“The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should, therefore, be treated with great caution.”― J.K. Rowling. In the short story “ Like the Sun” by R.K Narayan, A third-form teacher, who is called Sekhar, decides to tell only the truth for a day. He believes telling the truth is the essence of human relationships. His first experiment is with his wife by giving her his honest opinion about her cooking. Then, a colleague asks Sekhar what he thinks of the death of so-and-so. Sekhar replies to his colleague that the person who died is a selfish and a mean man. Later, the headmaster asks shekhar to give his honest opinion of his singing. However, Sekhar is nervous to tell him the truth. In the short story “Like The Sun,” R.K Narayan uses …show more content…
At the beginning of the story, the narrator mentions that Sekhar wants to tell the truth for the whole day. Sekhar’s wife prepares his breakfast then she realized Sekhar didn't like the food and asks, “‘Why, isn’t it good?’ At other times he would have said, considering her feeling in the matter,’I feel full up, that’s all.” But today he said, ‘It isn’t good. I’m unable to swallow it.’ He saw her wince and said to himself, Can’t be helped. Truth is like the sun”( Narayan 1). This is an indirect characterization of Sekhar. Sekhar usually considers other’s feeling as he tells his wife, he is just full rather than he is not even able to swallow the food. The truth did, in fact, hurt his wife’s feeling as it is mentioned that she winced. Later on, Sekhar's headmaster wants to hear Sekhar's opinion about his singing. Sekhar doesn't want to share his opinion as he “felt very unhappy that he could not speak more soothingly. Truth, he reflected, required as much strength to give as to receive”( Narayan 1) The author indirectly characterizes Sehkar. Sehkar is having an internal conflict with himself. He is struggling to tell the truth, as there maybe consequences. Therefor, he does not want to hurt his feeling. Also, Sehkar learns the core message that truth required as much strength to give as to receive, which directly connects and develops the theme of the
Viorst opens her article by explaining social lies. She describes these as lies to avoid hurt, such as lying to a cousin by pretending to enjoy dinner. Judith believes they are necessary and acceptable; without them, relationships would be icky and short. By being honest and not telling white lies a person can come off harsh. Furthermore, Viorst thinks that not telling social lies is arrogant.
In “The Death of Honesty,” William Damon raises the concern that current apathy towards increasing dishonesty threatens democracy. In this essay taken from the online volume “Endangered Virtues ” published by the Hoover Institute in 2012, Damon initially concedes that there are situations where lying could be considered acceptable. However, with that being acknowledged, he transitions to his main premise that honesty is losing its importance in society and will lead to its downfall, and he cites examples in politics, law, journalism, and business in contemporary society where dishonesty is expected, and even, condoned. Damon finally directs his remarks pointedly at teachers and current students who accept cheating in schools. To persuade his audience of university students and academic scholars, Damon uses many rhetorical devices and styles including classical logos, pathos, and ethos, and allusions to make an ethical appeal regarding the necessity for honesty.
However, three ethical decisions that this learning will make after viewing the film is to always assist individual to the best of your ability, despite personal issues with loved ones or friends; next, always report crimes, no matter the consequence they may have; and last but not least, stand up for what’s right, even if it leads to misfortune. The pros of each of these decisions is peace within yourself. However, one of the cons is dealing with negative pressures. For example, when you report a crime, you may be summoned to court, and have to deal with the negative criticism.
When face with the truth, which reprimands it and convicts it of its faults, a venomous
When initially asked about the morality of lying, it is easy for one to condemn it for being wrong or even corrupt. However, those asked are generally guilty of the crime on a daily basis. Lying is, unfortunately, a normal aspect of everyday life. In the essay “The Ways We Lie,” author Stephanie Ericsson makes note of the most common types of lies along with their consequences. By ordering the categories from least to most severe, she expresses the idea that lies enshroud our daily lives to the extent that we can no longer between fact and fiction. To fully bring this argument into perspective, Ericsson utilizes metaphor, rhetorical questions, and allusion.
Romines, Ann. "How Not to Tell a Story." Eudora Welty: Eye of the Storyteller. Ed.
Philip Malloy is a high school student. He is in the ninth grade at Harrison High School in New Hampshire. The story begins when Philip keeps humming the Star-Spangled Banner everyday in his homeroom class during the morning news and announcements. Philip is in Mr. Lunser’s homeroom class. The faculty rule is that everyone is to be silent and stand up respectfully during the playing of the national anthem. Teachers and other students thought it was annoying and started getting tired of Philip’s humming.
“Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.” – Hamlet, line 114 of Act 3, Scene 1.
In much of The Things They Carried, stories are retold time and time again. One reason for this is the idea of keeping a story’s story-truth alive. In “Good Form,” O’Brien differentiates what he calls story-truth from happening-truth. Story-truth seems to give us a better understanding of O’Brien’s sentiment in a particular story even though the story itself may not be true at all. On the other hand, happening-truth is what actually happened in the story, but may not contain as much emotional authenticity as story-truth. According to O’Brien, story-truth is therefore truer than happening-truth. Relating back to storytelling, O’Brien retells stories continuously to maintain their sentiment and emotional value. Without this continuous repetition, this sentiment fades away and the emotional value of the story is lost.
The theme of the short story is revenge. Ha Jin suggests in his work that even the most reasoned individual, as a university teacher could be, can reach his personal limits and commit a crime if his personal freedom is taken.
...hers might say. He tells our narrator, “The most important thing in the world is knowing the truth.” He goes on to remark, “The whole truth and nothing but the truth” (Mahfouz, 69). In this story, the Truth had a positive affect on the character. It gave him a new sort of freedom. He had gained a new sense of identity because of his new knowledge, and this evoked a sense of happiness in him.
An explication of Emily Dickinson’s “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-” brings to light the overwhelming theme of how one should tell the truth. It also illuminates the development of the extended metaphor of comparing truth to light. From the very beginning of the poem, the speaker is instructing on the best way to tell the truth. Dickinson, through a use of a specific technique of rhyming, literary elements, and different forms of figurative language, establishes the importance of not telling the truth all at once.
This is the first sign that we can trust this narrator to give us an even-handed insight to the story that is about to unfold. But, as we later learn, he neither reserves all judgments nor does his tolerance reach its’ limit.
Following this further, take a look at a quote recited by hamlet to Ophelia. “Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of h...
I do not know of anyone who wants to be known as Pinocchio, the wooden boy who lies and in a result, makes his nose grow bigger. As an old proverb says, honesty is the best policy. I agree with being honest at all times. First, telling the truth to me, is always the right thing. When I catch someone in a lie, I just think to myself, what has come up of this world? A person’s truths and lies prove who that person is, and what that person is capable of. Second, people can earn a great deal of respect and trust from telling the truth. Now, people trust their “gut feeling”, but someone’s “gut feeling” should always be truthful. Respect is something that is earned, and at sometimes, given to people who do the things that they are supposed to do for themselves and for others. Last, most people were taught to tell the truth at a very young age. A truth is