The path to becoming an adult is lined with a variety of childhood and adolescent experiences, some more painful than others. In T. Coraghessen Boyle's short story, "Greasy Lake," Boyle masterfully uses the setting and the protagonist's experience to teach us an old but vital lesson: those who choose not to learn and grow from their past mistakes are destined to repeat them, and thus will never mature and realize their true potential.
In the beginning, the main character (also the narrator) depicts his adolescence as "a time when courtesy [...] went out of style, when it was good to be bad, when you cultivated decadence like a taste" (129). The three thought of themselves as dangerous characters, and would try to consume anything they could get their hands on, from glue and ether, to "what somebody claimed was cocaine" (129). …
