Behind every lie is the truth. There is not one person in this world that lies. There is a reason to every lie. People lie because they don’t want someone knowing the truth or even they don’t want someone to judge or think different of them. In today’s society people lie to fit in to be just like everyone else. One of the biggest lies that I have told is how my grandparents died; my mom’s mom and dad. On October 12 1983 around 5; 25 PM, something horrible happened my granddad shot his wife and then killed his self. The reason why this happened is because his sister was putting lies into his head. Telling him things that were not true. Horrible lie likes “his wife was cheating on him”. Back then cheating was horrible thing to do. The only reason why she told such horrible lies is because she was so jealous of her because she was always a happy person. My grandmother had 8 kids, was a stay home had working women. My grandmother was a type of women who always put someone before her. She was a beautiful woman who tried to make everyone happy. Once this accident happened the cops was called. Our town officers came to the house and my mother was the only one in the house when they came. Once the cops did what they had to do they blame their whole death on her, they said she’s the one that shot them. The cops took my mom and threw her to the ground and put handcuffs on her. Once our county cops came they told our town cops to leave. Once they left they took off the handcuffs off my mom and then they took over the crime scene. Everyone was standing outside looking to see what happened. The newspaper was called the next day what happened was in the newspaper. Still to this day my mom has the cut out article. Then once they finished what... ... middle of paper ... ...s as much as others I feel like if I would tell everyone this story on how they actually died then people are going to look at me weird and think that I’m different just because of what happened. Even though what happened was out of my control. I think that people could understand things earlier and not judge people so fast. Maybe someone is lying because it kills them inside to tell what actually happened. What I mean by that is when my mom told me what had actually happened to them it is still hard to talk about because it’s something that means so much to you and it still hurts to talk about. I feel like no one understand the pain I felt for my mom when she was telling me this and she was crying and all I could say is “it’s okay” when in all reality is isn’t. People lie for a reason and behind that lie is the truth. Maybe the truth is too powerful to talk about.
Although it is considered wrong to tell lies, it seems that literature has offered us situations where telling lies isn’t necessarily bad. Of course, lying often has a tragic outcome, but not always for the person or people who told the lie or lies. Oftentimes, these unfortunate outcomes are directed at the person about whom the lie was told. Furthermore, these stories have explained that dishonesty can result in success for both the liar and the target. Maybe we have been teaching the wrong values to our children.
The society that we live in today is built around lies. Banks lying to customers in order to feed the capitalist mindset, politicians lying to citizens in order to gain power, and charities taking donations with open arms however are stingy when giving back to the cause. The common reason why these organizations lie is to hide what they truly are. People also deceive others in order to hide who they truly are. From a young age, lying becomes engraved into one’s mind, we are taught to walk, talk, and lie.
The people who claim that they do not lie are probably lying when they say it. Whether it is to deceive authority or just to play a joke on a friend, it is part of human nature to lie. In the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby takes on a character of wealth and luxury. Gatsby wants to win back his love interest from five years ago, so he secretly becomes wealthy through owning an illegal drug business, using his abundance of money to impress her. In contrast, in Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar,” he tells a story of teenage James as he lies about his life to appear more fascinating. He lies not because he wants to, but because it comes naturally to him. Both stories convey people struggling to find the purpose of their
Stephanie Ericsson’s The Ways We Lie, analyzes and reflects on how lying has simply become the norm in our society. We all lie, there is not one person in the world that does not lie. Most people lie because they are afraid of telling the truth, however what they do not know is telling a lie can lead them in the wrong direction because many things can happen when lying to a person. The person can find out when everything unravels that person will not have trust in you and you would be known as a liar. To every action there is a consequence, so why not deal with just one consequence when telling the
In “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, the author uses her knowledge to talk about the different ways of lies and how those lies affect the liar, as well as the people who had been told lies. According to the author’s essay, there are 10 types of lies that people encounter every single day: the White Lie, Facades, Ignoring the Plain Facts, Deflecting, Omission, Stereotypes and Cliches, Groupthink, Out-and-Out Lies, Dismissal, and Delusion. Throughout the essay, it is connoted that people are lying in various ways even though they are not intended to. I had been taught that lying is a bad habit. According to Ericsson, there are many types of lie and I did three of them in my life: the White Lie, Omission, and Out-and-Out Lies; however, I can defend my lies for good purposes.
I rushed out of the bedroom confused. I began to realize what was going on. I ran to where I last saw her and she was not there. Never before I felt my heart sank. My eyes filled with tears. I dropped to my knees and felt the cold white tile she last swept and mopped for my family. I look up and around seeing picture frames of of her kids, grandchildren, and great grandchildren smiling. I turn my head to the right and see the that little statue of the Virgin Mary, the last gift we gave her. I began to cry and walked to my mother hugging her. My father walked dreadfully inside the house. He had rushed my great grandmother to the hospital but time has not on his side. She had a bad heart and was not taking her medication. Later that morning, many people I have never seen before came by to pray. I wandered why this had to happen to her. So much grief and sadness came upon
Kneeling on my apartment floor, I held the phone up against my ear and frantically cried for help. She laid in a puddle of blood with one of her wrists slit open. I screamed her name and begged her to stay awake. The paramedics barged through the door and lifted her on the gurney, while I remained on the floor in a complete state of shock. My roommate had just tried to end her life. Police officers bombarded me with questions, but I struggled to answer them because all I could do was continuously replay the event in my head. After I finally managed to explain my side of the story to the authorities, one of the officers accompanied me to the hospital where I sat by my roommate’s side awaiting her parents’ arrival.
We lie all the time, lying is not something new to our culture. We lie to our parents, we lie to our friends, we even lie to our significant other, but why do we do it? There is not one set reason on why we lie but they can vary from an insignificant reason to something more nefarious. A good operational definition of a lie is “A lie is a false statement to a person or group made by another person or group who knows it is not the whole truth, intentionally.” (Freitas-Magalhães) We have been raised to know that lying is usually a bad thing, and it’s better to tell the truth, not to mention the circumstances get exponentially worse if you are caught lying. No one wants to be labeled as a liar, or untrustworthy. This may sound unorthodox but I personally think lying is perfectly fine; depending on the situation. If you have a prima-facie duty to be dishonest it’s perfectly acceptable. Ross says a prima facie duty or obligation is an actual duty. “One’s actual duty is what one ought to do all things considered.” (Carson) I’m not the only one who finds this too be true. Ross would also agree with me, He says “Lying is permissible or obligatory when the duty not to lie conflicts with a more important or equal important prima facie duty.” (Carson) As I was doing research on this topic I did read one extremely compelling argument on why we ought not to lie. Aristotle basically said a person who makes a defense for lying could never be trusted. (King.)
In March of 1998, my father was rushed to the hospital because of a heart attack. I remember getting home from basketball practice without my mother home. Instead, my sister was there with her children. The fact that my sister was there was familiar to me, but something did not seem right. My sister stayed with me and did not tell me what happened. Later that night, after my sister left, the news that followed would prepare me to encounter the most defining moment of my life.
Telling the truth teaches one person self- respect for themselves and others as well. Telling the truth also sets a good example for others to do the same thing and make a “chain reaction”. People can make a “chain reaction” by passing on what they have done from one person to another, and before you know it, everyone is changing greatly, and the world is progressing tremendously. Lies are told all around the world, and they are told every day. One lie can often lead to another lie and cause you to be caught up in one big lie that will be hard to get out of if people do not tell the truth. If a person thinks that is okay to lie, they better think again, the truth always comes out no matter how hard a person tries to keep it in, or how much someone thinks that they can get away with lying. No person can keep in or hold a grudge with what they have done. After all, telling the truth is the right thing to do, and everyone should do it. Telling the truth is always much easier than the trouble of a
Many people in the world are pretenders and liars. Even in the early stages of life many children pretend to be a distinguishable figure. Whether it is a princess or a superhero, these children create false images of themselves to feel important or confident. Although everyone has his or her own reason for doing such a thing, many do it for their own personal gain. Countless amounts of people can relate to this (including myself) because many have told lies or pretended to be something they are not multiple times in their lives. Even as adults, people still lie and pretend. Not only do they create false statements to build images for themselves, they create images in which they can look upon in a positive way. Whether it is to win over the heart of a woman, make good friends, or even get revenge, lying is used for personal gain everywhere in the world. Brock Clarke once said “Sometimes the lies you tell are less frightening than the loneliness you might feel if you stopped telling them.” The lies one tells are used to create false images to gain securities and a completely new life. These lies improve self-esteem and make people feel they are more important than they actually are. Without lies people would feel alone, unimportant, and even boring because they will continue to live their dull, normal lives. With lies, people build walls of confidence and live with integrity, not fearing isolation and abandonment in the world. Three examples of literature where lying is used for personal gain are “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Even though these books contain examples of liars, each character uses lying for different intenti...
Can you remember the last time someone lied to you? Or how about the last time you lied to someone else? Did you ever stop and ask yourself why? There are so many different reasons that a person might lie. Maybe a lie about something to keep oneself out of trouble, or even a lie to impress other people. But either way there are always going to be serious consequences or effects of lying.
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.
It was Friday night, I took a shower, and one of my aunts came into the bathroom and told me that my dad was sick but he was going to be ok. She told me that so I did not worry. I finished taking a bath, and I immediately went to my daddy’s house to see what was going on. My dad was throwing-up blood, and he could not breath very well. One of my aunts cried and prayed at the same time. I felt worried because she only does that when something bad is going to happen. More people were trying to help my dad until the doctor came. Everybody cried, and I was confused because I thought it was just a stomachache. I asked one of my older brothers if my dad was going to be ok, but he did not answer my question and push me away. My body shock to see him dying, and I took his hand and told him not to give up. The only thing that I heard from him was, “Daughters go to auntie...
Self-protection is the main factor of telling lies. According to some, people tell lies to shield themselves from danger, punishment, or from an activity they