In the short story Greasy Lake, Boyle told of the changing of boys to men in one night. When it was cool to be bad. Senior year in high school, 19 years old and stupid. Not having any real clue as to the real world works, Driving mom's cars using dad's money. In Greasy Lake, T.C. Boyle used the theme of being bad by using the different characters to symbolize someone always trying to be more than they really are.

The biggest problem with being "bad" is the person on top always has someone wanting to knock him/her off his or her thrown. T.C. Boyle painted the picture nicely, "able to manage a ford with lousy shocks over a rutted and gutted blacktop road at 85 while rolling a joint." This clearly paints a picture of the three characters as not being part of the choir group...