“Greasy Lake”: Everyone Seems to Swim in It “Greasy Lake” by TC Boyles tells the story of a group of young adults looking for a chance to be proclaimed “tough guys.” The young people take their mother's car and decide to go to a place called “Greasy Lake”. The lake, which was once a clean lake, was now a gathering place for young adults. The boys had some liquor, some weed, and a mission to complete. They were destined to be those “bad” crazy people. Needless to say, their evening ends up being a learning experience and they go home a different person. Most young adults have to learn some lessons the hard way. Almost all situations in life are learned through someone's trial and error. “Greasy Lake” is a story whose symbols support the main theme: the lake itself represents the boy's character, the loss of the keys represents the loss of one's innocence, and Al's body represents the result of being "bad." The lake is a symbol that helps illustrate the theme of this story. “The Indians had called it Wakan, in reference to the clarity of its waters” (573). The lake is used in the story to symbolize the moral condition of the narrator. “Greasy Lake was once known for the clarity of its water, but now it is fetid and murky, the muddy banks glistening with broken glass, scattered beer cans, and the charred remains of campfires” (Grace). The image that probably stuck in my head the most was "there was a single devastated island a hundred meters from the shore, so bare of vegetation that it looked as if the air force had machine-gunned it". as Boyle said. Over the years the lake turned into a party spot where wild teenagers went to drink, smoke weed and cause trouble. The characters go to “Greasy Lake” because everyone goes there. They wanted to experience the remote… the middle of paper… the narrator really wants to leave “Greasy Lake” because he sees the simple appearance of the keys as something precious. This could also be symbolic of the narrator wanting to distance himself from the person he was trying to be. The biggest sign of the narrator's change in character is when they meet the girls who are looking for Al. These girls ask the boys if they want to party and do drugs. At the beginning of the story, the "bad guys" would all be in agreement. It took that crazy, scary, life-changing event to make those "bad kids" realize that they really weren't that "bad" after all! Works CitedGrace, Dominick. “Literary Contexts in Short Stories: “Greasy Lake” by TC Boyle. 2006:1-1 Literary Reference Center. EBSCOhost. Web.June 28, 2007.Vannatta, Dennis “Greasy Lake.” Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition, 2004 MagillOnLiterature Plus. Network. April 8 2006