The Lie Short Story Summary

There comes a time when a doctor, minister or politicians and an individual will tell a lie. It could be a white lie or big lie; most people almost generally resort to lying in certain situation. Often times a lawyer will lie in order to protect his client, or vice versa, a client will tell a lie in order to avoid being incarnated. There are many situations an individual will be placed in, and at some point in a person’s life they will need to tell a lie. Is it appropriate to lie? This is what Sissela Bok writes about in Lying: Moral choice in Public and Private Life. Bok acknowledges that despite numerous religious and moral statements against lying, people will still lie in certain situations. She will discuss and

The short story ”Lies” is about a boy named Jack. He has a bad relationship with his parents, and his father kicks him out of the house. Jack wanted to get out of the house, and it was one of the two things he wanted to do, get out of the house, and to go up to Fountain Lake with his girlfriend Katy. He is eighteen and is going to get married to his girlfriend Katy, and the first time he met her was at the movie theater. After graduated from high school Jack gets a job at Able’s, and it is the same place where he meets the beautiful Katy. Katy falls in love with him, but jack is not in love with her. Jack gets invited to Katy’s sister’s wedding, and has an awkward meeting with

Stephanie Ericsson, through personal anecdotes in her essay “The Ways We Lie,” reveals that no matter how big or how small, a lie is a lie. Throughout the essay, she defines the different ways people lie and explains to the reader the significance of the lies they tell. At the same time, she gives examples in which she lies because she believes that “we lie. We all do.” This keeps the readers from thinking she is criticizing everyone, but herself. As she sees it, we need to take in consideration the consequences of the lies we tell before telling the bank “my deposit is in the mail” when it isn’t. Such use of personal anecdotes support the theme and strengthen the essay because they establish pathos which move the audience to realize the impact

She elaborates upon the fact of how we lie so often that it has basically become a normal thing for us to do daily. Stephanie Ericsson’s essay effectively meets its purpose through the use of rhetorical questions, anaphora, analogy,

After reading both stories, I found that I enjoyed Stephanie Ericsson’s, “The Ways We Lie” the most. This story was very interesting and made me think of many different things. I did not realize that there were so many different ways to lie. I was guilty of doing a few of them. After reading the section about the white lie, I realized that I do this sometimes without even noticing it. Ericsson gives the example of when your friend may look terrible one day, but you tell them that they look nice just so they would feel better. Most people, along with myself, do not see this as a bad thing because you are doing something good for someone else, but either way you are still lying. As I continued reading, I was also shocked about a few parts, especially

When she labels each lie and elaborates the different consequences each lie may cause, the reader is forced to acknowledge that lying derives from other forms of lies. For example, when Tim broke his mother’s brand new television he decided to tell his mom a ball came through and destroyed the TV. When Tim was confronted he committed out and out lie with the combination of omission. He first said someone else hit the ball at the TV which was half of what happened and a total lie. For what the consequence may have been, after he committed out and out lie he immediately resulted in the use of omission.

In “The Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson draws on her experience as a screenwriter and self-help author to examine the usage and effects of lies in modern society. Written during a time of presidential indiscretions and published in a magazine centered on cultural trends, the piece delineates lying into specific categories and describes each one’s prevalence. Ericsson makes use of a matter-of-fact and forthright tone which contributes to credibility and reflects her confidence in discussing such morally grey topics. Throughout the piece, she explicates the implications of lying by making use of personal anecdotes, supporting quotes, and rhetorical questions.

The mere concept of a compulsive or pathological liar is often repulsive to most of us, but the truth is, many of us aren’t that far from crossing that bridge. In her essay, “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson analyzes not only the many occasions in which we lie, but also the meaning and consequences of those lies. Although Ericsson’s definitions are well articulated, the evidence she employs to support many of her statements lack depth.

Stephanie Ericsson’s “The Ways We Lie”, analyzes the prominent role of lying in everyone’s lives. In lies, both the liar and the person being lied to will suffer by having a false sense of security, reality, and honesty. Stephanie Ericsson uses interrogation, alliteration, and repetition in order to convey her idea about the art of lies.

How often do we lie and never consider the outcomes? In her essay, “The Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson explores the different types of lies and the consequences of their usage. She effectively provides anecdotal and factual evidence to support her definitions of lies.

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

Have you ever thought that things could never get worse? That this is going to be the worse part of your life and everything is going to be wonderful? More often than not this is never true, and in this instance in the book Lies by Michael Grant these kid’s lives are changing for the worst. It has been seven months now since all of the adults and teenagers at least the age of fifteen vanished out of nowhere like water in the desert (☺ Simile). Additionally, there is a gigantic dome that is enclosing Perdido Beach and Coates Academy and no one can get out. To make things even more interesting, there is no connection from the outside world and for some reason kids are developing powers and people are coming back from the dead. Also, there is a dearth of food and everyone is starving. Presently, there is a vast fire that is burning the town of Perdido Beach and Sam Temple (the leader of Perdido

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.

Stephanie Ericsson is a novelist. She does a great job explaining why people lie and the different types of lies in her essay “The Ways We Lie.” Ericsson’s essay was first published as the cover story for the Utne Reader magazine in 1993. Ericsson tries to send an important message through her essay: “Lying has influence on nearly everyone we have known.” As she describes her experiences with her partner, child, friend, and bank, the situation becomes very familiar to the readers which have gone through similar situations every day” (31,32,33).

There are a few main reasons why Lonnie does not feel good. It is important to view this situation from different perspectives to understand the deep meaning and the feelings he is experiencing. The relationship with his wife is the main problem that Lonnie faces. It is like a chaining problem which leads to other problems. It starts out with the poor communication that Lonnie and Clover have. For Instance, the only conversation they have together is about Clover’s changing her name, and in which they end up with arguing. Furthermore, it seems like that they don’t care about each other since they don’t discuss about the problems in any condition. They should face their problems which are very obvious. Anyhow, as we said that this is a chaining problem, it affects also Lonnie’s relationship to his own blood that he mentions every time as “the baby” from which we understand that there is something wrong and missing. Furthermore, the relationship to his boss and co-workers is even worse as he