Greasy Lake Setting Analysis

Zavala 1

Jesus Zavala

Mrs. Dooley

AP English Comp 2nd Hour

15 October 2014

Greasy Lake

Being a “bad boy” might seem appealing to some people, but if when the going gets tough a person drives his mom’s beat-up station wagon back home then he is not technically a “bad boy.” “Greasy Lake’s” setting of the murky lake and the various juxtapositions throughout the story represent the boys’ loss of values and desire to be bad adding to the overall meaning that even though people want the “bad life” they are not willing to go through the hardships that comes with it.

        The boys in the story go to Greasy Lake to smoke weed and do other things they consider bad characters would do. A quote from the story says, “The Indians had called it Wakan, a reference to the clarity of its waters. Now it was fetid and murky…” This quote means much more than the actual physical state of the lake. It has a deeper, underlying meaning. That meaning is that the clarity of the lake represents the upholding of moral values and the pollution that has taken place over time in the lake represents the corruption and loss of said moral values i.e. “fetid and murky.” The tainted waters represent the wrong choices the boys have made and with the story also taking place at night adds further meaning to the sins, per se, the boys have committed. After the narrator

Zavala 2

comes out of the lake he realizes he does not want to be bad anymore. He just wants to go home and sleep in his bed. As he comes out it is a new day and he experiences a renewal, a baptism of sorts, which makes him realize he did not actually want to be bad in the first place.

        The juxtapositions Boyle uses play an important part in the overall meaning of the story. The most famous being, “rolling a joint as compact as a Tootsie Roll Pop stick.” The simple fact that the narrator would associate rolling a joint with candy is comical. This shows the narrator is not really as bad as he wishes to be. Another juxtaposition is when the narrator hits the man with the tire iron he compares the hair left on there to “dandelion fluff, like down…” Matted hair from an individual’s head after being hit by a tire iron is not as innocent seeming as dandelion fluff yet this is what the narrator thinks about when looking at it. When the narrator wades into the lake he compares the texture of the dead body he finds to that of a “rubber duck” the comparison is so child like it’s as if he is taking a bath and unexpectedly finds a toy in the tub.