What it takes to be accepted
The narrator stressed the importance of doing everything a person can to be accepted into a particular group. In order to be accepted in the group he was a part of, the narrator had to pretend to be someone he was not and to pretend to like doing various things that went against his own nature. However, because he felt that it was the only way he could be accepted, the narrator was willing to sacrifice his identity just to be accepted.
Symbol for freedom
The greasy lake and the island that was in the middle of it is described as being an important place for the children living in the city near the lake. For them, the lake and the island in the lake are the only places where they can feel free and not judged by anyone. Thus, the lake and the island are used here as a symbol for freedom and to suggest the liberty every teenager wants to feel.
Symbol for insecurities
The narrator points out that he and his friends used to wear sunglasses everywhere and anytime, not caring whether it was appropriate or not. The boys wore the glasses because they were attempting to seem more mysterious and dangerous, something that were not in reality. Thus, the glasses had the purpose of hiding their fears and is used here as a symbol to suggest the characters’ insecurities.
Wanting to feel something
The narrator implies that the reason why the boys go up to the greasy lake is to look for danger. The boys and the town in general was filled with excess and nothing was exciting enough for the boys anymore. They reached the point where they felt like nothing they did was good enough and thus they began to look for extreme ways to fill their boredom. This is thus another common motif in the short story.
Symbol for innocence
At one point, the narrator and the other boys go to the greasy lake and mistake a car found there with the car of a person they knew. In an attempt to scare the man in the car, the honk at the car and they realize after honking that the car did not belong to someone they knew. Shocked, the narrator dropped his keys in the grass and he was unable to find them quickly enough to escape the man that came out of the car. They keys are an important element as they symbolize the narrator’s innocence. By losing they keys, the narrator also loses his innocence and the childlike opinions he had until then.
