Setting Essay

Tainara Candido

AP English

Pretending to be Bad

Greasy Lake as the setting of, “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle provides a place of transformation and point of rebellion which serves as the purpose for the short story. The setting the author chose serves as a place of change for the characters of Boyle’s story who are not originally predisposed to be bad as they do not fit the criteria. These characters are learned and well-educated teenagers who read “Andre Gide” and who write in formal diction. These characters are changing their true nature and strive to prove themselves as bad and tell themselves that “we were bad”. The teenagers of the short story are not prepared to handle the consequences of bad and the story shows their inability to handle being bad. The characters become scared as they realize they were over their heads and the purpose of the story is to show these teenagers as being bad while being over their heads and the setting provides them a place to demonstrate their actions.

The characters of the story want to be seen as bad teenagers who “didn’t give a shit about anything”. The characters are living at time when “courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad.” They believe that it’s sytlish to be bad and at Greasy Lake can express that style through drinking and partying. The protagonist along with two of his friends, Digby and Jeff , beat a man to a pulp, but are not prepared to deal the with the consequences of truly being bad. There exists a line between their copycat situation and the grim reality of the lives led by “bad” people these teenagers are trying to emulate. These characters are not prepared to handle the consequences of their bad deeds and show fear when they believe they’ve crossed the line of pretending. They were “bad characters” and were “scared and hot and three steps over the line”. When they cross the line of pretend into reality, they start to feel the consequences of their actions come into their head and can “envision the headlines, the pitted faces of the police inquisitors” as fear starts to take hold in their minds.

The fear that creeps into their minds serves as a reminder of their consequences and force these characters to take a step back to realize being bad isn’t worth the trouble. At the end of the story, the protagnist thought he was “going to cry” and all he wanted to do was “crawl into bed” at his parent’s house. Greasy Lakes provides these characters a place of freedom where they can feel like delinquents without actually being delinquents. The purpose of the story could not be achieved without such a setting where the characters pretend to be criminal, yet at the same time learn they cannot be criminals. They learn to accept their place at the end of the story and no longer strived to be bad.

Greasy Lakes provides an impetus for the characters to rebel and be corrupt, while teaching them a lesson in the process. The setting of the story lets the characters rebel and pretend they are bad. But then when they taste the other side, they realize not only is it not for them but its too much for them to handle. The consequences they face as their car is destroyed makes them want to “cry” and head home for the comfort a warm bed and their parents can offer them. These characters are not bad people, they are educated and most likely belong to the middle-upper class of society and their desire to be bad is suddenly overturned by the consequences they faced from their “bad” actions. The characters rebel at Greasy Lake but are ultimately reborn at the end as their desire is transformed; no longer do they wish to be bad, but longed for the comfort of home.

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