Epiphan Symbolism In Thomas John Boyle's Greasy Lake
Nicholas Chowdhury
English 101
Class #0120
Greasy Lake Thomas John Boyle’s short story “Greasy Lake” is about a troubled, rebellious, out of control teen that learns that being “bad” is not at all what it cuts out to be. Through the gloomy narrative the protagonist goes from having a pleasurable worry free time into a horrific night that will be forever haunting to him and his juvenile friends Digby and Jeff. In this complicated story these “bad” characters nearly took a man’s life away, all from an easy joke they thought they were performing on their pal Tony Lovett. Little did they know this prank they were playing on Tony Lovett was inaccurate; reality set in and they established they were performing a prank on another “bad” character that banged these immature kids up. The most important theme to this story is living worry free, dangerous, and carelessly will escort an individual to a life they do not want, or willing to live. This paper will elucidate how epiphany, dynamic character and foreshadowing ties into the theme of the story. An …show more content…
Symbolism in the story is used when the story first starts off, when the protagonist overly states that he is “bad”. The protagonist states this claim so much that it begins to become fake. If an individual was really “bad” he would not state that he was a million times, people who are truly “bad” would not brag about it continuously. The protagonist stating that he is exceedingly “bad” continuously symbolizes that he is insecure, and has to reassure himself that he is a “bad” character because he doesn’t truly believe he is one. The protagonist says “We drank gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunderbird, and Bali Hai. We were nineteen. We were bad. We read Andre Gide and struck elaborate poses to show that we didn’t give a shit about anything” (Boyle, 1981, p.261). The character tries so hard to be “bad”, which symbolizes that he is not in
English 101
Class #0120
Greasy Lake Thomas John Boyle’s short story “Greasy Lake” is about a troubled, rebellious, out of control teen that learns that being “bad” is not at all what it cuts out to be. Through the gloomy narrative the protagonist goes from having a pleasurable worry free time into a horrific night that will be forever haunting to him and his juvenile friends Digby and Jeff. In this complicated story these “bad” characters nearly took a man’s life away, all from an easy joke they thought they were performing on their pal Tony Lovett. Little did they know this prank they were playing on Tony Lovett was inaccurate; reality set in and they established they were performing a prank on another “bad” character that banged these immature kids up. The most important theme to this story is living worry free, dangerous, and carelessly will escort an individual to a life they do not want, or willing to live. This paper will elucidate how epiphany, dynamic character and foreshadowing ties into the theme of the story. An …show more content…
Symbolism in the story is used when the story first starts off, when the protagonist overly states that he is “bad”. The protagonist states this claim so much that it begins to become fake. If an individual was really “bad” he would not state that he was a million times, people who are truly “bad” would not brag about it continuously. The protagonist stating that he is exceedingly “bad” continuously symbolizes that he is insecure, and has to reassure himself that he is a “bad” character because he doesn’t truly believe he is one. The protagonist says “We drank gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunderbird, and Bali Hai. We were nineteen. We were bad. We read Andre Gide and struck elaborate poses to show that we didn’t give a shit about anything” (Boyle, 1981, p.261). The character tries so hard to be “bad”, which symbolizes that he is not in