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Essay about lies causes and effects
An essay on the causes and effects of lying
Essay about lies causes and effects
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I think it was my mother who taught me the meaning of honesty. Not because she was honest, but because she lied all the time. She felt that the easiest way out of any given situation was generally the best way out. And, for her, that generally meant telling a "little white lie." As a young child I thought it was kind of cool. And, naturally, when I would come to her with a concern or question wondering what I should do, she generally advised me to lie.
"Mom, I told Theresa that I would go over to her house, but now I would rather go to Sue's house to play."
"Tell Theresa you're sick," she would advise. And generally I did. But I didn't seem blessed with her lack of conscience. On many painful occasions Theresa would find out that I really went to Sue's house without her. These occasions taught me that it is more painful to be caught in a lie than it is to tell the truth in the first place. I wondered how it was possible that my mother had never learned that lesson.
I started thinking of all the lies that I'd heard her tell. I remembered the time she told someone that her favorite restaurant had closed, because she didn't want to see her there anymore. Or the time she told Dad that she loved the lawn mower he gave her for her birthday. Or when she claimed that our phone lines had been down when she was trying to explain why she hadn't been in touch with a friend of hers for weeks. And what bothered me even more were all the times she had incorporated me into her lies. Like the time she told my guidance counselor that I had to miss school for exploratory surgery, when she really needed me to babysit. And it even started to bother me when someone would call for her and she would ask me to tell her that she wasn't there.
So, I started my own personal fight against her dishonesty. When I answered the phone and it was someone my mother didn't want to talk to, I said, "Louise, mom is here, but she doesn't want to talk to you.
Baldwin, James. “Down at the Cross.” 1962. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998. 296-347.
... one must acknowledge mankind for what it is and the associated injustice without reserve; however, one must also resist the injustice inherent in mankind. This applies to the struggle between races as well as it applied to Baldwin’s relationship with his father. The initial questions proposed by “Notes” are answered in a general warning: hate breeds death and destruction, so resist the injustice where hate is conceived while accepting the unjust for who they are. It is through both personal and general experiences that Baldwin arrives at his final conclusion, offering a warning to society and the individuals within: hate only causes destruction and must be put aside before positive gains may be achieved.
This quote by James Baldwin pertains to his relevant thoughts on the Harlem Riots of 1943. A copy of Newsweek from August 9,1943 described the riot in great detail, ?Within a half hour Harlem?s hoodlums were on the march. Windows of pawnshops and liquor and grocery stores were smashed and looted. The Negroes began wielding knives and the police their guns? Thousands of police reserves, many of them Negroes, were rushed to the district?All traffic was re routed around Harlem?It came down chiefly to a battle between the police and Negro looters.? Much of Baldwin?s writing came from this World War II time period full of racial tension. The Harlem Riots of 1943 were another piece in the Civil Rights movement of which Baldwin used events and experiences from in his own writings.
James Baldwin, an African-American writer, was born to a minister in 1924 and survived his childhood in New York City. The author is infamous for his pieces involving racial separatism with support from the blues. Readers can understand Harlem as a negative, unsafe environment from Baldwin’s writings and description of his hometown as a “dreadful place…a kind of concentration camp” (Hicks). Until the writer was at the age of twenty-four, he lived in a dehumanizing, racist world where at ten years old, he was brutally assaulted by police officers for the unchanging fact that he is African-American. In 1948, Baldwin escaped to France to continue his work without the distractions of the racial injustice
An example of this is offered when Emily Grierson’s father passes away due to old age. Emily is so attached to her father that she keeps his body in the house for several days after his death, pretending, most likely for her own sake, that he is still alive. In fact, the t...
This incident happens after his father’s funeral and his birthday celebration. This incident incited a violent response, between the blacks of the community, and the police. The ensuing violence resulted in damage being done to white businesses. Baldwin’s thoughts on this were simple it came down to making a choice. He gives an analogy of someone getting an amputation and gangrene. The choices here get the amputation and later find out that you don’t need it, or wait too long and gangrene sets in. The premise here is that man has to decide whether to live with hatred or not. For to live a life full of hate will eventually cause harm to one’s health in one form or another. Baldwin’s reflection of he and his father going to Sunday school brought the memory of him reciting what he called the golden text. The things that he learned from his father finally came to light after his death. From the course of things that came to Harlem, during that summer, his father would have said “this bitterness was folly” (James Baldwin
When you’re honest about the things you do, you don’t have to carry burdens about lying. Being honest can lead you to being happy because you made the right the decision to begin with. Doing honest deeds are rewarded to the people who tell the
The Narrator’s family treats her like a monster by resenting and neglecting her, faking her death, and locking her in her room all day. The Narrator’s family resents her, proof of this is found when the Narrator states “[My mother] came and went as quickly as she could.
James baldwin was an incredible writer and debater. He wrote from the mid-to-late 20th century, and his impassioned, outstanding work stands as an amazing resource for white people audience trying to understand some of the race related problems that we will never have to experience. And his audience need to understand the problems that he addresses, because white america audience caused these problems hundreds of years ago, and it is white people who allow them to persist today through willful ignorance and inaction. That’s not an attack on anyone of course and certainly not anyone in particular. It is simply an observation based on many, many observations , documented, and honorable facts. For these reasons and some others,. This essay
Going against her moral code, the grandmother, is dishonest with multiple characters in the story. When trying to
She would treat me like her servant and if I didn’t follow her instructions there would be dire consequences. If I ever came after curfew my mom would lose it. If I ever tried to advocate for myself that would lead to 5 weeks of grounding, and no phone. It really didn’t matter that I lost my phone since when I was in high school I had no friends. I spent most of my time enhancing my math skills and learning various dialects, while other spent their time socializing. I once had a friend and well they left me since I was what you might call not attentive so I was an abject friend I guess you could say, and I also wreaked their car when we went out driving . In my defense I did tell them to get drivers insurance. I tried to get into top notch colleges in the nation I did, but my mother couldn’t afford it. That when I began to languish I stopped eating for days on until I finally got accepted into USC. So I took my bag out of the back of my mom’s volvo, and headed toward the auditorium where we would have an assembly for our guest speaker Mr.Kurtenbach, some principle from some random middle school was to speak to
Picture this you go to a friends house without your mom knowing. When you arrive home your mom asks where were you, would you lie or tell the truth. I will lie so I don't get her angry and make a positive result. I firmly believe that lying is acceptable in our society.
Mark Twain said “If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything”. The validity of those words rings true till this day. The effects of a lie or lies always seem to lead to a path of extreme detriment. Although I have experienced both sides of a lie I often wonder if the reasoning behind lying is always just. Do people lie to protect? Or is a lie an extension of deceit? These are questions that many people can relate and reflect on because we have all been lied to. Whether you were told white lies about the Easter bunny and Santa Claus or someone lied to you about their whereabouts any false statement is quite simply a lie. The effects of a lie are what I have the most experience in and it is those effects which caused me to be a liar in turn. Living a lie or maintaining lies an individual has told over time is a tiresome process and a difficult one to bear. My experience in dealing with a lie began at a young age. I was often enamored with associating with people older than myself and I frequently felt I had to establish that my experiences were equal or greater than theirs.
Growing up, we are always told to never lie because it is the worst thing you could ever do. “Lying will only lead to a horrible situation with less than mediocre results. While lying is not always good, it is not always bad either. Samuel Butler once said “Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.
Honesty is a characteristic that everyone should possess. However, being honest is a difficult task for many people. Living honestly means allowing a person’s true self to be exposed to others. Honesty is considered owning up to one’s wrongdoings and not lying, cheating, or stealing. Being honest is a trait that many people believe is obsolete. Even though every person interprets honesty differently, it all stems back to telling the truth. Being honest allows a person to earn respect from their peers. Honesty is allowing oneself to be completely exposed by being truthful.