Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir By Lauren Slater

Her crude choppy handwriting gives the feeling "that she had been the victim of some inner- some emotional- conflict that had in its violence broken the continuity of the lines she was able to make on paper"(81). Her writing directly reflects the incontinuity and lack of control in her life. Unlike Bateman who feigns control over his life through body building and bulimia, she escapes from the lack of control in her life through depression.

Ericsson first uses metaphors to establish her purpose for writing the essay. As an example, the author says “Unfortunately, it [stereotype] often shuts down the original thinking, giving those hungry for the truth a candy bar of misinformation instead of a balanced meal.” (pg. 164). By using metaphors, the author allows the readers minds to wander and think about what is being said in a way they can easily comprehend. Next, the author uses hyperbole to dramatize her points. An example of this would be “I once tried going a week without telling a lie, and it was paralyzing” (pg. 159). Hyperboles benefit the essay in that they provide a dramatic contrast, thus allowing the point to stand out more. Finally, there is a profusion of rhetorical questions in “The Ways We Lie”, especially at the beginning and ends of the essay, which assist the author in strengthening the purpose. In fact, Ericsson asks when talking about the consequences of lying and tell the truth: “What far-reaching consequences will I, or others, pay as a result of my lie? Will someone’s trust be destroyed? Will someone else pay my penance because I ducked out?”(pg. 160). Similarly, in the second to last paragraph, the audience is asked how much people will tolerate before they become “sick and tired of being sick and tired” and also when will they stand up and assert their right to trust, “realize the truth is in the fine print” and when will they stop

In the short story “The Harvest” by Amy Hempel, an unnamed narrator is in a horrible car accident, where her leg is permanently disfigured. The story takes place after the accident, when the narrator is attempting to process the life changing event that’s just happened to her. The story is broken up into two parts,in the first part she describes the accident and the aftermath - the accident, the hospital, the recovery. But she opens the second half of the story by admitting that not everything we just read is factual. The struggle she is having throughout the story is to cope with and understand her accident, but her emotional distress inhibits that. The narrator conveys her instability and vulnerability that the accident caused in through the ways she decides to alter the details of her story. Although she goes through the process of reflecting on why she does this, she doesn’t come out the other side feeling less confused about why her accident happened to her, or any less unstable and vulnerable.

“In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can revenge” (Picoult). Those words are of the opening lines of Jodi Picoult’s best seller, Nineteen Minutes. Although this novel is heart wrenching, and cuts into the ‘grays’ of school shootings, it is anything but original. Lead character, Peter Houghton, is an almost perfect profile replication of 1999’s Columbine shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. A simple personaltiy analysis will reveal that both Peter and Columbine Shooters suffer from parental neglect, the violent virtual world, ruthless peers, as well as easy access to weapons.

After finishing this memoir, there is no denying that the main character, Augusten Burroughs, has a problem. From a very young age his alcoholic tendencies (coupled with other drug use) have caused hardships for both himself and those around him. As he aged, so his alcoholism increased. In Dry: A memoir we get to see Augusten’s challenging journey from a life revolving around alcohol to sobriety. As previously mentioned, it is undeniable that Augusten did have a problem. But, does this automatically mean he is clinically diagnosable with an alcohol related disorder? Unfortunately, in this case, the answer is yes. Augusten Burroughs is not only diagnosable for clinical substance dependence, but could be considered the poster child of the

When lies become easy for the liar to create, and expected by the person being lied to, both parties will suffer the consequences of lying. At the beginning of the essay, the paragraph started in first-person tone “I” along with other pronouns such as “my” and “our.” Ericsson specifies that her lungs had been aching for “two hours,” and that her daughter was a “three-year-old” as well as that the bank called “today” and she was “on hold for an hour” (2,3). Then after that, she uses a metaphor “one more straw might break his back.” This means that her partner also had a bad day just like herself and she didn’t want to make his day worse than it already was (2). Then at the end of the paragraph, she uses “there must be some merit to lying.” What she means that she tries to spend a week without lying which she then faces some challenges for telling the truth. Therefore, she realizes there must be some sort of happiness or a prize for telling lies. All these detailed descriptions of time and place contribute to the detached, yet personal, nature of the writing which has helped her to formulate a thesis that is both relatable to individuals and also be capable of being extrapolated to the masses. This shift she makes can be seen in the transformation from “I” pronouns in the first and second paragraph to the “we” pronouns which were used in the third paragraph

Tells the reader stories & anecdotes of her fellow workers, including her own unstable, insecure life, taking the reader on some emotional ups & downs throughout the story

The effect of her introduction is to set the scenario to capture the reader’s attention. This is to make the reader interested to read the essay. 7. The epigraphs that worked best are “A man who won’t lie to a woman has very little consideration for her feelings”, “The cruelest lies are often told in silence.”, and “The only form of lying that is beyond reproach is lying for its own sake.” The criteria for this judgment is these categories are everyday lies that can happen with anyone daily.

In “The Ways we Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson expresses her own life experience as an example to show, how difficult it is to balance the moral value of living a lie and the consequences of telling the truth in real life. Ericsson expresses her views thoroughly on how “we all lie” for different reasons and for different purposes. In “The Way We Lie,” informational essay, some of the words contradict each other, for example, she explains the impossibility and the consequences of telling the truth all the time, while she explains the consequences of telling a lie without taking a side. She used those statements to build a strong bond with readers by eliminating judgment and creating humble moments. Ericsson’s essay grasped my attention easily and intrigued me so much that, I couldn’t keep my eyes of the pages; the end of each paragraph brought me to have text-to-self connections.

Dealing with the harsh truths of life can be tough for anyone to cope with which is why people tell themselves lies. These lies are called life lies-- a falsehood people tell themselves to rationalize the lifestyle they are living or actions they have committed. Tennessee Williams and Henrik Ibsen investigate how life lies can turn into delusions- a state of mind or way of life, when they are used to cope with the stressors of everyday life. Williams’ protagonist, Blanche DuBois, was a former southern belle forced to move in with her sister, Stella, after her husband’s suicide and being evicted from Belle Reve, her family home. To cope with these traumatic events, Blanche decided to recreate her character. To do so, she lied to the people

The author’s purpose I believe was to teacher the reader to make amends, give forgiveness, don’t forget the wronged person or the deed, and learn how to move on after it. The context of the essay was the story of a person who goes to a prison to confront the murderer of one of their old time friends, the murderer was the husband of the victim, it was a gloomy and very emotionally balanced essay. It never felt like the main

The first paragraph in the essay takes a form of a vivid description. It starts with a quotation of a teacher giving instructions to start an exam. Then the following phrases in the paragraph take a negative voice tone. The writer was worry about the exam, and he was sur that he is going to fail the exam. All these details make the reader hook to the essay and want to know why the test is a source of struggle for the writer, and why he thinks he is going to fail the exam.

The author Lynda Barry is narrating her story what she has been through. The theme about her essay is her finding herself. Her only escape of her problems is school, people actually notices her. Lynda Barry being neglected, school being an escape and having a teacher be a role model affected her in a positive way that made her become a teacher in the future.

Micah will freely admit that she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. Over the years she’s duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents, and she’s always managed to stay one step ahead of her lies. That is, until her boyfriend dies under brutal circumstances and her dishonesty begins to catch up with her. But is it possible to tell the truth when lying comes as naturally as breathing? Taking readers deep into the psyche of a young woman who will say just about anything to convince them—and herself—that she’s finally come clean, Liar is a bone-chilling thriller that will have readers see-sawing between truths and lies right up to the end.

1. How is this essay constructed? Describe the parts of the piece (and how many, etc.) Provide brief descriptions of the work that each part is doing and how it goes about doing it.