Literary Analysis of “Greasy Lake” by T. C. Boyle
Teenage is a tricky phase of time for most of the people since at that time they start finding their life boring and think that they can do and deserve better than everyone else. In order to fulfill their fancies, at times, they disdain the moral codes too and sanity comes when they resolve this identity crisis, sometimes the harder way. “Greasy Lake” by T. C. Boyle is a coming-of-age story about a group of teenage boys who try to escape from the constraints of conventional American life through drugs and sex. However, they comprehend the difference between appearance and identity when life unfolds to them in a new way. Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” is a coming-of-age story that explores the themes …show more content…
The very first line of the story suggests that the narrator is sharing his reminiscences about his past perspective and the story will unfold how this perspective changed. He says that “there was a time…when it was good to be bad” that forebodes his venture of plunging into a false image (Boyle 425). The narrator claims that “we were all dangerous characters then” and then in order to justify this claim, all what he offers is the appearance of him and his group that shows the immaturity of his thoughts. All through the story, “the adolescent and his two friends… are mocked by the ironic, amused, and detached tone of the narrator” (Walker 248). He says, “we wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouth, sniffed glue and ether and what somebody …show more content…
They belong to families where their parents are protecting them from the worries of money and they have taken this privilege for granted. Their education is not giving them any purposeful objective in their life since one of his friends is ‘allowing’ his father to pay his tuition, while the other friend is “thinking of quitting school to become a painter/musician/head-shop proprietor” (Boyle 426). The number of options he has after quitting his education point towards his aimlessness since neither he wants to do what his parents decide about him, nor he knows what he wants to do instead. They feel trapped in their lifestyle and want to do something challenging, however, they do not have a clear idea of what they want out of life. Their aimlessness is manifested by his words: “we’d been out till dawn, looking for something we never found” (Boyle 426). They are frustrated owing to not able to “find a suitable outlet for their passions and energies in America's shiny new suburban jungle” (Ross 63). The only location that is the center of their attention is the greasy lake where they feel “the rich scent of possibility” and deem it as ‘nature’ (Boyle 425). The narrator romanticizes the greasy lake as an escape from the conventional life as a place where “drug use and sex lead to
Teenage is a tricky phase of time for most of the people since at that time they start finding their life boring and think that they can do and deserve better than everyone else. In order to fulfill their fancies, at times, they disdain the moral codes too and sanity comes when they resolve this identity crisis, sometimes the harder way. “Greasy Lake” by T. C. Boyle is a coming-of-age story about a group of teenage boys who try to escape from the constraints of conventional American life through drugs and sex. However, they comprehend the difference between appearance and identity when life unfolds to them in a new way. Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” is a coming-of-age story that explores the themes …show more content…
The very first line of the story suggests that the narrator is sharing his reminiscences about his past perspective and the story will unfold how this perspective changed. He says that “there was a time…when it was good to be bad” that forebodes his venture of plunging into a false image (Boyle 425). The narrator claims that “we were all dangerous characters then” and then in order to justify this claim, all what he offers is the appearance of him and his group that shows the immaturity of his thoughts. All through the story, “the adolescent and his two friends… are mocked by the ironic, amused, and detached tone of the narrator” (Walker 248). He says, “we wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouth, sniffed glue and ether and what somebody …show more content…
They belong to families where their parents are protecting them from the worries of money and they have taken this privilege for granted. Their education is not giving them any purposeful objective in their life since one of his friends is ‘allowing’ his father to pay his tuition, while the other friend is “thinking of quitting school to become a painter/musician/head-shop proprietor” (Boyle 426). The number of options he has after quitting his education point towards his aimlessness since neither he wants to do what his parents decide about him, nor he knows what he wants to do instead. They feel trapped in their lifestyle and want to do something challenging, however, they do not have a clear idea of what they want out of life. Their aimlessness is manifested by his words: “we’d been out till dawn, looking for something we never found” (Boyle 426). They are frustrated owing to not able to “find a suitable outlet for their passions and energies in America's shiny new suburban jungle” (Ross 63). The only location that is the center of their attention is the greasy lake where they feel “the rich scent of possibility” and deem it as ‘nature’ (Boyle 425). The narrator romanticizes the greasy lake as an escape from the conventional life as a place where “drug use and sex lead to