The Unspoken Truth
Lies are a spreadable disease, once told you can never let go of lying. In the short story, “The Lie,” written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Eli Remenzel omits to tell the truth about the failed entrance exam to avoid disappointing his parents. Every Remenzel has gone to Whitehill and Eli has failed the entrance exams, but he rips up the letter that said he failed. He rips it up because he knows that his mother and father will be angry, maybe even furious. Even though he failed the entrance exams, he should have told the truth. The mode is one of the most important things an author most think about. This story in particular is an irony. The first point of irony is chaos, and chaos is when Eli and his family are in the car and Eli is scared to see how his parents will re-act after the untold truth is revealed. Next is insanity vs. sanity, this is where Dr. Remenzel is the insanity and Ms. Remenzel is sanity because once the truth has been told she says collected and he does not. Lastly is symbolic death, this symbolic death is when the chain of Remenzel going to Whitehill is broken. Also in writing a story you must include symbols.
Symbols are the only part of the story you have to dig for. The main symbols are the Rolls-Royse, Whitehill, and the entrance exam. The Rolls-Royse stand for the wealth the Remenzel’s have, Whitehill stands for the dream that Mr. Remenzel has used Eli for, and the entrance exam stands for the bridge to get to that dream. You see, the only way to see the symbols are to dig up the story. The only part the author doesn’t have to try hard is the characters.
The main characters are Eli, Mr. Remenzel, and Ms. Remenzel. Eli is quiet and subdued; he also tries to live up to the Remenzel name. Mr. Remenzel is a proud man also vain; he tries to keep the name of Remenzel in good fortune. Ms. Remenzel is a girl married to wealth, she never grew up with it, and she also is a little racist. These characters are the most interesting characters in the entire story.
If Eli told the truth, none of this chaos would have happened. During this story Mr. Remenzel told Eli never to use his last name in vain, but at the end of the story Mr. Remenzel uses in vain himself. In this story it’s normal in real life for a kid to feel pressured to do well in life, even if that means to lie. If you were in Eli’s shoes would you keep the truth from your parents?
