The historical fictional novel, Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys, takes four main characters, Florian, Joana, Alfred, and Emilia, on one shocking adventure to get onto the ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, to escape the war that’s hunting them throughout Germany. They encounter death, happiness, and tragedy, which brings them closer. Their lives intervene as they learn to forget their past and get a fresh start. One theme that is learned by the characters is that honesty bonds people together and builds trust, while lies ruin that trust.
Honesty helps people bond. One of the characters, Emilia, lies about her life at the Kleist’s farm and about her friend August, who she said she was married to because she was ashamed of being raped by a Russian soldier. She thought if she lied about it to everyone, including herself, then
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It doesn’t take courage, but honesty does. Nevertheless, it could be said that lies protect your mistakes and secrets. While this is a fair point, because lies protect your secrets, it fails to account that if one is not brave enough to take the penalty for their actions, then they are cowardly. This displays that lying to protect yourself is the coward's way out. If someone lies and keeps secrets when people are trying to help you, then they are just building a wall between them. This demonstrates that you are not willing to change. Honesty is courage and reveals that you are willing to try harder and that you trust the person you are telling it to.
In the end, the characters get on the ship because they were honest to each other and built trust. They sacrificed for each other by giving their food or clothes to each other. They built long-lasting relationships because they trusted and were honest with each other. When someone tells the truth, it changes everything, they are opening up. It bonds them together, while lying closes you off. Ruta Sepetys demonstrates the theme of honesty is built by trust throughout this
People don’t always deal with the same issues in the same way. In the novel, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, author Michael Dorris explores the perspectives of three women whose stories are tangled together through a history of secrets and lies. Rayona, Christine, and Ida all deal with their own share of hardships throughout the course of the novel. As each new perspective is revealed, it becomes clear that our three protagonists face issues with self discovery, a desire to fit in, and personal growth. Despite that though, each one deals with those problems in different ways. Apologetic, aggressive, and distant--Dorris’s effective use of word choice enables the reader to tap into the mindsets of each of these characters, allowing us to see
Viorst opens her article by explaining social lies. She describes these as lies to avoid hurt, such as lying to a cousin by pretending to enjoy dinner. Judith believes they are necessary and acceptable; without them, relationships would be icky and short. By being honest and not telling white lies a person can come off harsh. Furthermore, Viorst thinks that not telling social lies is arrogant.
In these stories, lying has been crucial to not only the storyline, but to saving the lives of others. If Mary would not have been pregnant, then her deceit would not have been right. If Nora only wanted to go to the South to shop, she would have been wrong to lie under her dying father name on the bond. In actuality, these were not the cases. As a result, lying is, in fact, justified under the right circumstances.
Lying makes things complicated in ways that it can help or not in your situation. In the movie, “The Hunger Games,” Katniss and her teammate Peeta pretend that they’re in love with each other so they would get more sponsors and possibly be the two people to win. After they find out that there could only be one winner, Katniss pulled out poisonous berries so both Peeta and her could eat them to trick the capitol on letting them both win and go home. The lie worked, and they were both pronounced to be the victors. In the story Scarlet Letter, lying was also going on to fit into society. The character Hester was pregnant while she was single; so society judged her for it. While this was happening the text revealed that Dimmesdale, the pastor, was actually the father of the baby, but due to the fact he was the “holy man” he couldn’t say it. Hester, trying to protect Dimmesdale from the judgment of the crowd, wouldn’t say who was the dad, she kept lying to the society so it wouldn’t hurt more people. Society can make us lie to fit in or outsmart each other to get ahead of
...al to peers, the world, and even one’s self. If one lies about their feeling towards another person, there is chance that person can find out. If they find out, he or she will be extremely angry and there is a chance that the friendship will be in ruins. Lying can ruin the world, as seen by the omission of the goddess Lilith and stereotypes. Finally, excessive lying can lead to a decreased self-value. Eventually you will begin to delude yourself, and find it nearly impossible to escape the never-ending cycle of lies. Ericsson incorporates these feelings of little to no self-value in the last section of her essay when she speaks of delusion and her conclusion. Her main argument is that little lies can turn into large lies, and can cause a sort of cultural cancer. She appeals to the audience through the use of self-worth in an effort to further appeal to her audience.
In the beginning of “The Ways we Lie”, Ericsson begins by lying to the bank, her client, and even her partner. What would have happened if she had decided to tell the truth? Well Ericsson tried going a week without lying and this is what happened, “The bank charges me $60 in overdraft fees, my partner keels over when I tell him about my travails, my client fire me for telling her I didn’t feel like being on time, and my friend takes it personally when I say I’m not hungry” (Ericsson). The truth is being honest can hurt just as badly as telling a lie. Ericsson lists several ways that people lie, “The White Lie, Facades, Ignoring the Plain Facts, Deflecting, Omission, Stereotypes and Clichés, Groupthink, Out-and-Out Lies, Dismissal, Delusion” which are just a few ways that we lie. Ericsson successfully makes her case, “Sure I lie, but it doesn’t hurt anything. Or does it”. By incorporating personal experiences in her essay, which she demonstrates moments where she has been a liar and a candid person her audience is able to accept reality. Yes lying is bad of course it is, but “We lie. We all do” whether it hurts someone or not is simply a matter of how it’s being told. As Ericsson confirmed through her one week of honesty, “it’s not easy to eliminate lying completely from our
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
Traditionally, it is agreed that any and every form of telling the truth is always the best thing to do. In the essays of Stephen L Carter and Stephanie Ericsson, this ideal is not exactly true. It is expressed in "The Insufficiency of Honesty" as well as "The Ways We Lie" that honesty is hard to come by and that there is more to it than believed. The authors convey their views by first defining what the concept is, picking it apart, and then use common occurrences for examples of the points they had made.
Telling the truth can have some consequences, but a lie can cause more damage in a relationship once it has been figured out. People believe that by just lying, a problem is solved, but problems start when lies are told. Lying destroys relationships and truth builds honest relationships which, can last forever. In both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Rob Marshall’s Chicago, characters lie because they feel that it is easier. However, lying leads to a downward- spiral. The society we live in can either lead us to a complicated relationship with the truth or easygoing. The problem with constantly telling lies is that it starts off with one, then leads to another until everything you say is a lie. Being truthful
But this isn’t the definition of courage. Courage is being able to act in the face of danger or in an uncomfortable state. Being stubborn and brash is the exact opposite, as someone acting as such may danger others and/or may be comfortable by standing alone. A prime example is shown in 12 Angry Men, as Juror 8 and Juror 3 represent courage and arrogance. At one time in the film, they both stand alone against a room full of people thinking against them, but how they act to it makes them who they are. Unlike how Juror 8 sways others individually, Juror 3 refused to act politely and focuses on himself, making others not appreciate him and seeing him as a barrier to
When you’re honest about the things you do, you don’t have to carry burdens about lying. Being honest can lead you to being happy because you made the right the decision to begin with. Doing honest deeds are rewarded to the people who tell the
Talk – “Secrecy is the strength of shame.” (p. 71) Confession for men may be difficult because they want to be perceived as smart and successful. Remember, we are human, not a god. We all make mistakes and fail on our journey in life. The author gives a list of to whom you can talk. To develop courage it may be helpful to use the symbolic two chair approach and practice what you are going to say.
According to Glass (2013), lying can be major piece of human relationship. In some cases, it permits us to blend in and survive in association with people in the world (p.19). Glass (2013) mentioned that there are seven reasons why a person lie. First of all, people lie to avoid hurting other’s feelings. In Dawson (2006) example, “Julie may have just saved her friendship by telling a lie” (p.43). Julie lied to Pat about her ugly dress just to avoid offending her. Secondly, people will lie for ulterior motives. For instance, one will lie to keep his/her job, or one will make a sale to get the client impressed and want to buy from him/her. Third, people will lie for self-protection. For example, when a person is a witness of a crime, he would lie, not to protect the criminal, but rather to not be considered as a snitch. And nowadays, being a snitch or being on the side of the law means risk to you and to your loved ones. Fourth reason is lying to present a positive image of himself and avoid rejection. Most of the single people who are searching for a mate go on a dating site. However, in this site, not all information are valid. People tend to lie about their weight, their height, their job, and their age just to present a better picture of themselves to someone else. In a few words, they are making an effort not to be rejected from first look. The fifth reason to lie is to avoid any
You can tell a lot about a person by the way they dress, by the cars they drive, and by the people they associate themselves with. You can also learn a lot about a person by what they say, because their honesty, or lack-there-of, shows the type of person they are. When a person is forthright, it is easy to believe and trust the person; however, when the person has tendencies to be misleading or manipulative, the trust is not as evident. To lie, according to www.answers.com, means to present false or invalid information with the intent of deceiving or misleading another person. Choosing to lie to people is a self-dilemma that one has, and this act may alter the relations they have with the people they lie to. Some lie and completely change the information they are spreading, altering the story for some reason or another. Other people simply leave a couple of facts out, speaking carefully and holding back parts of the story for their own benefit or to make the listener think differently. It is a question as to whether either method is good, and what could happen by speaking in such ways to another person. In George Bernard Shaw’s play, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Mrs. Warren is careful when she speaks to Vivie so she can keep parts of her life hidden from her daughter; by not stating all of the facts, one may wonder if Mrs. Warren is lying to Vivie, or simply leaving out information.
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