Pet Fly Vrs Greasy Lake Essay, Research Paper

The Styles of Pet Fly

And Greasy Lake

There are many writers that write poems and books with the same styles. This essay will compare the styles of Greasy Lake by T. Coraghessan Boyle and the fictional Pet Fly by Walter Mosley.

The writing styles of Greasy Lake and Pet Fly are similar in some ways. Greasy Lake and Pet Fly both have a humor and comedic side in their writing. Greasy Lake started the short story with a bit of humor by having the character make him self seem like a bad and dangerous kid, when he was really not. Boyle adds more humor with lines such as “we wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue and ether and what somebody claimed was cocaine. Walter Mosley also made his character seem hilarious by his personality. In Pet Fly Rufus Coombs falls in love with an employee at his job named Lana Donelli. Lana would later file sexual harassment on Rufus. What makes this all so funny is the way Rufus loved Lana so

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much while Lana had the complete opposite feelings for Rufus. During this whole love mix up between Rufus and Lana, Rufus finds himself with a pet fly that he keeps in his apartment, which adds on to the humor.

Other stylistic elements between Greasy Lake and Pet Fly are the length and complexity of the sentences. Greasy Lake is lengthier and a bit more complex than Pet Fly. Greasy Lake is eight full pages of writing while Pet Fly is eight pages of small

paragraphs. Greasy Lake and Pet Fly are both very specific and descriptive. Both writings are not complex but rather simple, straight forward, and easily understood. Pet Fly is more direct then Greasy Lake. Greasy Lake started off on the humor side and then switched over to a more serious ending when somebody almost died. Pet Fly started and finished making the main character look and feel like a fool. Both writings are fairly clear and obscure.

Even though Greasy Lake and Pet Fly are similar in some styles, they are also different in some styles. Greasy Lake is much more metamorphic than Pet Fly even though both are not that metamorphic in its entirety. Greasy Lake had a few sentences where it would compare a word to another. Examples of this are: “my heart turning over like a dirt bike in the wrong gear”. Pet Fly was more straightforward. The main character (Rufus Coombs) told his story about how others acted and felt while Greasy Lake had its characters talk more about themselves then others. The style of both, Greasy Lake and Pet Fly are more on the low side. Greasy lake can be considered somewhat near the mixed style because it deals with a whole different situation than Pet Fly.

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After reading Pet Fly and Greasy Lake, you notice that both stories dealt with a main character telling a story about his past. Greasy Lake and Pet Fly both end the story on a bad side where Greasy Lake experienced a near death situation while Pet Fly showed a man with no friends, no life, and a mother that treated him like an ignorant person. Greasy Lake was a more serious story with a stronger ending than Pet Fly. Pet Fly didn’t really have an ending. Pet Fly started the story off by showing pity for this character and finished by showing pity for the character.

Those were some comparisons of style between Greasy Lake and Pet Fly. Greasy Lake by T. Coraghessan Boyle was a more thorough story, while Pet Fly by Walter Mosley was a more straightforward story.

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