Not what they imagined it to be
The narrator begins the short story by admitting that he and his friends liked to appear tough and to pretend that they were dangerous people that others needed to be afraid of. Ironically however, the main character felt no happiness in acting tough. Instead, he felt frustrated and yet he continued to act in that way because he felt like his peers expected him to act in that way.
Anything but natural
The greasy lake is portrayed as being a getaway used frequently by the teenaged children in the town. They frequently describe the greasy lake as being a natural place where they can be themselves. Ironically however, the greasy lake is anything but that and is instead a very polluted and unnatural place for the children to spend their time.
Those who want to be bad
The narrator describes his friends, a group of people interested in appearing to be someone they are not. They try to appear as being dangerous but in reality they are anything but that. In fact, the narrator points out that both he and his friends were in fact members of the middle class and their lives were anything but dangerous.
Obsessed with cars
The narrator and his friends are all obsessed with cars and they analyze every car they come by in the city or near the greasy lake. However, despite the characters’ obsession with nice cars, they are forced to drive the narrator’s mother’s car, a car that does not transmit the idea of manliness in any shape of form.
Not the toughest in the bunch
When the children honked at the parked car near the lake, they were not expecting a really dangerous man to step outside the car. The whole situation is ironic because the children became scared really fast when just few moments earlier they were confident and sure of themselves. This proved just how far from being bad guys the teenagers were.
