The Importance of Setting

The path to becoming an adult is lined with a variety of childhood and adolescent experiences, some more painful than others. In T. Coraghessen Boyles suddenly story, Greasy Lake, Boyle masterfully uses the setting and the protagonists experience to teach us an old but vital lesson those who choose not to learn and receive from their past mistakes atomic number 18 destined to repeat them, and thus will never mature and realize their true potential.At the beginning of the story, the main character (who also happens to be the narrator) depicts his adolescence as a time when courtesywent out of style, when it was good to be insalubrious, when you cultivated decadence like a taste (621). The three thought of themselves as dangerous characters, riding around town wreaking havoc. However, it seems unclear to the main character and his two friends that in reality, they are not actually bad characters. Really bad characters dont drive their parents whining station wagons (621) or read in tellectual French novels by Andre Gide.Boyle gives us a general thought that these three boys are just your ordinary, e realday, misguided juvenile delinquents with an unclear view of what it really means to be a man. Later in the story, the narrator depicts a scene at the main setting of Greasy Lake. There, the three boys provoke who is described as the very bad character (623). The til nowts that took place led the three to realize the vile truth they are nothing more than just three kids on an adventure for the night little did they know what was in store for them.After a lengthened description of the fight that took place between the four characters, the three boys find themselves attempting to rape the girl that was accompanying the very bad character. Luckily, before they can go any farther, another vehicle pulls into the scene, scaring the boys as the flee away. They all run in different directions, leaving them all separated from each other. The main character, with no p lace else to hide, plunges into the greasy lake.The water is completely contaminated it was fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires (622). The setting of Greasy Lake contributes to the plot in a sense of the troubles of the three teenage boys. Much of the story takes place at Greasy Lake, which is not an ordinary, everyday, swimming with the family type of lake. There are herd trees, which draws a picture of a dark forest with very little light seeping through. The island in the middle of the lake has little or no vegetation, magnanimous the reader a feeling of death.It is also littered with things such as beer cans, broken glass, and bonfire remains. These are items that make you think of loss of control, violence, or even destruction. These ideas could surely lead to something bad happening. The water itself is described as fetid and murky (622). There are two different aspects of time to consider w hen facial expression at Greasy Lake. First of all, there is the fact that it is 2 a. m. The middle of the night is commonly a time of day when bad things occur. It is probably considered that the good, nonviolent people are at home in bed.Therefore, if someone is up and about they are most likely wreaking havoc. Secondly, there is the year that the story takes place. It was create verbally in the eighties, and it takes place in a time when it was good to be bad (621). Therefore, it is likely that something bad is sure to occur. The setting also serves a very important purpose to most stories by evoking a certain atmosphere. Work Cited Boyle, T. Coraghessan. Greasy Lake. 621 Kirszner, Laurie G. , and Stephen R. Mandell, eds. Literature Reading, Writing. 8th ed. Boston Wadsworth, 2013 Print.