“Greasy Lake” and “Where Are You Going”

At first glance of “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, they don’t seem to have much in common. After taking a deeper look we understand it has many more similarities than we realized. The narrator in Greasy lake and his two friends have a dangerous confrontation with bad characters. He believed he saw his friends car at Greasy Lake and thought it would be fun to mess with him.

After it was too late, he realized it was not who he thought it was. A fight breaks out, and he ultimately hits the bad character with a tire iron. More bad characters show up, and the narrator jumps into the lake to hide. While hiding in the lake he finds a dead body. The bad characters smash the windows to get their revenge.

In “where Are You Going,” Connie and her friend sneak across the highway to go to the drive in and meet boys.

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She leaves her friend at the diner to hangout with a boy named Eddie. As she is walking with Eddie, a man in a gold convertible Jalopy stares at Connie and says “Gonna get you, baby.” Connie hurries away but thinks nothing of it. While home alone one day she hears a car pull into the driveway, and she immediately recognizes the gold convertible and the driver from the drive in. He wants to take her for a ride but Connie refuses.

Things turn dangerous when Connie runs inside to call for help. He threatens her and her family. Things are unclear to what happened next. In the end, she goes with Arnold to protect her family. Both of these conflicts are causes by the characters teenage rebellion. When faced with a dangerous situation they both were scared and defenseless. Both stories end in a mystery, without telling the readers what happens next.

The short stories have similar themes. One theme is struggling to be someone they are not. The narrator in Greasy Lake wanted to escape his suburban life and be a “bad” boy. He was bored with doing what was expected of him and wanted to be “bad”. Connie was rebellious and wanted to be independent. Both characters struggled with coming from families who swaddled them with safety. They never knew true danger until their actions put them face to face with it. They had images of who they wanted to be in their head. After being put in danger they realized they didn’t want to pretend to be someone else anymore, they wanted to go back to their true selves. Another theme of both stories is fantasy versus reality. Both characters were too caught up with how they appear to others and not who they truly are. They constructed a fantasy world in their head and did not think about the consequences of their actions. Eventually it catches up to them. They are faced with unsafe situations without knowing how to fix them.

In Greasy Lake, the dead body seen floating in the lake is a symbol of bad choices that could end badly. The lake itself is dirty and contaminated with harmful things. It represents that bad choices can contaminate you. The bad people they encounter in both stories symbolize if they continue to go down this path they will be put in even more dangerous and deadly situations.

“Greasy Lake” and “Where Are You Going” are both written in 3rd person. We only know the narrator is thinking. “Greasy Lake” is about teenagers in the 50s getting into trouble. They come from stable backgrounds but are trying to be “bad” boys. “Where Are You Going” is about a fifteen-year-old girl who is rebelling against her mom. She wants to get boys attention and only cares about her appearance. It eventually gets her into trouble that she can’t handle on her own. The plots of both stories are teenagers who don’t think about the consequences of their actions.

Connie and the narrator of Greasy Lake are defiant teenagers. The want to fit in and are struggling with who they are as a person. They put a lot of effort into their appearance to look like who they are trying to be. Their way of thinking and their exterior are superficial. When faced with a dangerous situation they were scared and defenseless. Despite their rebellious attitudes, they are innocent at heart. The narrator’s friends in “Greasy Lake” are very similar to him. They come from stable backgrounds and want to be “bad” boys. But when faced with trouble they are ready to go back to the safeness and security of their lives. In “Where Are You Going”, Arnold Friend attempts to appear younger by dressing and talking in a way that gets Connie’s attention. He is dangerous and manipulative. These characters have helped connect these stories and give them similar messages.