Contents. Author Background The collection reflects the fears, anxieties and issues of America in the 1960s, especially in regard to the fear of a nuclear holocaust. 'One of the astonishing things about looking back at old stories are their references to then-current political and social events', he said in the forums on his personal website.
'We write in a given period, and that period seems to vanish rather quickly, so that all stories become historical the moment they're finished.' In another interview he stated that he never starts writing with a particular theme in mind—that an author’s obsessions at the time emerge naturally to form unity within a short story or a collection of stories. When he spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle, he revealed the reason behind his focus on the anxieties of American society at large. 'I worry about everything in the world,' Boyle says, 'and it's just too much for anybody to think about, so I have my art as my consolation.'
Greasy Lake Short Story Text
In the same interview he stated that it’s the stable things in his life—his wife, children, same teaching post for the thirty years, the same agent—that enable him to focus on his art. The title story of this collection was inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s song '.
Boyle himself is a musician and once aspired to play rock music. For a short while he played saxophone in a band called The Ventilators, although they never recorded. Greasy Lake is also reminiscent of Boyle’s years as a 'rebellious punk'. The often flamboyant outcomes of his stories are a result of his personal theory about writing—that like music, it is ultimately a form of entertainment.
He believes that reading has declined in American because stories have become a high art that is incomprehensible to the average person. To him, a story has failed when it requires a critic to mediate between the reader and author. Rather, a story should be approached as something done for leisure or pleasure—not as a school chore.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Boyle states, 'My ambition is to make great art that is appealing to anyone who knows how to read.' Greasy Lake The 'Greasy Lake' characters, Digby, whose parents paid his tuition to; Jeff, who had a dangerous personality; and the 'wanna-be bad' narrator relish their 'Bad Boy' image. Boyle describes their 'Bad Boy' behavior: “we wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue and ether.' The lake, much like the character's foolish desires, has turned into a lagoon of refuse with broken bottles lining its banks.
Boyle’s reference to war is as vivid as the lake, “so stripped of vegetation it looked as if the Air Force had strafed it.” The mention of 's tactical errors in equates to the main character's disastrous misguided offense of losing his car keys. A moral dilemma occurs but is not directly exposed, since the characters desire a 'Bad Boy' image, T.C.
Boyle writes: 'There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad.' However, an epiphany is reached when the 'Bad Boys' realize that what they desire is not always a good thing. Stories in volume. 'Greasy Lake'. 'Caviar'. 'Ike and Nina'.
'Rupert Beersley and the Beggar of the Sivan's-Hoota'. 'On for the Long Haul'.
'The Hector Quesadilla Story'. 'Whales Weep'.
'The New Moon Party'. 'Not a Leg to Stand On'.
Stones in my Passway, Hellhound on my Trail'. 'All Shook Up'. 'A Bird in the Hand'. 'Two Ships'. 'Bara Avis'. 'The Overcoat II' Caviar 'Caviar' is a peculiar short story, of a married couple involved in a 'little experiment.'
The short story is narrated by the husband, Mr. Trimpdie, a fisherman by trade, who has never been to college but reads science books and magazines.
The wife, Marie, after many years of marriage decides she wants some 'offspring.' The pair repeatedly try to have a child, but Marie cannot get pregnant. The couple decide to go to a doctor and ask about a test-tube baby. Ziss, a very young man, tells them that Marie’s ovaries are shot, and that test-tube reproduction is impossible. Ziss questions the couple, he asks, 'have they considered a surrogate mother?' As he has already contacted a woman on their behalf, should they be interested.
For ten thousand dollars plus hospital costs, they agree to have Wendy, a medical school student, as their surrogate mother. Wendy is artificially impregnated by the doctor and becomes very close to the couple. One day, while Marie is working, Wendy and Mr.
Trimpie engage in a sexual relationship. Marie never finds out about the incident. Trimpie, while visiting Wendy after the baby is born, finds Dr. Ziss at her house and realizes he has been deceived.
Wendy says she won’t stay with him because they move in different circles. Trimpie assaults Dr.
Ziss, and is arrested by the police. Back to his house, Marie won’t let him in, and he ends up at the dock gutting a fish full of 'eggs in her.' Ike and Nina The short story of 'Ike and Nina' is a reference to the thirty-fourth President of the United States, Dwight D.
Eisenhower (Ike) who has a sentimentally romantic, yet (hypothetical) love affair with Russia's Madame Nina Khrushcheva. The narrator of the fictional short story was promoted to 'special aid' during the time of a 'visit by the Soviet Premier and his uh wife,' and makes this a plausible tale, as he supposedly confesses the true account of the love story. Boyle's allusions to the Cold War era are numerous.
'Top Secret' and 'Strictly Confidential' personal incidents, like those of a hide-n-seek limousine ride, and a stately dinner party, result in legions of Secret Service agents, the CIA and the FBI, kept virtually off balance and unaware of Ike and Nina's situation. On for the Long Haul 'On for the Long Haul' substantiates the hysteria of the ' generation. The characters are put into a bizarre situation that borders on. The characters, Bayard Wemp, a successful business man who was used to luxury living, his highstrung neurotic wife, Fran, and their two adolescent children Melissa and Marcia, together are determined to survive an overpowering feeling of apocalyptic fever. Wemp enters into a nefarious real estate deal to purchase thirty-five acres of land in the secluded area of Bounceback, Montana. Boyle's references to 'bomb shelters under patios,' 'world wide economic callapse,' Kaddafi with 'The Bomb' and the 'temporarily out of food' signs suggesting possible rationing further imitate Bayards imaginary need to be prepared. Boyle writes, 'Civilization itself-was on the brink of a catastrophe that would make the Dark Ages look like a Sunday-afternoon softball game.'
The situation the main character hopes will eventually work itself out ironically ends with his demise. The Hector Quesadilla Story In 'The Hector Quesadilla Story' the main character was 'no Joltin' Joe, no Sultan of Swat, no Iron Man.' Hector Hernan Jesus y Maria Quesadilla, aka 'Little Cheese' is an aging baseball player stuck in a time warp. While confident about his participation in the dream of the 'Big Game,' Hector refuses to acknowledge his age.
In this short story, Hector's family suggests that it is time to 'Hang up his Spikes,' after all his 'son will be twenty-nine next month and his daughter has four children of her own with one on the way,' but for Hector, a missed moment is continuously replayed as ' the stick flashes in your hands like an Archangel's sword, and the game goes on forever.' The Overcoat II This is the final story of the collection. Boyle rewrites the, but transports his characters into the Cold War era. The main character, Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, a 'hard-nosed revolutionary communist worker,' hopes to purchase a new 'Good Quality Soviet Made Winter Coat.'
Akaky purchases a winter coat from his tailor Petrovich at a cost of Five-hundred and fifty Rubles, however, unbeknownst to Akaky the coat was a 'Black Market' purchase. The fine cloth coat with 'a fur collar, like those in Paris,' elevates Akaky in his workplace as everyone notices, the 'party tool and office drudge' is now strutting like a 'coryphee with the Bolshi.' Like Gogol's story, Akaky is given a taste of respect and happiness symbolized by the coat only to have it ripped away to tragic effect. In keeping with surreal situations, Akaky finds himself embroiled in police matters while the recipient of smuggled goods. Critical reception Greasy Lake and Other Stories was first published in 1985. The main characters in the stories are, according to, 'typically lusty, exuberant dreamers whose wildly inflated ambitions lead them into a series of hilarious, often disastrous adventures.' Though most stories are set in twentieth century America, some are set in other parts of the world.
'Beggar of Sivani-Hoota' is set in India in 'the remote Decan state of Sivani-Hoota,' and 'The Overcoat II', a reworking of ’s classic short story, is set in the before the fall of communism. In stories set in America, life is depicted as 'a roller coaster ride, filled with peaks of exhilaration and excited but also fraught with hidden dangers and potential embarrassments.' The story 'Greasy Lake', whose title and epigraph are borrowed from, tells the story of a group of wannabe “bad” kids who come to the lake hoping to 'smoke pot, howl at the stars, and savor the incongruous full-throated roar of rock and roll' but find themselves facing a vicious thug who drives the main character into the murky lake where he has a 'grizzly encounter with the corpse of dead biker and is forced to endure the whomp-whomp sounds of his family’s station wagon being demolished.' In 'The New Moon Party', a presidential candidate promises to replace the old moon with a glittering new moon.
^. ^.
^. Boyle, T. 'Greasy Lake.' Greasy Lake and Other Stories.
New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. 'Greasy Lake'. Greasy Lake and Other Stories.New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.
'Greasy Lake'. Greasy Lake and Other Stories.New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. ^ Boyle, T. Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.
Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. 'Ike and Nina.' Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. 'Ike and Nina.' Greasy Lake and Other Stories.
New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. 'On for the Long Haul.' Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. 'On for the Long Haul.'
Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.
'On for the Long Haul.' Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. 'The Hector Quesadilla Story.'
Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.
'The Hector Quesadilla Story.' Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. 'The Hector Quesadilla Story.'
Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. 'The Overcoat II.'
Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.
'The Overcoat II.' Greasy Lake and Other Stories. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.
^ McCaffery, Larry. “Lusty Dreamers in the Suburban Jungle.” New York Times. 31 March 2008. ^ Kakutani, Michiko. “Books of the Times.” New York Times. 31 March 2008.
External links.
Mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, The Washington Post Book World says these masterful stories mark T. Coraghessan Boyle's development from 'a prodigy's audacity to something that packs even more of a wallop: mature artistry.' They cover everything, from a terrifying encounter between a bunch of suburban adolescents and a murderous, drug-dealing biker, to a touchin Mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, The Washington Post Book World says these masterful stories mark T.
Coraghessan Boyle's development from 'a prodigy's audacity to something that packs even more of a wallop: mature artistry.' They cover everything, from a terrifying encounter between a bunch of suburban adolescents and a murderous, drug-dealing biker, to a touching though doomed love affair between Eisenhower and Nina Khruschev. I like the story of Greasy Lake because the characters are relatable to the bad-boy persona of everyone’s youth—definitely at some point it was mine. The narrator wants to portray the bad-boy image but has an epiphany at the end, realizing what he wanted to portray is nothing what he wanted to be.
This is summed up at the end when the narrator said, “I wanted to go home to my parents’ house and crawl into bed.” The reader really got a great sense of what the narrator was thinking and feeling thr I like the story of Greasy Lake because the characters are relatable to the bad-boy persona of everyone’s youth—definitely at some point it was mine. The narrator wants to portray the bad-boy image but has an epiphany at the end, realizing what he wanted to portray is nothing what he wanted to be.
This is summed up at the end when the narrator said, “I wanted to go home to my parents’ house and crawl into bed.” The reader really got a great sense of what the narrator was thinking and feeling through the traumatic night, I felt like I was there with him and the rest of the characters—the narration was not distant from the main character. What I took from this story was the importance of distance in a narration. Only very recently, T.C. Boyle 19s 1CGreasy Lake 1D was placed on a banned book list by a school district near Santa Barbara. It just so happens that this school district was right down the road from where T.C.
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Makes his current residence. Found out that a parent 19s objection to one word in the title story was enough to pressure the school to take the book off the shelves, he volunteered to speak at the school. 1CThey (the parent groups) ll hang you, 1D said the school 19s principal u Only very recently, T.C.
Boyle 19s 1CGreasy Lake 1D was placed on a banned book list by a school district near Santa Barbara. It just so happens that this school district was right down the road from where T.C. Makes his current residence. Found out that a parent 19s objection to one word in the title story was enough to pressure the school to take the book off the shelves, he volunteered to speak at the school.
1CThey (the parent groups) ll hang you, 1D said the school 19s principal upon rejecting his offer. 1COk, 1D T.C. 1CThen, I 19m not coming. T.C., I suppose, reserves his courage for his writing.
To me, he makes a fine role model for all students. The parents should take a breath, read T.C. Boyle, and learn something. Some of his stories in Greasy Lake are both highly animated and entertaining. Some are more reserved and heartfelt.
But all of them have been structured by one of our nation 19s most talented writers. Shame on that principal who didn 19t drive up to T.C. 19s house and deliver him to his students.
Greasy Lake contains the 1Cmf 1D word once or twice. It was uttered by a key character in the story, a very bad dude 13 that 19s exactly what you would expect to come out of his mouth. Anything less would have been distracting. Apparently T.C. Created the story based on a Bruce Springsteen teenage rebellion song.
There are drugs and violence and sex, and the 1CMF 1D word. What were you doing during your teen-age years? Creates this incredible song of a short story where bad guys learn their lessons. They drive their mother 19s car up to Greasy Lake looking for action, and they find it.
Things get violent in a hurry for these middle-classed white kids. As bad as you think you are, things can always get worse. As strange as things get, it can get weirder. When you are a teenager, you think you know, but you really don 19t, and never will. Please read this story until the very last line when you come across the outstretched hand, and see what life has to offer you.
My favorite story in this collection is 1CTwo Ships 1D. In this piece, T.C. May be using these same characters/friends from 1CGreasy Lake 1Cat different points in their lives. He shows the flip side.
Kids that grow up smoking pot and breaking windows, have to grow up into something. In this case, one buddy, Jack, becomes a respectable lawyer, and the other, Caspar, becomes a Vietnam flame-out. Throughout the story, Boyle develops a level of tension and suspense leading up to the big reunion between the two long-lost friends. You can expect to see a level of humor in a T.C. The narrative is indeed humorous, but where T.C. Boyle 19s genius comes out, there are no chuckles to be found. People change, loyalties fade, but in the end of this story, the feelings will turn sour in your stomach.
Jack seems to understand his troubled buddy better than anyone possibly could. Together, they shared deep meaningful experiences, most that would never be duplicated or approached in Jack 19s adult life, but when it comes time to make a meaningful gesture when Caspar is in need, Jack wishes that he never came back. Paints a picture of Jack having turned his back on his past in exchange for a prominent future. And there is nothing funny about it.
Hooray, for all the kids in that school district who love 1CGreasy Lake 1D In the article, one of the teachers said it was the one story that really spoke to them. Hooray for T.C. Boyle who can deliver meaningful life lessons for people of all ages and backgrounds. Boo to the parents who deny their kids the chance to connect with literature at its highest level. I first read the title story in college, and always meant to read more of Boyle's work. This year, as I've been keeping track of all the short stories I've read in magazines and such over in info365shortstories, I realized that I was coming across quite a few new Boyle stories, and maybe it was time to seek out a collection of his. I found several, but it took a while to find this one, with the story I wanted to re-read.
It's a truism, at least to me, that all short story collections are by th I first read the title story in college, and always meant to read more of Boyle's work. This year, as I've been keeping track of all the short stories I've read in magazines and such over in info365shortstories, I realized that I was coming across quite a few new Boyle stories, and maybe it was time to seek out a collection of his. I found several, but it took a while to find this one, with the story I wanted to re-read. It's a truism, at least to me, that all short story collections are by their nature 'hit or miss,' regardless of whether the collection is author-centric or is a theme anthology.
Greasy Lake Short Story Pdf
This collection is no exception to my rule, although it falls far more on the 'hit' side than the 'miss.' The fun thing about the collection is that the stories really are all over the place and don't necessarily fit into the 'literary fiction' genre to which I think Boyle, by dint of often being published in places like 'The New Yorker,' often gets placed. Another great collection of Boyle's stories. His second collection. There is so much detail in each page, three pages feels like enough words for ten pages. Each sentence is so perfectly crafted to reveal just enough information to create a short story.
I just love savoring each story, even each sentence. I also had to read Gogol's 'Overcoat' before reading Boyle's 'Overcoat II'. Possibly these stories packed slightly less of a punch than the 'Descent of Man' collection I also read this year (mo Another great collection of Boyle's stories.
His second collection. There is so much detail in each page, three pages feels like enough words for ten pages. Each sentence is so perfectly crafted to reveal just enough information to create a short story. I just love savoring each story, even each sentence. I also had to read Gogol's 'Overcoat' before reading Boyle's 'Overcoat II'. Possibly these stories packed slightly less of a punch than the 'Descent of Man' collection I also read this year (more favorites in that one than in this), but that is some tough competition. I loved most of these stories (especially the Sherlock parody): Rupert Beersley & the Beggar Master of Sivani-Hoota, On For the Long Haul, The New Moon Party, Not A Leg to Stand On, Greasy Lake, Caviar, Whales Weep, All Shook Up, Stones In My Passway Hellhound on My Trail, A Bird In Hand, The Overcoat II.
(Yes, that is most of them,) If I could only read Boyle's writing, and no other writer's, I would be completely happy with that. I love the line: the air soft as a hand on your cheek. This line melted my heart.
I recommend this story. It’s ironic that at the end of the story, the girl asks if he’s seen this missing person, and what makes it ironic is that how the boys now look will give her the impression (once she finds her dead friend) that these were the boys who did it. The imagery is well done; chock full of detail and description so you envision the scene. Pinnacle studio 16 ultimate itagua.
This story describes the scum of society, but in a way that l I love the line: the air soft as a hand on your cheek. This line melted my heart. I recommend this story. It’s ironic that at the end of the story, the girl asks if he’s seen this missing person, and what makes it ironic is that how the boys now look will give her the impression (once she finds her dead friend) that these were the boys who did it. The imagery is well done; chock full of detail and description so you envision the scene. This story describes the scum of society, but in a way that lets you understand their reasoning.
These kids have nothing better to do than go up to this lake and do drugs and drink alcohol, and end up getting into some serious trouble by running in with the wrong crowd. This story gives us a very grimy and foul view of setting because of both where it takes place (a lake where people go to party, where people get into fights, and where someone’s found dead in the lake) and the type of people (Digby and Jeff, the guy they initially think is Tony, the stoned or drunk girl at the end). 2 Stars out of 5 Stars While this story is okay (not at all terrible or boring), I was a bit bothered by the inconsistencies in the narrator's voice. Our narrator is a 19 year old wanna-be bad boy, but the words Boyle chose to have him think and say appear out of the character's league - especially someone who has been drinking all night as our character has.
One of these phrases is 'Glandular discharges': there is not one 19 year old that I know of, especially one who would be any where close to 2 Stars out of 5 Stars While this story is okay (not at all terrible or boring), I was a bit bothered by the inconsistencies in the narrator's voice. Our narrator is a 19 year old wanna-be bad boy, but the words Boyle chose to have him think and say appear out of the character's league - especially someone who has been drinking all night as our character has. Download franklin the turtle: goes to school.
One of these phrases is 'Glandular discharges': there is not one 19 year old that I know of, especially one who would be any where close to fitting this character, who would use this language. Not to mention, this story was written in 1985, but uses references that are much earlier - something that I doubt our narrator would genuinely know about (e.g. A World War II novel from '48, a 1960 Ingmar Bergman film, 'Sabine Women', etc.) Perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh, but it is odd and did distract me from the story a bit. Coraghessan Boyle (also known as T.C. Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S.
Novelist and short story writer. Since the late 1970s, he has published eleven novels and more than 60 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York. He is married with three children. Boyle has been a Distinguis T. Coraghessan Boyle (also known as T.C.
Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S. Novelist and short story writer. Since the late 1970s, he has published eleven novels and more than 60 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York. He is married with three children. Boyle has been a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California since 1978, when he founded the school's undergraduate creative writing program.
He grew up in the small town on the Hudson Valley that he regularly fictionalizes as Peterskill (as in widely anthologized short story Greasy Lake). Boyle changed his middle name when he was 17 and exclusively used Coraghessan for much of his career, but now also goes by T.C.
BOYLE SETTING CHARACTER CONFLICT THEME Foreshadowing 'The Indians had called it Wakan, a reference to the clarity of its waters. Now it was fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires.
There was a single ravaged island a hundred yards from shore, so stripped of vegetation it looked as if the air force had strafed it. 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. This was nature' (130). 'We wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue and ether and what somebody claimed was cocaine' (130).
I didn't know what to say. I wanted to get out of the car and retch, I wanted to go home to my parents' house and crawl into bed' (137). Man PLOT GREASY LAKE First Person P.O.V. 'I went for the tire iron I kept under the driver's seat. I kept it there because bad characters always keep tire irons under the driver's seat, for just such an occasion as this' (132).
Coming face-to-face with mortality causes a person to grow up 'On the far side of the lot, like an exoskeleton of some gaunt chrome insect, a chopper leaned against its kickstand. And that was it for excitement: some junkie halfwit biker and a car freak pumping his girlfriend' (131). 'When I reached out, it gave like a rubber duck, it gave like flesh' (134).
'(I was nineteen, a mere child, an infant, and here in the space of five minutes I'd struck down one greasy character and blundered into the waterlogged carcass of a second)' (134). GREASY LAKE 'By now the birds had begun to take over for the crickets, and dew lay slick on the leaves. There was a smell in the air, raw and sweet at the same time, the smell of the sun firing buds and opening blossoms.Everything was still. This was nature' (136). 'When We wheeled our parents' whining station wagons out onto the street we left a patch of rubber half a block long' (130).
Greasy Lake Short Story Full Text Pdf
'Then I thought of the dead man. He was probably the only person on the planet worse of than I was.who was he, I wondered, this victim of time and circumstance bobbing sorrowfully at my back. The owner of the chopper, no doubt, a bad older character come to this.My car was wrecked; he was dead' (136).
These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful of their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Written by Timothy Sexton Three young men are about to undergo a rite of maturity that will take them from innocence to experience and from the last vestiges of childhood into the opening round of maturity.
The unnamed narrator and his friends and are what would today be referred to as poseurs although what they are really are merely young men struggling to find their identity in an increasingly confusing world. Even so, it is the misplaced identification with gritty urban heroes of books and screen by these ordinary suburban boys that situates them into a place where becomes the baptismal. Trouble begins with the trio makes a far more miscalculated misidentification: that of thinking that a car parked up at Greasy Lake belongs to their friend Tony Lovett.
As boys—not to mention some more mature and experienced men who should admittedly know better—will do, they act on their initial impulse to prank Tony as he is—or so they think—in the middle of a romantic tryst. After all, what other reason exists for being at Greasy Lake at night? As practical jokes go, this one almost barely disqualifies as a harmless prank: the entirety of their plan consists of jumping inside the station wagon driven to the lake by the narrator, flashing its lights and honking its horn. As far as pranks go, this one should hardly have the impact of being a ritual of manhood. But that’s how things go, sometimes.
The realization that they are not pranking Tony because it is not Tony’s car dawns slowly, but inexorably until it becomes clear that the practical joke was about as ill-advised as possible. The owner of the car is not unknown. He’s not Tony Lovett, but rather a person described as a “bad greasy character.” Just how bad quickly becomes apparently when this bad character quickly draws the boy into a fight that comes to an unexpected end when the narrator grabs a tire iron and bashes it upside the greasy guy’s head. His fall to the ground is highly suggestive of only one conclusion: the narrator has just killed someone. The key moment in the story, it can be argued, occurs next., Jeff, and Digby do not immediately flee in the face of the possibility of homicide. Instead, they turn their attention to the greasy character’s girlfriend, now alone and vulnerable and utterly at the mercy of the skyrocketing levels of adrenaline and testosterone shooting through the still not fully developed bodies of the three apparently quite average, ordinary and relatively harmless suburbanites. It is not the kind of mercy that is desirable as the three move to work out their mixture of aggression and sexuality on the girl.
The arrival of another car quickly causes a dispersal of the would-be gangbangers, however. The narrator chooses to escape by driving straight into the lake where the night just gets weirder. What should his brief underwater getaway bring him into contact with but an actual dead body which sends him scurrying away in terror? The dispersal results in the congealing of shared boyhood nightmare as the trio manage to meet up again in the woods, hidden from the suddenly gazing eye of reconstituted greasy character. Turns out he was merely knocked unconscious and not dead.
While that twisting of circumstances is most certainly a good thing, what happens next is not. The reawakened greasy character and his buddies who drove up in the other car descend upon the narrator’s mom’s station wagon as if it were the girl that the narrator, Jeff, and Digby were about to attack just a few minutes earlier. By the time they are done, they station wagon is barely recognizable. Sated from the exercise of their own pent-up aggression and sexual tension, the greasy character and the vandals leave the lot only to be very shortly replaced by yet another car. Out of this vehicle stumble two young women who have clearly been experimenting with some illegal substance or two. When the boys appear out of the darkness of the woods, one of the girls looks at them and vocalizes the irony that has been pervasive since the story commenced: “ You guys look like some pretty bad characters.” The girls then offer up some of their stash of drugs to the trio, but the narrator recoils from his offer just like he recoiled from the corpse in the water.
What had once seemed so tempting in its debauchery and corruption has become much clearer to the narrator as something to run from rather than toward as he admits that he is on the verge of crying. Barely able to manage the transmission back into the Drive position, the station wagon heads back into the safer and more predictable and comforting confines of suburbia, carrying three men who have become more experienced in the ways of the world than the three boys who had arrived at Greasy Lake not that long ago. Update this section! You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section.
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How To Cite in MLA Format Sexton, Timothy. 'Greasy Lake Summary'. GradeSaver, 9 August 2016 Web.
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