Although Jeff, Digby, and the narrator of the short story, “Greasy Lake” feel that their behavior is dangerous, rebellious, and “bad,” in reality the three nineteen year old boys are nothing of the sort. The narrator in, “Greasy Lake,” may describe the three boys as being “bad,” but the symbols that author T. Coraghessan Boyle places throughout the story depletes the bad boy images that they believe they possess. One symbol, for example, is the multiple vehicles that appear all through the story. Each vehicle symbolizes who is considered bad in the story and who is not. The narrator describes how he drives Jeff, Digby, and himself all throughout the town and to Greasy Lake in his mother’s station wagon.
The excessive control demonstrated by the boys undoubtedly supports the idea that humans are innately evil, and it is also shown in many other ways such as how the boys mistreat each other. The Lord of the Flies proves the point that mankind is evil through the way that the boys mistreat each other. For starters, mistreatment is shown in the very beginning of the book when Jack says to Piggy, “Shut up, fatty!” (Golding 17). Jack is insulting Piggy while many of the boys mistreat and insult each other. Also another example of how mistreatment is shown in the book would be when Samneric betray Ralph.
We know that as, when there is the rat incident, with everybody being scared, Bigger reacts by killing the beast brutally with a skillet. Also, he reacts with violence against White society as he’s scared of them. But, instead of keeping quiet and minding his own business, he feels the need to rob Blum’s, a white mans, store. However, in the end he doesn’t do it as he is in fear of being caught. Again, though he reacts to it by beating Gus, his friend, up using the excuse of Gus being late to get out of their 4mission.
The new "good" Alex that is released unto the world is depressed, frustrated, and lonely, although no longer violent. A radical political group then exploits him as an example of the cruelty of the Government. This forces Alex to try and commit suicide, but Alex's attempt fails and the Government, who in the end comes out on top, nurses him back to health and his natural mental state. Alex, whose last name is not mentioned in the book, is a violent, aggressive teenager of fifteen, who is the leader of a four-person gang. He truly enjoys violence, reveling in the sight of blood or weapons.
He blames Charlie as the one who caused him to lose his boxing career and he also blames himself for his lack of bravery to act according to his own will. Despite all these, with the support and guidance of Father Barry and Edie, and finally the death of Charlie, Terry is awakened and is confident enough to fight like a contender in accordance to his conscience. His actions no longer depend on others and he finally wins the respect of the other longshoremen. Kazan clearly shows that Terry has his brother Charlie to blame for making him a bum. In the cabin, while Charlie is meant to bribe Terry with a job so that he would keep quiet about the deeds of the union, Terry expressed his disappointment in Charlie.
They confided in one another after the shooting, about the things Kenny was joking about. Throughout the story Kenny is randomly releasing fire on things he ‘doesn’t like’. First the sign, then the barn, then the old man’s dog. At that point Tub was so irritated by his constant shots and the mouth and shot of the gun that he decided he had no choice but to shoot him. To show him he can’t keep being a bully.
Men have many stereotypes. One of the stereotypes society creates for males is being very macho and tough. They are looked at as heroes, not fragile little wimps. In Katz’s essay he shares his experience from when he was a young boy and got into a fistfight during recess. When he asked his cousin for help, his cousin responded with, “You were afraid of them?
However, as the movie progresses, a few inner problems come into light. For example, Will sees a boy who bullies him in kindergarten, so he and his friends jump the guy. Watching the fight, one can see that there is a lot of bottle up emotions inside of Will, and he really resents this person from his childhood. When the police catch up to him, the viewer finds out that this is not the first time Will has been in trouble with the law; he is a felon who uses his good people skills and public speaking to get out of jail time. Even later on in the movie, we also see that Will is a chain smoker, violent, and has extreme trust issues.
Amir’s first experience of violence is when Amir wins the Kite fighting Tournament, and Hassan, runs off in pursuit of Amir’s trophy. Hassan is gone long enough to alarm Amir, who begins to search for him and once he finds him, he sees Assef, a bully, raping him. Amir at first is scared of Assef but later convinces himself by says, “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba (Amir’s Father) Was it a fair price?” (Hosseini 82). As Amir never helps Hassan, this shows that Amir will do anything to get Baba’s love and intention.
At his high school, Jack is frequently ridiculed and tormented Cohen 2 by a bully who makes several attempts to get into a fight with Jack. Each time, Jack backs off from the bully and uses his words and wit to get the bully to subside. After Tom killed the two men at his diner, the bully cracks a mean comment about Jack’s father and that was the final straw for Jack. Jack beat the bully up very badly. Up until this point in the movie, the audience would never have guessed that Jack