Essay on Setting in Greasy Lake by T. Coraghessan Boyle

There are many people in this world that can prove that our past experiences contribute to the shaping of our present day selves and lives. Whether our past contains hidden skeletons in our closets or not, we cannot keep it a secret nor can we run from it. But if we decide to do so the past will only come to haunt us. In the novel In The Lake of the Woods, we see that there is a fine line between love and insanity. And John Wade –the antihero of the story- is drifting on the border line. One day, John awakens to find Kathy Wade, the love of his life and wife, gone without a trace along with the boat. Although author Tim O'Brien presents us with many theories for her

In the Lake of the Woods is a fictional mystery written by Tim O'Brien. Through the book we learn that our lovers, husbands, and wives have qualities beyond what our eyes can see. John Wade and Kathy are in a marriage so obscure that their secrets lead to an emotional downfall. After John Wade loss in his Senatorial Campaign, his feeling towards Kathy take on a whole different outlook. His compulsive and obsessive behavior causes Kathy to distance herself from him. His war experience and emotional trauma are a major cause for his strange behavior. We remain pondering about Kathy's mysterious disappearance, which becomes fatal for her. Possible scenarios are presented in eight

Greasy Lake is the story of three friends who are bad characters. Until they run into a situation where they question, just how bad they are. Just because they act badly and look bad does not mean they are. They are teenagers in a period, “when courtesy and winning ways [are] out of style when it [is] good to be bad, when they [cultivate] decadence like a taste.” (112) They look bad, wearing torn-up leather jackets, slouching around with toothpicks in their mouths and wearing their shades morning, noon and night. They have the attitude, they drive their parents cars fast, and burn rubber as the pull out of the driveway. They have the bad habits. They drink “gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunderbird, and Bali Hai,

The author symbolizes the water as transition and spirituality, the lake is symbolized as the elusive badness the boys want so badly. The narrator notices that none of them are as bad as they try to act. After that night the narrator realizes he cannot make it in that life, rather the narrator wants to go to the safety and security of his home and parents.

The characters in “Greasy Lake” can be viewed in different lights. The narrator and his two friends, Digby and Jeff, are three mean boys whose lives seem to be centered around getting drunk and high from dusk until dawn. The narrator praises Digby and Jeff for their slick and dangerous lifestyles. Their skills consist of dancing, drinking, and “rolling a joint as compact as a Tootsie Roll Pop stick” (65) while on a bumpy drive. These characters scream trouble. They seem like harmless teenagers out to have a good time but it can be interpreted that these characters will attract mischief. After a night of bar-hopping, dancing, eating, drinking, and smoking, they decide to continue the party with a bottle of gin on the shores of broken glass and charred wood. These characters can be interpreted as young, naive, wild, reckless fools. The decisions these kids have been making the entire night have not been good ones. They have driven to bar after bar, consuming drink after drink. Obviously, their decision making is impaired. The reader should realize that the road the boys are travelling on is one that leads to a bad place. It is a place that has everything to do with Greasy Lake. It’s a place where dangerous things happen. The allegorical element that is found in the boys is

Thus the narrator of the story, as an older and more mature man, tells the story as an introspective look back at his misadventures. The protagonist begins to gain some insight into his possible future while in the “primordial ooze” (Boyle, 119) of Greasy lake .After finding the floating body and dealing with the destruction of his mothers battered station wagon he is mre reflective of the situation he is in. The narrator, looking back at

The title of the novel, Crow Lake, is significant relative to the dilemma of the story. The title of the novel is such a strong and meaningful title as Crow Lake is the beginning point and end of the story. In terms of the characters and plot, the title Crow Lake connects well as the characters try to elucidate all misunderstandings and resolve the problems that once began in the locality of Crow Lake. Crow Lake as a setting plays a significant position in Kate and others’ lives and similarly, the location influenced the tragedy of the death of her parents which brought a succession of tragedies along with it, affecting the lives of the

The stories “A&P” and “Greasy Lake” are similer to each other due to the fact that they both are about a young man still trying to figure out what they plan to do with there life, they both feel that rebellion is cool, and they both learn a lesson threw there rebellious acts. Both charactors are the age of nineteen. This is a time of life when you start to experience some new freedoms. Most of your friends own and can drive cars so you are no longer bound by your parents and the bus to get you to points a and b, You can buy cigarrets, see a R rated movie in theaters. This is also a coming of age time when you are pressure to find out what you plan to do the rest of your life. Other adults start to look at you as your equill instead of

In his short story “Greasy Lake,” the lake with the community teenagers create a stereotypical scene of current youth pop culture. Many youth who read this story can find the ironic references and similarities with their lifestyle in today’s world. T. Coraghessan Boyle uses the setting of the story to expose a world lacking self-discipline and showing immorality amongst a community youth, which can sometimes be rather common today. This also aids in creating an atmosphere that surrounds suspense and impaired judgement to better develop the characters of the story. Boyle is able to achieve this by creating a setting with the story of the Greasy Lake and describing the Lake as both a setting and main character.

The fictional novel, In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien, conveys the presence human frailty and human nature. The main character, John Wade is troubled and devastated when his beloved wife, Kathy Wade goes missing during their stay at a cottage near a grand lake that is located in the woods. The author proposes evidence and hypothesis to leave the reader guessing about the fate of Kathy. Prior to that, John’s political career ends after information about his dark past comes to light, leaving Kathy and John both emotionally depressed. However, they keep their emotions a secret and feign happiness. The author states evidence to express the mental and physical challenges along with the difficulties John had to face which impacts him and

The story “Greasy Lake” by Bruce Springsteen is about three male teenagers who have entered an area where rebellion is accepted. They go through a journey of adventure looking for trouble during the beginning of their summer vacation and they easily encounter it. During this era in 1985 it was “good to be bad” where courtesy and shivery had gone out of style, and these character where not going to be left out. They wanted to fit in and be bad character until they were faced with a situation where they realized the true effects of being a bad character. After reading this story, Dominick Grace opinion toward the genuinely of the bad character can be comprehended. Dominick Grace wrote an analysis of “Greasy Lake” where he expresses his explains

Material wealth and ownership are other concepts the lake dispels for Ruth. Sylvie stole the boat they use to cross the lake, with no regard for the man who owns the boat. The lake promotes the idea of freedom to do what you want with no consequences. The water provides a safe haven for Ruth and Sylvie to escape the man on the shore and then carries them to a safe haven which is one of the many islands on the lake. The water acts as a barrier between the new way of

Although the protagonist and his two friends think they are truly bad characters, they are ultimately just rebellious teenagers. Boyle presents the three boys as being wild and bad but quickly eliminates those traits, as the reader understands that they are just three boys acting out as unaware self-entitled teenagers. Truly bad characters do not still live with their parents at nineteen or drive their parent’s station wagon (Boyle 409). There are many acts of rebellion in “Greasy Lake.” Most of the things that the protagonist does are illegal, and things that no parent wants their child to do. The narrator and his

The stories central conflict arises when the characters head out to Greasy Lake after they did not find suitable entertainment elsewhere. When they

For a start, Boyle makes use of the time and setting of the short story to portray a violent atmosphere. The short story is littered with aggressive connotations and military language, whether it is used to illustrate the environment or the actions of the characters. Early on in the story, the protagonist describes the island in the centre of greasy lake as “a single ravaged island a hundred yards from shore, so stripped of vegetation it looked as if the air force had strafed it” (132). Ravaged hints at the ever present aggression in the story whereas strafed and the air force refers to the militaristic undertone. In addition to this, the main character also references to well-known military events: “This was a tactical error, as damaging and irreversible in its way as Westmoreland’s decision to dig in at Khe Sanh” (133). Once again, the use of tactical marks the atmosphere as warlike. By