On "Greasy Lake"

     Boyle's "Greasy Lake" begins very humorously. The characters call themselves "bad" by the fact that they drive their mothers' station wagons and let their fathers pay their tuition at Ivy Leagues. They try too hard to not care about trying hard. The first paragraphs are full of unusual perspectives such as their own masculinity and the nature of Greasy Lake. The author states "this was nature" after describing a lake filled with garbage where they could drink beer and smoke pot. This sorry excuse for nature imitates their weak beliefs of being the bad boys of the suburbs.
      The humorous tone then continues with the joke they intend to play. The protagonist loses the keys, "in his excitement" (even though he should probably be remaining cool, and not be so excited about such a clever, yet everyday, joke) as they jump out of the car. Then it is hilarious when the readers discover that the second mistake is a wrongful identification of the car. Readers can imagine that the try-hard bad characters will now be confronted by a "very bad" character.
      The story turns ugly as this confrontation begins. The narration is still somewhat funny, as the narrator talks of his only other fight, in sixth grade, as the four fighters chant their "battle cry" of "motherfucker," and as the author puts a parenthetical thought about a detective novel. But as soon as "something came over" the narrator, readers sense the foreshadowing of greater violence. The stark reality of the sudden knockout is shown through the short and simple sentences at the end of the paragraph that continues onto the top of page 264.
      Then the protagonists turn cruel. The violence brings out an animal nature that makes them try to rape the girl in the car. I find it disgusting that their fear over their first violent encounter encourages them to be increasingly "bad" to mask their insecurities. The arrival of another car prevents them from completing the act, and they bolt in scaredy-cat fashion. The narrator ends up in the Greasy Lake. The second car is full of blond heads, friends of the man the protagonist the iron bar. They destroy the narrator's car, and then bolt in a similar frightened fashion, showing the true nature of all these "bad" boys.
       In the lake, the narrator finds a dead body. The narrator speculates on the possible causes of death, and all of these causes relate to the "bad" lifestyle. The narrator and his two friends return to the scene and their car. They pick up the pieces, realizing the troubles of leading this bad lifestyle. The author uses the simile comparisons to "war veterans" to show that they are contemplating the wars of their bad actions. Then a car of two girls arrive, drunk girls who have not yet had this realization about their lifestyle. They look for their friend Al, who the readers and protagonists interpret as the dead man in the lake. As the girls look for Al, I as a reader propose that the girls may also soon have a realization about their everyday activities. The protagonists deny the girls offer to do drugs, showing that they are letting go of their attempts to be bad.