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September Leaves

                    
A Literary Analysis of Kurt Vonnegut’s Short Story, “The Lie” 

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.



Fall Assessment, 2010

Magic and the Nights River fallows the tragedy plot line. This short story also had some lessons, show respect to someone and they will respect you back, and if a family works together anything can be possible. There are 3 main characters in this book that help teach us these lessons, grandpa, Kano, and the little boy Yoshi. The birds are also a main part of the story they show respect to the grandpa and help him get the fish for the fishing night. This story has many lessons that can help us in everyday life.
The key to this book is respect and if you show someone respect there is a great chance they will show respect back to you. When Kano, the boat renter, handled the birds he would throw them and they would squawk in their little basket, no respect. The birds would be set in the boat very gently and kindly by grandpa. In return the birds helped him fish on the night he would light the lantern. Another lesson was if family works together anything is possible.
When grandpa would go fishing Yoshis’ cousins would come along and they would help him on the boat and Yoshi, his grandson, would help him steer the boat to the fish. Grandpa was getting older and even with the kids help he was not that good so the renter that he rented his boat from said that he would not give the boat to grandpa if he did not catch the most fish at the fishing night. With the help of his family they could have a way they could get the boat steered and the fish caught so grandpa could keep renting his boat. This is what I thought made it a tragedy.
This book is a tragedy, grandpa is mad because Kano is treating the birds with no respect and he may lose his boat. But he lights the torch for boating night, his canoe is packed and ready to go of course his family and the birds are on the boat with him. Problem is grandpa is old and he can’t fish as well as he could before, for that the boat owner said he won’t let grandpa rent his boat anymore. Kano gets mad and lets all the birds go; now grandpa does not have the birds to help him fish the most fish. In the end Grandpa lets all his fish go.
All in all this short story, Magic and the Nights River, tells us that family is what matters and if you respect somebody they will respect you back. This story has many lessons that can help us in everyday life.