"The Lie" essay

Balance of Order

Kurt Vonnegut portrays a moral society in his short story “The Lie.” He does this by using a private boys’ school as his setting and calls it perfect. This shows that he has a lot of respect for order in this world, because fancy prep schools like the one in this story display a lot of strictness. In fact, the element of order can be found throughout the piece. However, chaos mixes into the story soon, and it causes a lot of trouble for the main character. “The Lie” by Kurt

Vonnegut shows that lying is never the right thing to do.
Whitehill School for Boys is just beginning to accept black students into the mix, and a good example of the order in the story lies here. The white students share no hate or bias against their colored classmates, which shows that they have a lot of self-control. The school’s name, Whitehill, does carry symbolism that whites are what to be expected in this school. Even though there is a lot of order in this piece, chaos is everywhere, and it can’t be stopped. The event of chaos is what makes this story interesting.

What would you do if you were forced to live a lie? In “The Lie,” Eli Remenzel is expected to

attend a school founded by his family. All boys who are members of the Remenzel family have attended this school. The young boy disdains this type of education, but applies anyway because his father believes that is what’s best for him. However, Eli does not pass Whitehill’s acceptance exams. When his father hears of this dreadful news, he rips up his test results and lies to permit his son to attend. Before he does this, the story even labels it as chaos. On page 39, it says “The chaos that followed this statement was not only emotional. It was real as well.”

The reality of this is that lying gets you nowhere in life. Sylvia, Eli’s elegant mother, was scared for her son because she knew of the “hideous trap Eli had caught himself in.” She was definitely right! Eventually, when Mr. Remenzel confesses of his wrongdoings, Eli shows very much resent. He has been hurt; torn at the heart from his trusted parent’s betrayal. Not only did Mr. Remenzel lie to the school board, but he lied to his own son as well. He apologizes to Eli, and promises that he should attend Whitehill no more. With that, the story is over, but if it were continued, it would most likely take Eli a while to forgive his father for his lie.

Chaos and order need balance, but in this story, one man goes too far. He hurts his son deeply with a lie he has forced him to live. In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “The Lie” teaches that lying is never the answer.