Greasy Lake Analysis Essay

Assignment Week 2: Greasy Lake Discussion Questions
1. How can the reader tell that the narrator grows and changes during his adventures? How can you explain the change in the narrator's outlook?
The reader can tell that the narrator changes throughout his adventures by his shifting disposition come conclusion of the story. At the beginning of the story, the narrator illuminates the glory days of his teenage years, filling the reader's head with images of "torn-up leather jackets" and "lemon-flavored gin" (115). However, after the narrator is faced with turmoil, he realizes that he may be in over his head in his quest of being a teenage bad boy. Throughout the night, the narrator experiences a multitude of misadventures that prove to be too much for him. During the story's
The Indians of the area had once called it Wakan, "a reference to the clarity of its waters." (115). As time passed and the lake was discovered by the masses, it slowly became a wasteland for rebellious teenagers to hang out at. There are many parallels between Greasy Lake and the narrator visiting it. The narrator himself, was once as clear as the waters of Greasy Lake, but over time, outside influences corrupted his mind, and he became a rebel to the society that raised him. At each of their worst, both the narrator and Greasy Lake were nothing to marvel at, but they each kept qualities that held true to their past roots. Past the beer cans and darkness that Greasy Lake rests in, frogs and crickets can still be heard chirping a distant tribute to what Greasy Lake once was. Similarly, the narrator reveals his good conscience numerous times in the story while getting into trouble. While fleeing to the lake, the narrator thinks to himself, "I kept going, pursued by those cries, imagining cops and bloodhounds." (118). Again, after being offered drugs by a girl in the Greasy Lake parking lot, the narrator