The Objectivity of Nature

Isabel Coppola

Ms. Levin

AP English Lit. and Comp.

October 7, 2016

The Objectivity of Nature

The short story entitled Greasy Lake by T. Coraghessan Boyle takes place in the natural setting of the dark of early morning by a lake.  The main characters are teenaged boys who describe themselves as bad characters who act in a stereotypical bad manner.  To these boys, the way they act defines their characteristics and is their version of human nature.  Although the point of view of the story is limited to the main character and his opinions, the setting is well described.  The setting of Greasy Lake which parallels wild nature with human nature contributes to the overall theme of nature’s objectivity to the dynamic, subjective definition of human nature.

Throughout the story, the natural setting is constant while the human characters are evolving.  At the start of the story the narrator introduces himself and his fellow teenaged friends by saying “we were nineteen.  We were bad.  We read André Gide and struck elaborate poses to show that we didn’t give a shit about anything” (Boyle).  Through this description the reader infers that the narrator justifies this behavior as being human nature.  It is assumed to be natural that teenaged boys will be rebellious and reckless.  The narrator sets up the scene by saying how he and his friends were “bad”.  By following this introduction with saying how they read André Gide and “struck elaborate poses”, he is hoping that readers insinuate that these are examples of “bad” behavior which is natural of people who “bad” by nature.  Although the behavior is labeled as being “bad”, it is not necessarily a negative thing because it is simply human nature for teenaged boys.  By saying that they “didn’t give a shit about anything” it is assumed that they are not emotional nor are they impacted by events which surround them.  Following the initial description of the characters is the description of the natural setting which is placed in comparison to the “human nature” behavior.  The narrator introduces Greasy Lake and why the teenagers are attracted to it by saying “...we wanted to snuff the rich scent of possibility on the breeze, watch a girl take off her clothes and plunge into the festering murk, drink beer, smoke pot, howl at the stars, savor the incongruous full throated roar of rock and roll against the primeval susurrus of frogs and crickets.  This was nature” (Boyle).  Human nature and wild nature are placed in direct comparison in this passage.  It describes the desires and urges of the teenaged boys and then includes the noises and happenings in the natural setting.  The teenagers are behaving in a manner that aligns with the human nature of teenaged boys.  They are drinking and smoking and ogling over a naked girl.  However, this human nature is susceptible to change.  If it were a different time of day or the teenagers were no loner teenagers or Greasy Lake did not have its reputation, the conceptions of human nature would change as human nature is subjective.  On the contrary, wild nature would remain objective and constant.  The murk of the lake would still be festering and the frogs and crickets would still be making their noises.  The ending of the passage, “this was nature” refers to both human nature and wild nature.

As events unfold and the boys get themselves into trouble, the objectivity of nature persists and the subjectivity of human nature becomes evident.  Although the narrator describes himself and his friends as being bad characters, they never had done anything truly bad until this night.  When the narrator realizes the severity of the situation his perception of himself and what is human nature changes.  In a moment of reflection he says “I was nineteen, a mere child, an infant and here in the space of five minutes I’d struck down one greasy character and blundered in the waterlogged carcass of a second” (Boyle).  In the beginning, what appeared to be human nature of teenaged boys was to be bad and reckless.  As the characters begin to realize what being bad truly entails, their perception of the characteristics of human nature begin to change.  The narrator now describes the human nature of a teenager as still being a child in need of protection from the world.  Although the perception of human nature is changing, wild nature persists, “frogs, crickets” (Boyle).  The natural setting is unchanging.

As the story comes to an end, it clear that the narrator's perception of his human nature behavior has shifted while the natural setting persists.  When a couple girls arrive in search of a good time, the boys turn them away, something they would have never done prior to the events which had just unfolded.  The narrator is no longer acting like a big bad tough guy.  Instead, he says “I didn’t know what to say.  I wanted to get out of the car and retch, I wanted to go home to my parent’s house and crawl into bed” (Boyle).  The ides of human nature is no longer the tendency to be bad it is now a childish tendency, a yearning for one’s parents and bed.  Despite this dramatic change of human nature within the character, nature still persists, unchanged.  Another day in nature begins despite when has happened as “...the eastern sky went from black to cobalt and the trees began to separate themselves from the shadows...the birds had begun to take over from the crickets, and dew lay slick on the leaves” (Boyle).  This passage described these event as normal and cyclical.  When it says that the birds take over for the crickets it feels as though it happens each day regardless of what is going on in the human world.  In these final moments of the story, the humans and their sense of human nature has changed drastically while nature has not.

From beginning to end nature is unchanged.  It is not impacted by any human activity and will not act in a different way because of a single event.  On the contrary, human nature is dynamic and subject to change.  This is evident in the way that the human characters changed from beginning to end.  As the narrator who is now much older than nineteen looks back on his life, he is still changing yet the crickets still chirp and the sky still turns to cobalt the morning.