Greasy Lake

Kathryn Johnson

September 7, 2012

In T. C. Boyle’s short story Greasy Lake, the mock-serious tone points out the ridiculous nature of the boys’ attempts to be bad characters. At first glance, the author’s descriptions of the teenage boy’s cars, alcohol and actions seem to be questionable. However, it emphasizes that by trying too hard to appear dangerous characters, they end up looking like a silly wannabe bad boys. These ivy-league nerds who live in suburbia with their parents end up making fool of themselves because of their absurd attempts to be bad.

These teenage boys, in order to appear be bad characters, mention their alcohol consumption numerous times. However there is nothing rebellious about the fruity drinks of “gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunderbird and Bali Hai.” Even when they go up to Greasy Lake they only bring “a bottle of lemon-flavored gin.” By adding the fruity qualifiers to their descriptions of their drinks these teenagers dramatically diminish the rebellious aspects of their supposedly dangerous ventures.

Besides their alcohol consumption the description of the boy’s cars indicates the extent to which sheltered and dependent these teenagers were. The picture of the “robin‘s egg [color] of Tony’s car,” and their “parents’ whining station wagons” indicates a lack of danger and rebellion. The portrayal of the beat up car with, “no windshield, the headlights were staved in and the body looked as if it had been sledge-hammered for a quarter a shot at the county fair but the tires were inflated to regulation pressure,” ridiculous the boy’s attempt to fight off a true “bad greasy character.”

The teenagers’ attempts to appear dangerous characters further emphasize the ludicrous nature of their actions. From their “elaborate poses to show that [they] didn’t give a shit,” to allowing “his father to pay this tuition at Cornell” and claim that the narrator “hadn’t been involved in a fight since sixth grade,” or “touched the iron exactly twice,” these boys are sheltered ivy-league geeks. Not even their “torn-up leather jackets slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths” and wearing “mirror shades at breakfast and dinner in the shower, in closets and caves,” would convince anyone that they are bad boys. Digby’s anecdote of phys-ed martial arts is humorously contrasted with his inability to even punch a random biker, nevertheless a trained fighter.

However, these wannabe bad boys start to regret their attempts to be viewed as dangerous characters after they were obliterated by three ogre-like greasy characters. “A wedge of feldspar the size of a cue ball,” and a flailing tire iron was enough to convince Digby, Jeff and the narrator to abandon their humorously bad attempts to be greasy characters. These events go to show these geeks should stay content with their character instead of trying to appear cool without accepting the truly detrimental consequences.