E. Takes a Shot at "Greasy Lake"

      "Greasy Lake" by T.C. Boyle reads more like a nightmare than an account of failed teenage rebellion. The exaggerated descriptions and depictions add to the feel that the author is in over his head when it comes to being bad.
       The diction while describing the scenery adds to the ominous surreal tone. For example the author drops his keys "in the dark, rank, mysterious nighttime grass of Greasy Lake." Later when the author is running away from his immoral decision to attack a girl he describes the terrain as "feculent undergrowth at the lake's edge, insects flying up in my face, weeds whipping, frogs and snakes and red-eyed turtles splashing off into the night: I was already ankle-deep in muck and tepid water and still going strong." It would appear that every living and non-living object in the area has turned against the author much like it would in a dream. The objects are described the way they are because of the guilt the author feels. It as if the author made a questionable decision because he was in a dream-like trance and now he cannot wake up from this nightmare where every object scorns him for his choice.
      The narrator and his friends are clearly out of their element and attempting things that are out of character. In the first paragraph the narrator even admits that his group "struck elaborate poses to show that we didn't give a shit about anything." You can't buy cool. It's something some people have and others just don't and nothing they attempt from "striking elaborate poses," drinking "gin and grape juice" or throwing "two dozen raw eggs at mailboxes and hitchhikers" will change their status. In the end they aren't fully committed to it anyhow because when the going gets tough they run away from their nightmarish experience.
       It is not until this experience at greasy lake does the author realize the error in his ways and the consequences of his actions: "I contemplated suicide...scraped the recesses of my brain for some sort of excuse to give my parents...then I thought of the dead man. He was probably the only person worse off on the planet than I was...My car was wrecked; he was dead" Our teenage rebel reals that he is lucky to have lived and he wants out of this world he saw a glimpse of. He deeply is ashamed of his actions and fears the consequences, but is happy he was given a second chance. When the girls offer to party with him at the end he blows them off because he has learned his lesson.
     The author shows the consequences of acting out of character through his experiences at "Greasy Lake."