When the narrator, Digby, and Jeff arrive at Greasy Lake, they spot a metallic blue ’57 Chevy, and assume it is their friend Tony Lovett’s car. As they honk their horn and hoot at “Tony,” a “very bad character in greasy jeans and engineer boots rip[s] out of the driver’s door.” He immediately starts attacking the three boys. They attempt to subdue him with lame “kung-fu” moves, but it isn’t until the narrator attacks the Bad Character with a tire iron that the Bad Character drops to the ground. The boys’ defeat of the Bad Character makes plain to them the horrific reality of being “bad,” and the fact that their torn leather jackets and fake karate cannot prepare them for the realities of the “greasy” underworld of their hometown. The Bad Character is the human embodiment of danger; he is “a man of action,” according to the narrator, and his dangerous clothing and fearsome bearing are sharp in the narrator’s mind as he recounts their brawl.
The “Bad Character” (Bobbie) Quotes in Greasy Lake
The Greasy Lake quotes below are all either spoken by The “Bad Character” (Bobbie) or refer to The “Bad Character” (Bobbie). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Greasy Lake
Quotes
There was no reasoning with this bad greasy character—clearly he was a man of action.
Related Characters:The Narrator (speaker), Digby, Jeff, The “Bad Character” (Bobbie)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
4
Explanation and Analysis:
The Bad Character, after being “pranked” by the narrator, Jeff, and Digby, leaps from his car and begins to attack them. Delighted and excited by an encounter, at long last, with true “badness,” the boys make no attempt to “reason” with the “greasy” man. Defined until now by their own inaction, the boys are thrilled to see someone who appears to be “a man of action”—never mind the fact that the Bad Character is just another sleazy character wasting time up at Greasy Lake, and his “action” is emblematic of the violence and decadence that plagues the boys’ hometown. The Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. O
A single second, big as a zeppelin, floated by. We were standing over him in a circle, gritting our teeth, jerking our necks. No one said anything. Already [I was] envisioning the headlines, the pitted faces of the police inquisitors, the gleam of handcuffs, clank of bars, the big black shadows rising from the back of the cell.
Related Characters:The Narrator (speaker), Digby, Jeff, The “Bad Character” (Bobbie)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
5
Explanation and Analysis:
The narrator, after suffering several blows from the Bad Character and watching Digby and Jeff endure the same, retrieves a tire iron from beneath the front seat of his mother’s car and uses it to knock the Bad Character unconscious with just one hit. The narrator, who kept a tire iron beneath the seat because he believed it to be the type of thing a true bad character would do, is suddenly seized with fear, anxiety, and remorse as he realizes he cannot handle the reality of being “bad.” He has taken an action—arguably the first decisive action we’ve seen Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam offici
The “Bad Character” (Bobbie) Character Timeline in Greasy Lake
The timeline below shows where the character The “Bad Character” (Bobbie) appears in Greasy Lake. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Greasy Lake
...Chevy—which is a “much lighter” blue, the boys realize, “than the robin’s-egg of Tony’s car.” The Bad Character was “clearly a man of action,” the narrator recalls with more than a hint of...
(full context)
While the Bad Character kicks the narrator savagely, Digby steps in to deliver “a savage kung-fu blow,” employing a...
(full context)
Though “terrified,” the narrator brings the tire iron down on the Bad Character ’s head. “The effect [is] instantaneous,” and the Bad Character, like a “balloon [up against]...
(full context)
...screams out, “Motherfucker!” The narrator realizes, with great relief, that it is the voice of the Bad Character ; he is not dead after all. The Bad Character continues to shout curses into...
(full context)
...slam[ming] and headlights shattering” fill the silence. He peeks through the underbrush and realizes that the Bad Character is, with the narrator’s own tire iron and with the help of two blond men,...
(full context)