Growing up is hard to do. T. Coraghessan Boyle writes about the fear of manhood in "Greasy Lake." He tells the story of three boys becoming young men one summer night when they take moms car to the shimmering and slimy lake just on the outside of town. It is here at "Greasy Lake" that the boys are confronted with several challenges throughout the evening that they must rise above. They are faced with the fear of strength, sexuality, finality, and responsibility, and these truths make them realize that they are no longer boys. The change from adolescence to adulthood can seem rather demanding because of the responsibilities that come along with being an adult. For these young men it was like being smacked in the face with reality, they had no choice but to grow up.
             The struggle young men face as they try to transition from childhood to manhood is a very difficult one. You are forced to deal with things that you never had to think about as a child, and these young men are forced to do just that. Deal with issues that never present themselves during childhood, and the problems they had come upon and how they deal with them could determine their future as men. The conflicts that face these young men show the intensity of life, growing up, and what life sometimes has to offer whether you like it or not. For the narrator and his two friends, Jeff and Digby, the truth about violence, rape, death and destruction all become painfully clear while out at the lake that night.
             Jeff and Digby and the narrator thought and talked as though they were bad asses, however they were still boys trying to figure out how to be men. This is seen by the narrator's descriptions of the young men in the beginning of the story, "I was there one night, late, in the company of two dangerous characters. Digby wore a gold star in his right ear and allowed his father to pay tuition a Cornell; Jeff was thinking of quittin...