Bad Boys?

Elliot Ginsburg
AP English Royal
Paper ID #
Word count 821

Tom Boyle's story Greasy Lake tells of three confused 19 year old boys whose "bad boy" statuses were tested, and subsequently revoked. The narrator and his two friends are glaring examples of the dilemma faced by countless young adults as they strive to find their identities, while at the same time fearing society’s opinion. This desire to fit in will eventually prove to become a driving and blinding force behind the action of the story. As a result, the narrator, Jeff, and Digby find themselves conforming to the clothing and lifestyles of the stereotypical “bad boy” of the 1960’s from “torn up leather jackets” to “cocaine”(1), while maintaining a comical hint of their true selves; good guys who are noticeably well educated.
The narrator and his two companions, Digby and Jeff, possess descriptions that are far from that of what most would consider a "bad boy". Digby, a Cornell attendee who in a true bad boy manner, "allowed his father to pay his tuition", sports a gold star earring to show his true rebellion against, well they don't really know. Both Jeff and Digby are given an air of superiority with regards to coolness in the narrator’s eyes especially because of their “mirror shades” which they are described as wearing, “at breakfast and dinner, in the shower, in closets and in caves”(3). The narrator considers these shades the root of their badness. In fact these “mirrors” are an analogy for the way the two boys shield their true selves from the world instead only reflecting and imitating what they are led to believe is cool. The narrator’s references to Westmoreland’s decision, Anne Frank, and Sabine women, demonstrate his above average education while far less hidden clues such as Digby’s enrollment at Cornell clearly show that these boys are at the very least extremely well educated “bad boys”.
After explaining to the reader what it means to be a “bad boy” in the 1960’s, Boyle emphasizes the boys’ immaturity by beginning the story with the boys cruising around in the narrator’s mother’s Bel Air, as Jeff is vomiting out the window. This scene immediately allows the reader to understand the immaturity and youth of the boys. This immaturity goes hand and hand with lack of definite identity which later proves to be an almost fatal combination. Eventually, after exhausting all other options, the boys drunkenly arrive at Greasy Lake filled with confidence, and strained of common sense and bashfulness. The boys wrongfully mistake the only other car by the lake to be that of their friend Tony and proceed to flash their lights at the car and swarm around it. This mistake proves costly as a real “bad greasy character”(9) emerges from the car after having his romance interrupted. The bad greasy character in accordance with his status as a real “bad” guy reacts immediately to defend his status as bad in front of his lover. His action is to kick an unsuspecting narrator in the face before similarly dispatching Digby and his martial arts approach and Jeff with his Mike Tyson approach. As his friends are easily dealt with, the narrator is blind sided by reality, filled with fear and, and commandeered by rage and revenge. The narrator reached for the tire iron he kept under his seat because “bad characters always keep tire irons under the driver’s seat.”(11) Thus, the narrator charging, “like a kamikaze, mindless, raging, and stung with humiliation” delivered an almost life taking blow to the “bad greasy character.” Jeff and Digby, witnessing this act of “badness”, and consumed by the same rage and embarrassment that drove the narrator, fell easy victim to the empowering comfort provided to members of a mob. Thus, the three boys saw themselves defined as real “bad boys” feeling the entitlement of their decided identities. This transformation and emotional overload drove the boys together into a pack, defined and controlled by hormones and irrational thought. The boys were effectively reduced to dogs with, “eyes masked with lust” (17) and turned their attention to the “fox” (15) and began like wolves to attack their prey. The boys were eventually brought back to reality by a spotlight, and just as suddenly as they became animals they were once again humanized and their strength nullified. The boys eventually escaped unharmed physically.
Emotionally the boys were stranded, lost inside of themselves as the story comes to an end. The clothes, such as Jeff’s leather jacket were gone, signifying the departure of their bad boy status for good. The narrator’s discovery of the dead biker, who represents the top of the hierarchal chain of the stereotypical “bad ass” solidified the eventual reality of a real bad boy. This realization coupled with the offers from the two attractive girls, drugs and sex (implied); affirms the sincerity of the boys decision to let their bad boy lives die at Lake Greasy.
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