Though, what transpired there was a dose of harsh reality and also a learning experience. He describes the lake to us, “The Indians had called it Wakan, a reference to the clarity of its waters. Now it was fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires. There was a single ravaged island a hundred yards from shore, so stripped of vegetation it looked as if the air force had staffed it. We went up to the lake because everyone went there, because we wanted to snuff the rich scent of possibility on the breeze, watch a girl take off her clothes and plunge into the festering murk, drink beer, smoke pot, howl at the stars, savor the incongruous full-throated roar of rock and roll against the primeval susurrus of frogs and crickets.
The narrator and the other two boys hide, the hoodlum is found and slowly remains consciousness. Next the hoodlum’s friends arrive to the lake joining him in destroying the station wagon the three drove to the lake in. Not long afterwards another car arrives at the lake with two girls very high on drugs.
“…gin in one hand and a roach clip in the other”(pg 2), they took drugs and drank alcohol, listened to loud music, wrecked others’ properties, watched people make out by the lake, and “didn’t give a shit about anything” as they drove recklessly. The author portrays Greasy Lake as “fetid and murky” (pg 1) with its banks “glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires” (pg 1). This image of destruction parallels with and supports the main characters’ violent behaviour, thus explaining why they to Greasy Lake. As the teenagers rebel, they allow their primal instincts to govern themselves. Dictions including “snuff”, “howl”, and “primeval susurrus” (pg 1) imitate their animalistic behaviour as they inch towards what they perceived as “nature” (pg 2) then, which is to rebel.
The three boys in Greasy Lake go through a sequence of events which cause them to think differently about themselves; they go find themselves making mistakes, reaping the consequences, and experience an enlightened transformation. The main characters names are Jeff, Digby, and the other which is also the narrater, his name is unknown, so I will refer to him as Tom. The three boys are so obsessed with their fake personas that they displace who they really are. The three young men see themselves as bad characters, "We wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue…we drank gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunderbird, and Bali Hai. We were nineteen.
As the three men travel to Greasy Lake, a moniker describing the lake and their lifestyles, the narrator, Jeff and Digby end a night of hooligan antics with a visit from the spirits of hooliganism present and hooliganism yet-to-come. Boyle introduces the characters’ shallowness in great depth, well to do young men, “experts in social graces” who found more pleasure in carrying on in the disruptive ways of their spoiled youth than in following a civilized course of an adult (126). Driving fast, abusing drugs and alcohol, and torturing the population at large; being bad because it is cool to do so does have its consequences. The narrator and his companions go to Greasy Lake, a thing once beautiful now slathered in the filth of disrespect, and through a series of unfortunate mistakes find themselves going head to head with a “very bad character,” one that matches their own thuggish might quickly and violently (127). Their mischief led them to pestering the wrong person, and the three men learned from their beating that sooner or later if you live a life of a thug you will
These stereotypes are what some people class teens into automatically without getting to know them and seeing what their capabilities are. This is very dangerous as if stereotypes are give then the person could see it as an excuse for his or her behavior. In reality a person could just be going through a hard time but in the eyes of others they are showing the characteristics of a particular stereotype. In the media today teens are portrayed in a negative manner for example in a lot of soaps like “Home & Away” there is a bad boy theme at times. This is shown through the introduction of the River Boys gang.
When the actions of the characters start to pick up is when Tom the author begins to explain and give examples of the fight and aftermath. He states that during the fight that he ran over to get the tire iron out of his car. He also states that when he gets the tire iron he is constantly screaming motherfucker, and sees the older torn up man tearing Jeff off his back like it’s a piece of tape. Throughout this battle, the author chooses specific words such as a dirtbike in the wrong gear. He also uses many devices like once he splits open the antagonist ear with the tire iron he says “ the effect was
The lake itself is described as “fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires.” (130) However, as the narrator explains, the lake was not always like this but instead was named “Wakan” by “the Indians”, the name being “a reference to the clarity of its waters.” (130) The complete change of the lake since the time of the Indians, from clear to murky, exemplifies the corruption of the society’s morals, especially in contrast to the Native Americans who praised and looked after the land. The Wakan, or Greasy Lake, is a symbol for the youth culture itself in the story and is littered, literally and metaphorically, by alcohol, sex and violence. Through the use of the setting as a symbol of corruption and sin, Boyle creates a wild and uncertain atmosphere. In doing so, he allows the characters to have more freedom and gives the story more believability as the events become more extreme. Along with making the action more believable, the setting helps to make the characters more believable.
The author describes a certain night where things at Greasy Lake were going to change. In an opening scene, the main character and his best friends, Digby and Jeff are driving to Greasy Lake just like any other night, when Digby spots what he thought was his friend’s car driving ahead of them. They speed up trying to get the drivers attention when they realized it wasn’t their friend. The rough older man pulls over and the protagonist and his friends decided it would be a good idea trying to beat the man up, but things soon went wrong. When the main character gets out of his car he accidently drops his car keys.
“The boys think they are truly bad characters. Everything is going well on the third night of summer, until the boys decide to head up to Greasy Lake for some late night fun. They arrive at Greasy Lake and trouble begins. The boys drove up and thought they spotted a friend’s car, but instead the car belonged to a real bad character named bobby, a “man of action in steel- toed boots, who furious at the interruption comes out kicking”