In “Greasy Lake” T. Coraghessan Boyle tells a story of a late night with three boys. The narrator, Digby, and Jeff headed out to Greasy Lake after a long night of going in and out of every bar in town. The narrator, who remains nameless, tells the story. The narration of this story gives the reader a certain insight to the story. In Boyle’s “Greasy Lake”, the first person narration provides insight for the reader to experience things as the narrator does. The narration in “Greasy Lake” provides the readers with a specific message that “through suffering comes wisdom.” The narration gives in more detail the “suffering” the main character actually went through. Dennis Vannatta writes, “Were it not for the story’s obvious dual point of view
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Michael Walker writes, “The story is told by an older narrator describing himself as a pampered adolescent who considers himself and his friends "bad" characters who "cultivated decadence like a taste" (Walker). The narrator talks about his two friends Digby and Jeff and states, “They could lounge against a bank of booming speakers and trade ‘man’s’ with the best of them or roll out across the dance floor as if their joints worked on bearings. They were slick and quick and they wore mirror shades at breakfast and dinner, in the shower, in the closet and caves. In short, they were bad” (Boyle ). With the first person narrative, it shows that the narrator actually believed that he and his friends were “bad” characters. In the beginning, it is clear to see that the boys are just acting like they are …show more content…
The narration in this part of the story shows the reader that the narrator has matured a lot more since this time. The fact that he refers to himself as “an infant,” tells the reader that he had no idea what he was doing back then. In conclusion, T. Coraghessan Boyle chose the dual narration in “Greasy Lake,” to give the story more meaning. The narration helped add to the message of the story that “through suffering comes wisdom.” Without the first person narrative, the realizations the narrator has throughout the story would not be clear to the reader. The reader gets to experience these as the reader does. All in all, the narration in “Greasy Lake” was a great choice by the author and provides so much more information and detail than any other narration would
Michael Walker writes, “The story is told by an older narrator describing himself as a pampered adolescent who considers himself and his friends "bad" characters who "cultivated decadence like a taste" (Walker). The narrator talks about his two friends Digby and Jeff and states, “They could lounge against a bank of booming speakers and trade ‘man’s’ with the best of them or roll out across the dance floor as if their joints worked on bearings. They were slick and quick and they wore mirror shades at breakfast and dinner, in the shower, in the closet and caves. In short, they were bad” (Boyle ). With the first person narrative, it shows that the narrator actually believed that he and his friends were “bad” characters. In the beginning, it is clear to see that the boys are just acting like they are …show more content…
The narration in this part of the story shows the reader that the narrator has matured a lot more since this time. The fact that he refers to himself as “an infant,” tells the reader that he had no idea what he was doing back then. In conclusion, T. Coraghessan Boyle chose the dual narration in “Greasy Lake,” to give the story more meaning. The narration helped add to the message of the story that “through suffering comes wisdom.” Without the first person narrative, the realizations the narrator has throughout the story would not be clear to the reader. The reader gets to experience these as the reader does. All in all, the narration in “Greasy Lake” was a great choice by the author and provides so much more information and detail than any other narration would