Greasy Lake
T. Coraghesan Boyle's short story "Greasy Lake" uses a physical landmark to represent the moral and physical condition of the characters as well as that of the society they inhibit. Boyle uses the setting to give the reader a feel for the characters' lives. By comprehending how the lake is described one can understand the moral and physical condition of the characters without even reading of the events that took place at the lake. Boyle describes the physical condition of Greasy Lake by saying "The Indians had called it Wakan, a reference to the clarity of its waters. Now it was fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires. There was a single ravaged island a hundred yards from shore, so stripped of vegetation it looked as if the air force had strafed it" (Par. 2). The lake was once a pure and beautiful body of water that was a source of life for many species. After many years of use and abuse by man, its beauty and virginity was molested and tainted by our selfish and devil inspired ways. This is the same way some young children grow-up to be bad characters like the ones in this story. As a child we are oblivious to the world aro
Growing up, we all had a Greasy Lake in some form or another. Apparently they had some sort of good upbringing or they wouldn't care about their parents because their parents wouldn't care about them. The narrator even says "I shot from the water like a torpedo, the dead man rotating to expose a mossy beard and eyes cold as the moon. I feel Boyle does an excellent job of using Greasy Lake to symbolize the physical and moral condition of the characters and the society they inhibit. The physical condition of the lake is un-pure and tainted, just as the three characters have poisoned their bodies with toxins such as alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. The Indians were a profoundly spiritual and considerate race.
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Acceptance Essays
