Bad choices

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Consequences of Bad Choices In “Greasy Lake,” “So Much Water So Close To Home,” and “Dimension” Short Stories
Daily people are forced to make choices concerning different things or issues in their life. The decision or action a person makes in their life determines the consequences they receive eventually. If a person is responsible and makes the right choice, the outcome would be lead to better results. However, if a person is irresponsible or unknowingly makes a wrong choice, the outcome would lead to severe consequences. In the “Greasy Lake,” “So Much Water So Close To Home,” and “Dimension” short stories, some of the characters made wrong choices, which resulted in severe consequences that caused them to either regret, be ashamed or be heartbroken.
For example, in “Greasy Lake,” the narrator and his two friends spent the whole day drinking until around 2:00 a.m. when the bars were closing. Since they did not want to go to the friend of Jeff’s sister party, which was a better choice. They made a wrong decision, and decided to go to Greasy Lake. “we ‘d cruised the strip sixty-seven times, been in and out of every bar and club debated going to a party at the house of a girl Jeff’s sister knew” (Boyle 3). The irresponsible choice the boys made to drink during the day affected the actions and choices they made. The effects of alcohol mislead their judgment that caused them to believe they had seen Tony Lovett’s vehicle. Also, alcohol might have affected the narrator’s alertness, which caused him to drop the car keys in the dark.

Similarly, in “So Much Water So Close To Home” Stuart and his friends decided to go for a fishing camp something they did “every spring and early summer.” However, this time while looking for a place to put their tent, they discover a dead girl’s body, which was naked floating in the river. After discussing among themselves, the men decided to continue with their three-day trip instead of first going to report the incident (Carver, sec. 2). Also, Stuart after returning home from the journey did not tell the wife about the dead girl immediately. He waited until the next day after he read the newspaper. It caused his wife to become suspicious and doubted him.
Likewise, in “Dimension” the narrator Doree made a wrong decision after her mother’s death instead of staying with her mom’s lady friend Laurie, she decides to get married at the age of sixteen to Lloyd who had different beliefs from hers. She again made a wrong decision when she bought spaghetti that was packed in a dented tin. It caused an argument between her and the husband. Therefore, she decided to go to her friend’s place, thinking that it would cool the situation but it led to her husband killing the children.
The bad choices the characters made caused some of them to be ashamed of their actions. For example, in “Greasy Lake” the narrator and his friends as they were trying to rape the injured boy’s girlfriend, a vehicle came to the parking lot that caused them to feel guilty and ran away. Also, in “So Much Water So Close To Home” Stuart feels ashamed to look at the wife. As the narrator claims, “He looks at me and looks away” (Carver, sec. 1).
Also, in “Dimension” Doree is ashamed of her past life because nobody she is working with knows what happened to her or the children (Munro, par. 3). She is ashamed of her past as she decides to change her hairstyle and uses her second name Fleur (Munro, par. 4). It is also evident that she is embarrassed by her refusal to see her friend Maggie who used to ask her if their marriage was okay before her children were killed. Another person who is ashamed of his wrong decision is Lloyd, who refuses to see his wife the first two times that she had visited him (Munro, par. 5).
Bad choices can cause the victim to be heartbroken. For example, in “Greasy Lake” the narrator was distressed about what he would tell his parent after the car was destroyed. Likewise, in “So Much Water So Close To Home” Stuart behavior of not telling the wife what happened hurts her and makes her decide to sleep on the sofa (Carver, sec. 6). Also, in Dimension” Doree is not concerned about how she looks. One of the signs of depression or heartbreak is a person not being concerned with their outward appearance. Also, the fact that Doree is seeing a counselor Mrs. Sandy for advice on how to move on with her life shows that she is heartbroken and needs help. She also confesses she is sad to Mrs. Sandy after she was given a pamphlet and said that “when you are down that is when they try and get to you” (Munro, sec. 6). It is also evident that she is hurting by the way she puts her hands across the stomach after finding out that her children had been killed. Some of the writer’s words also show that Doree was in pain, “any thought of the children had been something she had to get rid of, pull out immediately like a knife in her throat.” Also, it is evident when she confessed that seeing her husband made her feel bad.
Another consequence of bad choices is that it causes the victim to regret his or her choice. For example, in Greasy Lake” the narrator regrets having dropped his keys as it made them unable to escape with his mother’s car, which caused the injured boy in the fight together with his friends to destroy the narrator’s mom vehicle. Also, the narrator regrets that they wrongly identified the car as Tony’s Lovett’s (Boyle 3). Since it made the narrator start flickering at the car. It annoyed the driver of the other car who came out of his vehicle, hit the narrator and led to a fight among them (Boyle 4). Similarly, in “So Much Water So Close To Home” Claire regretted having doubted the husband and slept on the sofa the previous night. Therefore, when her husband touches her after her return from the burial, she does not resist but tells him to hurry before their son came home. Likewise, regret is evident in “Dimension” when Doree did not want to talk about her husband during the first days of therapy and saw talking about her husband as a “terrible accident of nature” (Munro, sec. 6).
It is evident from the three short stories that daily people are faced with several choices whereby they are expected to make a right choice. Unfortunately, in the short stories, some of the characters made wrong decisions. The bad choices they made caused some of them to be heartbroken, ashamed or regret.
Work cited
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Boyle, T C. Greasy Lake & Other Stories. New York, N.Y: Penguin, 1986. Internet resource.
Carver, Raymond. “So MUCH WATER.” So MUCH WATER. N.p., n.d. www.nyx.net/%7Ekbanker/chautauqua/carver.htm Accessed 01 Dec. 2016.
Munro, Alice. “Dimension.” The New Yorker. N.p., 2006. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/06/05/dimension. Accessed 01 Dec. 2016.