Choices and Resolution in Kansas and Greasy Lake
“Kansas”, by Stephen Dobyns and “Greasy Lake”, by Thomas Coraghessan Boyle both deal with choices being made by the main characters. ... In “Kansas”, this is definitely the case, as the reader finds out that the main character is reliving that fateful day again and again in his head to try and change the outcome, but as Zig Zigler once said, “Every choice you make has an end result.” In “Greasy Lake”, the main character also makes decisions that he later wishes to change, because of the circumstances that were brought about regarding the choices. ... Therefore, if the correct choices are made, does it lead to a clear resolution? Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Resolve, and thou art free”, this seems to state that resolution gives a type of freedom, to the decision maker. In “Kansas”, and “Greasy Lake”, teenagers both make attempts to resolve an issue in their lives, in which wrong decisions were made. It seems that these choices led them down on a path of unfound revelations, in which resolution would have made easier. In “Kansas”, the first choice that is made, in relation to the story, is getting into the Model T with the farmer. ... This is true, this is a choice that he can not make, because the time has already passed and therefore he goes back again and again to replay the choices that he made until he comes up with a satisfactory resolution, that never seems to come. In “Greasy Lake”, the story starts off slow, discussing the lives of the lives of a few boys who seem to be joyriding and looking for a good time on a summer’s night. The first choice that is made, is to go to the title location, Greasy Lake.