The Lie

Lie essay
Sarah Broge
4 Johann
January 26, 2010
Lie essay

Everybody doesn’t tell the truth all the time. That is called lying. Everyone lies sometimes. But lying too much could end badly. Not only for you but for the people you are trying to protect.
In the story “The Lie” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., a teenage boy is hiding his rejection from the famous Whitehill School that his family has been a part of for centuries. He is nervous and he can’t think straight when in the car his parents are talking about how proud they are of their son and how another generation will attend the famous boarding school. When his mother brings up the subject of receiving special treatment because of her son being a Remenzel she has a very good point to make. She defends herself promptly. “Maybe I’m just a simple minded girl at heart but I look through this catalogue and see all the buildings named after Remenzels, look through the back and see all the hundreds of thousands of dollars given by Remenzels for scholarships, and I just can’t help thinking people named Remenzel are entitled to ask for a little something extra.” She says to her husband. The mother thinks that her son deserves special treatment but once they get to the school it is the father that asks for an exception into the school because of their family name. The thing that is wrong about this story is not that the son lied about getting accepted, it’s that the father lied about the special treatment concern dealing with their family history with the school. They could have changed their views on the school and the way that the school handles things appropriately with rejection letters.
I believe that this mode line is a comedy. It may not seem that funny but it looks like it could be a comedy because of the events that happened. The first thing that happened was that it was a normal day in the car, heading to the Whitehill academy for boys. The parents start talking about the school and go into the dining area. That’s the second step. A problem occurs when the main doctor at the school enters and the parents find out that their son was rejected from admission. The resolution to the problem is that the family is now unpleased with the way that the school is being controlled and they decide to leave and never come back. The father even said himself, “I don’t suppose that we’ll ever be coming here anymore.” It returns to normalcy by the family leaving the school in the same sunny conditions that they came in. Just with different thoughts in mind.
Lying is a bad thing when it means you are trying to shield someone from something that might hurt them or getting yourself out of trouble. You can lie for many different reasons but the same outcome still is the end of every lie. Someone gets hurt and the truth comes out. In the story “The Lie”, a boy lies to his parents about getting into a boarding school that their family has been a part of since the beginning time of the school. That particular lie is one of the worst because of the outcomes that are possible. You shouldn’t lie. You should tell the truth every time that you are in a hard situation and there is only two ways out of it. Lying is not something that you would want to make a habit of. It is bad and either way someone gets hurt. Whether it’s you or the person that you are lying to.
Lying is something that is everywhere and everyone lies sometimes. But when the lie gets too severe bad things happen and some traditions have to be broken.