T.C Boyle uses a wide variety of metaphors throughout the short story Greasy Lake. In the story he uses a metaphor to describe the barrenness of the island in the middle of Greasy Lake. He said it looked as if the Air Force had strafed it. He uses another metaphor to refer to the headlights of another car saying that it blinked towards them. The author also refers to the bad character as a lusty Rockette in the way that he kicked the narrator in the face. There is also a metaphor to describe the narrators emotions by saying he had a "tinny compound of shock, rage, and impotence wadded" in his throat. "He was a big grimacing toothy balloon and I was a man with a straight pin" this metaphor was used to describe the situation of the narrator striking the man in the head with his tire iron. The author then uses another metaphor to describe the girl screaming after the boys "the screams of the Sabine woman, the Christian martyrs, Anne Frank dragged from the garret."