Greasy Lake

Though T. C. Boyle published “Greasy Lake” in the 1980s, the bulk of the story reflects anxieties that permeated Boyle’s youth in the 1960s, when postwar prosperity gave rise to social tensions—a fear that wealth and security belied the true, illusory nature of the American Dream. Even among the seemingly prosperous, discontent with America’s capitalist and consumerist culture was widespread, giving rise to the era’s famous counterculture. Though the main characters of “Greasy Lake” never reference politics, they seem to share their contemporaries’ disaffection. The first paragraph of “Greasy Lake” describes the narrator’s drive “up the strip, past the housing developments and shopping malls” (8), painting a picture of empty prosperity and materialism.

The 1960s also saw a huge increase in environmental awareness, especially regarding toxic waste. The development and use of new chemical weapons and technologies during the Vietnam War (e.g., Agent Orange) contributed substantially to pollution and the anxieties surrounding it. Lax or absent safety regulations also played a role, as industries had little incentive to handle potential contaminants responsibly. Finally, American consumer culture encouraged wastefulness and littering, as cheap, mass-produced goods could easily be tossed aside. This context informs Boyle’s depiction of the polluted lake itself and the intertwined critique of US materialism. Rather than granting more access to goods and services (as the town’s shopping malls and housing would imply), the “American Dream” has led to the degradation of both natural resources and human nature, as evidenced by the characters clinging to a “bad boy” identity simply to find meaning.

The story’s references to the Vietnam War provide further context for the characters’ actions. When the narrator drops the keys to his car in the grass, he compares this innocent mistake to “a tactical error, as damaging and irreversible in its way as Westmoreland’s decision to dig in at Khe Sanh” (9). Khe Sanh, a seminal battle in the Vietnam War, is historically regarded as a gross misuse of military technology and resources resulting in excessive levels of violence, as Americans fought to uphold a military base they subsequently abandoned. Though the absurdity of the allusion highlights the boys’ relative innocence—they have never been in combat or anything like it—it also highlights that they have grown up in an era of reckless violence and implies that this atmosphere has a hand in their own moral decay.