Not so tough

T.C. Boyle's Greasy Lake is an interesting story of three guys that think they are tough. They smoke, drink, keep tire irons under their seats (to look tough), and go down to Greasy Lake to hang out. They're bad... So they think. 

They realize they are not quite so tough when they actually get themselves into trouble. They get beat up, almost rape someone, and stumble across a dead man floating in the lake. 

These college boys realize that this is NOT their lives. 

After looking back on the story, it seems like when they stumble across the dead man in the lake (while the car is being destroyed), the boys realize that if they continue down this path, this is where they will end up. 

They realize that they aren't really as tough as they have always thought. 

I've come across this in real life, having friends that think they are ridiculously tough, thinking they could fight anyone. And then something happens and really snaps you into reality, making you realize that you just aren't as tough as you might have always thought. 

You'll Never be Great

In Jamaica Kincaid's Girl, she goes on and on about all of the things that she has been constantly taught all of her life by her mother. Washing clothes on Monday, only doing certain things on Sundays, not doing other things on Sundays, not being a slut, catching fish, bullying men, how to smile at different people, and so on. The mother is teaching the girl how to be an adult, how to take care of herself, and how to make it in the world without her mother there. 

At the end of the story, the narrator questions her mother about the bread and "what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?" The statement here is not necessarily important, but what her mother says and the meaning behind it is: "you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?"

Her mother goes on and on about how to be a woman, but at the first question, she shows that she has no faith in her daughter. She does not believe that her daughter will grow up to be a "good woman," and do the things and act the way she should. 

It seems like the author is truly scarred by this experience (as I would be), always being told what to do. Her mother expected weakness. To not have your mother's faith would be a terrible feeling- knowing that she did not expect you to succeed... awful.