Greasy Lake Blog Post

Clearly Innocent Boys at Greasy Lake

    In the essay “Greasy Lake” by T.C. Boyle, three main characters, Jeff, Digby and the Narrator travel to a remote lake looking for some trouble. The narrator explains that him and the boys are cool customers, and are bad characters not to be messed with. It is made clear in the first few paragraphs of the essay that the boys aren’t tough, bad, or even cool, but quite the opposite. The narrator desires to be seen as a “bad character” and talks about sniffing glue and ether, wearing torn up leather jackets and drinking gin and fruit juice to prove his point. Through information presented, the boys show us that their “Greasy Appearance” is only a facade hiding their true weak and innocent nature.
    In the initial description of the boys, the narrator intends his information to be taken as “serious” and “tough” when in reality every piece of information presented oozes with inauthentic “badness”. The first “tough” piece of information the narrator presents is when he says “we wheeled our parents’ whining station wagons out into the street we left a patch of rubber half a block long”.  The patch of rubber the narrator is referring to is often called a “burn out” and happens when one floors the gas pedal from a dead stop. This first piece of information given to the reader clearly illustrates the narrator’s attempt to be cool because any “bad Character” would have referred to the marks as the result of a burn out, nevermind the fact that the burnouts were done in suburban housewife station wagons. I am not sure what greasy character would want to be seen in a station wagon, or even bring attention to it. Another example displaying the boys true nature is “ ..in the company of two dangerous characters...headshop proprietor”. The fact that Digby got into Cornell, and Ivy League College proves that he is not remotely a “bad character”. He had to have maintained good grades, be wealthy, and enroll in hard classes to get into cornell, and none of these aspects prove him a bad character but rather instead a good character. As for Jeff, the narrator mentions the possibility of him becoming a “headshop proprietor” in other words, a drug dealer, and no true greasy character would admit or suggest their friend is or is aspiring to become a drug dealer.
    The events that take place in the rest of the essay further prove that the narrator and his friends aren’t bad characters, but weak innocent young men desperately trying to fit in. Their reckless behavior and false appearances get them into trouble at Greasy Lake that leads them to realize they are pretending to be something they aren’t. The final proof of their true innocent nature is in the final paragraph of the essay when a woman offers them some form of drugs and invites them to hang out. The boys quickly decline the invitation. This just further supports the idea that the boys aren’t true greasy characters, and probably won’t act as such after being traumatized by the severe events at greasy lake. They realize that their desire to be bad and fit in isn’t worth enduring such gruesome circumstances.