how if Doodle wasn’t pushed towards societal betterment, he would still be
Sudden and Ironic events that happen to the narrator in T.C. Boyle’s short story “Greasy Lake” are the same type of events that in an instant will change a person forever. The ironic circumstances that the narrator in “Greasy Lake” finds himself in are the same circumstances that young people find themselves in when fighting war.
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.
Authors often use details that evoke a response in readers to produce an effective description. Their aim is not simply to tell readers what something looks like but to show them. Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Grave” and E.B. White’s “Once More to the Lake” are essays that use subjective language to illustrate the principles of effective description. Porter’s “The Grave” describes a childish afternoon of rabbit hunting that brings death close enough to be seen and understood, while White’s “Once More tot he Lake” is a classic essay of persona; reminiscence in which he recreates the lakeside camp he visited with his son.
...themselves all in surroundings that they are not only unused to, but unsafe in. Because of the nature of their predicament, this made the lost boys even more dangerous to themselves. Once all the boys had adapted to their new surroundings, they had been severely mentally and physically hardened. They had all been forced to grow up, and fast.
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
The boys live a new life without adults and social norms. Roles in their makeshift society have been carried out but Jack’s self-imposed responsibility only aims to fulfill his personal agenda. Jack’s fervent character is aggressiveness masquerading as passion. This destructive behavior sends Jack to a faster decline to savagery in relation to his peers.
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.
To sum up, the boys at Devon have endured a lot as teenagers. They are faced with pressures and values that cause them to develop into adults, at an early age.
“Love in L.A.” uses irony to teach its readers, showing us that unless we put in the time and effort, we will not reach our goals. Jake wanted better for his life but didn’t want to do what it took to get that better life. Instead of Jake is going for it, he spent all of his time daydreaming and lying instead of growing up and working for it. It is clear Jake has been stuck in this phase of his life for a long time. In fear of loosing his freedom in life, Jake made his life harder than what it needed to
This short story revolves around a young boy's struggle to affirm and rationalize the death and insanity of an important figure in his life. The narrator arrives home to find that Father James Flynn, a confidant and informal educator of his, has just passed away, which is no surprise, for he had been paralyzed from a stroke for some time. Mr. Cotter, a friend of the family, and his uncle have much to say about the poor old priest and the narrator's relationship with him. The narrator is angered by their belief that he's not able, at his young age, to make his own decisions as to his acquaintances and he should "run about and play with young lads of his own age ..." That night, images of death haunt him; he attempts make light of the tormenting face of the deceased priest by "smiling feebly" in hopes of negating his dreadful visions. The following evening, his family visits the house of the old priest and his two caretakers, two sisters, where he lies in wake. There the narrator must try and rationalize his death and the mystery of his preceding insanity.
The irony is also an example of showing character appeal. He is showing his attitude toward the society. As the reader reads his humorous and satirical essay, the reader would notice that there is irony everywhere. One example is when the Mark Twain discussed on page 7 paragraph 3 “Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers and sometimes to others.” (7). Even though he is telling the youth to respect your superiors. He also tells the youth that if they are ever offended or think you were offended, hit them with a brick. With that said how is the youth supposed to respect their superiors? Also, he mentions that in paragraph 3 “yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the times has gone by for such things,” (7) but he says hit people with bricks. Another example of irony is on page 7 paragraph 5 “you want to be very careful about lying,” (7) but he doesn’t tell the youth not to lie at all. Unlike most elderly people if they were giving advice. Which is very ironic how he is trying to let the youth know that it is appropriate to lie, but don’t get caught. Also, this is what brings me back to the quote “truth is mighty and will prevail.” If the youth are good liars, would this quote be truth? Can the truth over power a lie? That is what Mark Twain is trying to say, with good practice how would you ever get caught? He also refers to the lying