Robert Boyle

Greasy Lake was a short story written by T.C. Boyle with a deeper meaning in it rather than just being a good read. The short story shows an idea of coming of age. Coming of age means to mature through events and have a different mindset. The characters go from bad boys to wanting to be good. This is due to the behavior changes of the narrator and his friends before the night, through the night, and in the morning. In the beginning of Greasy Lake, the 3 guys, Digby, Jeff, and the narrator had…

While engaging in a fight with the greaser the narrator states just how he gets ideas for his greaser persona, “I kept it there because bad characters always keep tire irons under the driver’s seat, for just such an occasion as this” ( Coraghessan Boyle 131). This shows that he isn’t as bad as he makes it seem because he gets his ideas from things he sees or hears of what “bad character” does and acts which causes him to do the same. Later once the narrator knocks the guy unconscious and after…

grown filthy and trash filled (Boyle 1). This transformation is not unlike the characters’, they are wealthy, highly educated, and, if they wanted to be, they could be respected citizens, however, they dress in torn clothes, drink excessively, and make every attempt at “badness”. The allure of the Lake is described reverently: “We went up to the lake because everyone went there, because we wanted to snuff the rich scent of possibility on the breeze...This was nature. (Boyle 2)” The narrator’s…

We see an early example shaker culture when Mr. Tanner gives young Robert the pig for help and apron with the calving. Mr. Haven and Robert are fixing the fence when Mr. Tanner brings the pig Roberts father states about accepting the pig “we thank you brother Tanner but it’s not the shaker way to take frills for being neighborly” (P 21). I think this shows that in the shaker culture they feel that is not right to accept a gift or payment for doing the right thing in any given situation are…

The Western Intellectual Tradition by J. Bronowski and Bruce Mazlish examines different European/American historical periods from the year 1500 to 1900. It focuses on the great thinkers and philosophers from those times, as well as certain historical periods that are considered significant. This essay focuses on chapters 2, 10, 15, 21, and 23. They are about the city-states of Italy, the Royal society, Montesquieu, Thomas Jefferson and the American Revolution, and Edmund Burke respectively.…

Short Story Epiphanies There is a theme of epiphanies in “Greasy Lake” written by T. Coraghessan Boyle and “Cons” written by Jess Walter. The theme is very strong and prevalent in each story in their own way. In the story “Greasy Lake” there are epiphanies when the characters that they are not as bad as they would like to believe themselves be. The last short story “Cons” the main character has a very strong epiphany at the end. All the stories have strong epiphanies in all of them will be…

could also pertain to “climate and even the social, psychological, or spiritual state of the participants” (Literature, Glossary of Literary Terms, G26). The significance of setting is especially prevalent in the short story, Greasy Lake, by T.C. Boyle. Regarding the setting, though the time period is never outright mentioned it can be inferred form references used by the narrator that it is around the 1960’s when the story takes place, but this is is not the sole…

hide from the other greasy characters that were trying to hurt them by going into the lake and using it as a cover under the woods and night sky. The protagonist realizes the “dead man rotating to expose a mossy beard and eyes as cold as the moon” (Boyle 286). A man that has lived the life of evil is dead floating around the cesspool of a lake. At first, he was shocked to see a bobbing corpse so close next to him and so after he moved to a different location when he suddenly thought about him.…

create the confusion between the perception and the reality. Inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s “Spirit In The Night “, T.C. Boyle gave us an insight experience in the life of teenagers in the 1960s through his short story, “Greasy Lake”. It’s an insightful and exhilarating tale of how perception and reality play crucial roles in the teenage years. Throughout the story, T.C. Boyle elaborated how being rebellious by carrying on a crime spree and living a carefree life without realizing the…

like a taste” (Boyle 129). “Greasy Lake,” like “A&P,” presumably also takes place in the 1960s, a time when the “bad” youth subculture thrived. During this time, young folk considered their behavior to be deviant from the establishment, and felt that they were not hooligans, but rather renegades that boldly questioned societal norms. In actuality, this identity is only the facade of a group of wealthy and insecure boys who allow their parents “to pay their tuition at Cornell” (Boyle 129). The…