T. Coraghessan Boyle’s short story, “Greasy Lake,” is a work of fiction that is meant to display the absurdities of the American teenage experience. Published in 1985, Boyle is quick to contextualize the work within an 80s teenager’s frame of reference; he opens the story with a lyric from a Bruce Springsteen song, “Sprit of the Night,” which acts as Boyle’s first symbol in the story, a tribute to the teenagers of the decade in which the story is published. But, from the content, it can be surmised that the story takes place near the time of the Vietnam War, so Boyle’s appeal to 80s rock culture makes the work symbolic, meant to encapsulate the teenage male spirit. Through a series of symbols, Boyle’s story both depicts and satirizes the teenage American male ethos.
Boyle’s language often contains metaphors that entrench the reader deeper in the…