There are people all over the world who have lied today -some little white lies to get out of something or a huge lie that can ruin your day. This is what happened in the short story, “The Lie”, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Eli, a 15 year old boy, who’s being pressured to go to White Hill for high school. He does not pass the entrance exam; he tells a lie to cover it up, even though he knew that his parents would find out sometime soon. Lying is something that Americans do too often and we need learn to tell the truth a little bit more. First of all, some people go to public schools, private schools or are home schooled, but in the short story, "The Lie", this boy is being forced to go to a boarding high school. This is a school where he will live in a dorm. It is like college but a high school. His dad works as a teacher and all of the males on his dad’s side have gone and graduated from White Hill. Over the summer he will get a letter in the mail from the school saying if he passed the entrance exam and that is where the whole lie starts. This story is very realistic. Everyone lies I tell lies. When I do something wrong I would tell my mom later that night or I would not tell them and forget about it. If they were to approach me I would tell the truth but otherwise I would not. You can usually tell if I am lying and then they know. I usually wait it out to tell them. It is after the lie that I can keep a straight face for a longer period of time so it looks like nothing is wrong.
In addition to this, the author wrote this story in 3rd person omniscient to make it easier to understand what each person’s thinking. If you know what each character is thinking then you can comprehend the story better and know each character more deeply. For example when Doctor Warren had to tell Eli’s parents that Eli did not make it we can tell that he is uncomfortable and sorry.
In the first place, we Americans lie to get out of things in everyday life. We need to learn how to tell the truth. What Eli did to hide the letter is perfectly normal, but wrong. This is something I would not do, but other people would. This piece is very important it gives us a visual of what is happening in the world right now.
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