Greasy Lake Summary

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The short story “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle tells about a group of “bad characters.”(396). The time period the story is written is 1985. It does not reveal the description of these boys, but through context clues we can make the assumption they are wealthier and most likely three white males. Digby, Jeff and the narrator are the main characters in this story. The story reveals Digby’s family paid for his tuition at Cornell. The narrators parents got him a nice car to drive at the time. At the beginning of the story the boys describe themselves as “bad”(396) They wore, leather jackets and had toothpicks in their mouths. They sniffed coke which is not exactly a cheap drug on the market. The assumption can be draw is that they are privileged living in an area of wealth where not much occurs because they day they were bored most of the time. They lived in a town with “housing developments and shopping malls and street lights,”(396). They wanted people to think they were the bad kids in this small town. But when they meet their match at Greasy Lake one evening they realize the stranger is a real bad character and he may cause problems. The narrator beats him too it, and it is three to one. Even if they have not been in a fight since 6th grade, they go after this guy and do what they see in movies. The narrator utilizes an iron rod he keeps in his car because that is what all bad characters did. As they beat this guy senseless to his death. Even then they are on a violent high and when the dead guy’s girlfriend appears in the story they try to rape her only to flee when other bad characters appear searching for them. The narrator loses his friends and hides in the lake thinking like a child that if he hides there no one will find him. When it is clear they all reunite and make a run for it in their car only to be stopped by women who ask for the dead guy, they

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