Character Analysis on Greasy Lake
Ryan Zull
Professor Rodgers
English Comp 102: Tue-Thurs.
September 16, 2012
A Character Analysis of the Round Characters in “Greasy Lake”
T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” deals with three young and naive teenagers who think they are invincible and hardcore characters. I know we call all relate to this feeling of being bad when we were teenagers. Staying out late, driving down the highways with our radios blaring, thinking to ourselves this is what life is all about. Because of the descriptions of clothing ,music references, and other small comments the narrator gives us, “Digby shouted along with Toots & the Maytals…”(121), and “We stopped twice for a bucket of chicken and forty-cent hamburgers…”(121) the reader is lead to believe the story takes place probably during the 1960’s or 70’s. Boyle’s short story gives the reader an eye opening view of how even at nineteen we are still children at that age, and not completely ready for the real hardcore world.
As the story is told by the narrator, he tells the reader of the time when he was young and childish. The reader can tell the narrator is mature and more educated on what the world is really like by the way he refers to himself and his friend’s lives back when they were young and the mistakes he made that night. “There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad, when you cultivated decadence like a taste. We were all
dangerous characters then” (120). Although we can clearly tell the narrator is now aged and matured in life, the narrator tells us of the times when he was not that bright.
The character of Digby comes off to the reader as the leader of the pack. Throughout the story Digby is the one taking the lead and making the suggestions of what to do. Digby obviously is an educated man by the way the narrator tells us how Digby “allowed his father to pay his tuition at Corelli” (121). The character of Jeff comes across as the everyday
Professor Rodgers
English Comp 102: Tue-Thurs.
September 16, 2012
A Character Analysis of the Round Characters in “Greasy Lake”
T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” deals with three young and naive teenagers who think they are invincible and hardcore characters. I know we call all relate to this feeling of being bad when we were teenagers. Staying out late, driving down the highways with our radios blaring, thinking to ourselves this is what life is all about. Because of the descriptions of clothing ,music references, and other small comments the narrator gives us, “Digby shouted along with Toots & the Maytals…”(121), and “We stopped twice for a bucket of chicken and forty-cent hamburgers…”(121) the reader is lead to believe the story takes place probably during the 1960’s or 70’s. Boyle’s short story gives the reader an eye opening view of how even at nineteen we are still children at that age, and not completely ready for the real hardcore world.
As the story is told by the narrator, he tells the reader of the time when he was young and childish. The reader can tell the narrator is mature and more educated on what the world is really like by the way he refers to himself and his friend’s lives back when they were young and the mistakes he made that night. “There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad, when you cultivated decadence like a taste. We were all
dangerous characters then” (120). Although we can clearly tell the narrator is now aged and matured in life, the narrator tells us of the times when he was not that bright.
The character of Digby comes off to the reader as the leader of the pack. Throughout the story Digby is the one taking the lead and making the suggestions of what to do. Digby obviously is an educated man by the way the narrator tells us how Digby “allowed his father to pay his tuition at Corelli” (121). The character of Jeff comes across as the everyday
Cited: Boyle, T. Coraghessan. "Greasy Lake." Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing 5th Edition. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 120-128. Print.