“Greasy Lake”
Greasy Lake written by T. Coraghessan Boyle is the tale of a young man completely living a life full of rebellion and loving it. He is brought to reality and the consequences of attempting to live the ‘bad life’. As the story starts to end, we see him broken by his actions and gets a real look into what the bad life brings.
Boyle’s main character and his two friends are looking to be the bad kids with a “we don’t give a shit about anything” attitude (Boyle 1233). The main character is a nineteen year old under the influence of drugs, alcohol, peer pressure, and the freedom that comes with summer break. Accompanied by two friends of the same age (Digby and Jeff), they all want to find a way to make this summer worth remembering.
His friends influence every decision he makes and they support his bad decisions no matter the cost. The friends are described as, “dangerous characters”, Digby ‘allowed’ his father to pay his tuition and Jeff was contemplating dropping out of school to become a painter/musician/ head-shop proprietor (Boyle 1233). After the main character and his friends had made their rounds at all the closing bars, ate all they could, harassed hitchhikers, and …show more content…
He remembers his first mistake was dropping his keys after jumping out of the car; the second was mistaking the blue Chevy to be Tony Lovett’s. Seeing the bad character that hopped out of the car was not looking to be nice, he now sees the difference between right and wrong. After being sprawled out in the dirt by a kick from the bad character in the blue Chevy, the protagonist becomes less nonchalant about his situation. He thinks about the bad situation, “knowing things had gone wrong, that I was in a lot of trouble, and that the lost ignition key was my grail and my salvation” (Boyle 1234). He knocked out the guy with one swing of a tire iron he had in the
Greasy Lake written by T. Coraghessan Boyle is the tale of a young man completely living a life full of rebellion and loving it. He is brought to reality and the consequences of attempting to live the ‘bad life’. As the story starts to end, we see him broken by his actions and gets a real look into what the bad life brings.
Boyle’s main character and his two friends are looking to be the bad kids with a “we don’t give a shit about anything” attitude (Boyle 1233). The main character is a nineteen year old under the influence of drugs, alcohol, peer pressure, and the freedom that comes with summer break. Accompanied by two friends of the same age (Digby and Jeff), they all want to find a way to make this summer worth remembering.
His friends influence every decision he makes and they support his bad decisions no matter the cost. The friends are described as, “dangerous characters”, Digby ‘allowed’ his father to pay his tuition and Jeff was contemplating dropping out of school to become a painter/musician/ head-shop proprietor (Boyle 1233). After the main character and his friends had made their rounds at all the closing bars, ate all they could, harassed hitchhikers, and …show more content…
He remembers his first mistake was dropping his keys after jumping out of the car; the second was mistaking the blue Chevy to be Tony Lovett’s. Seeing the bad character that hopped out of the car was not looking to be nice, he now sees the difference between right and wrong. After being sprawled out in the dirt by a kick from the bad character in the blue Chevy, the protagonist becomes less nonchalant about his situation. He thinks about the bad situation, “knowing things had gone wrong, that I was in a lot of trouble, and that the lost ignition key was my grail and my salvation” (Boyle 1234). He knocked out the guy with one swing of a tire iron he had in the