Answer to Question 1
- As they drive up to Greasy Lake, they blast the car horn and flash its brights on a parked car they think belongs to their friend Tony. They think the joke will lead him to experience premature withdrawal and expect to be confronted by grim-looking state troopers with flashlights (par. 6). When they realize its not Tonys car at all, it is already too late. The man gets out of the car and starts a violent fist fight with Digby, Jeff, and the narrator. This greasy character is much stronger than all three and has no intention of losing the fight. After the narrator gets a tire iron out of his car, he delivers a blow to the man thatsurprisinglycau ses him to collapse in an instant. The boys think theyve killed him, so they turn to the girl and begin to rape her. They are dirty, bloody, guilty, dissociated from humanity and civilization (par. 16). Before they accomplish their second Ur-crime (par. 17), they see the flashing headlights from another car. Terrified, they run into the woods in an attempt to escape punishment for their two crimes, and as the narrator hides in Greasy Lake, he experiences an unexpected epiphany when he sees Als dead body.
Answer to Question 2That the narrator of Greasy Lake grows and changes during his adventures is apparent from the two views of nature he voices. Early in the story, nature was wanting 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 (par 2.) By the end of the story, these swinish pleasures have lost their appeal. When, at dawn, the narrator experiences the beauties of the natural world as if for the first time, he has an epiphany: This was nature (par. 32).