Ericsson The Ways We Lie Analysis

Deception is the act of deceiving; or the state of being deceived, which is something of very powerful nature. Deception can cause people to believe things that may or may not be true. Deception in most cases is used when an individual has a certain motive that he or she is trying to achieve. In the play Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, deception is present when Bertilak uses his wife to deceive Sir Gawain, by having her to try to seduce Sir Gawain on three different occasions. Although Sir Gawain remains loyal to Bertilak, Sir Gawain still takes the girdle; therefore, in the end Sir Gawain is left with a sense of failure, proving that Bertilak attained the motive he was seeking.

Many people wonder is it wrong to lie or are there some situation where lying is the best option? In the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, Mark Haddon shifts Christopher’s outlook on honesty and changed his outlook dramatically. Many people, including Christopher, believe in the statement “honesty is the best policy.” However while Christopher becomes more independent, he realizes that in some situations being dishonest might be the best answer. When his father lies to Christopher, Christopher follows his father’s actions and starts to comprehend when he must lie. Throughout the course of Christopher’s life, he begins to realize that lying is not always the wrong thing to do.

Quote 1: “The public defender, trying to get him off, called him a dumb animal,” I told her. “He said it would be like tying a hog down in that chair and executing him-an animal that didn’t know what any of it was all about. The jury, twelve white men good and true still sentenced him to death.” (26)

Most people tend to believe that lying is a way of life, that without it the whole world could crumble and fall. While some tend to believe that any form of lying is a sin and there should be consequences. One author, Stephanie Ericsson, wrote “The Ways We Lie” published in 1993 she talks about how we all lie, it has become an everyday chore to make life easier. She begins by trying to strengthen the bond between the reader and writer showing how they are one of the same. She does this by referencing past experiences, adding informed opinions, and using quotes from other well acknowledged authors, her argument is strong throughout the whole article that lying isn’t just evil, it can be used for good when used the right way.

In the essay "The Way We Lie," Stephanie Ericsson explains a few of the many reasons why we lie, "We avoid confrontation, we spare people's feelings, we conveniently forget, we keep secrets" (1992, p. 159). We want to avoid a big argument or fight that might make matters worse. We lie to protect another from the truth because it might be unbearable. A lie can come out of our mouth without much thought. We hold the

One of the greatest commandments written in history is “Thou Shalt not lie.” From a young age we have been taught of the negative effects of lying. We are taught, as toddlers, not to cheat on tests and punished for our dishonesty when caught. But as we grow older we discover that lying is not as terrible as we were raised to believe. Sometimes lying is safer than the truth. Lying helps us to protect the well-being of family and friends. Deception and secrecy are two major themes of Lois Lowry’s The Giver. While being dishonest is against the rules in The Giver, the survival of the community is dependent on deception and secrecy. Lying is written into the daily lives of the people of the community, and used so commonly that people are not aware

In “The Way We Lie”, author Stephanie Ericsson gives her readers a list of ten lie we sometime use it for a purpose and sometime we did not realize we did it. She starts out her story with four lie she used in the same morning as she is starting out her day. She explains these lie are intentionally use to minimize the complications and make the day goes much smoother. However, she questions whether these lie can actually make an impact on the person who carry out and the person who receive the lie.

Stephanie Ericsson begins her explorative essay, “The Ways We Lie,” with a personal anecdote of all the lies she fabricated in one day. She told her bank that a deposit was in the mail when it was not, told a client that the traffic had been bad when she was late for other reasons, told her partner that her day was fine when it was really exhausting, and told her friend she was too busy for lunch when she just was not hungry, all in the course of a day. She shifts from talking about herself to talking about everyone, claiming that all people lie, exaggerate, minimize, keep secrets, and tell other lies. But, like herself, most still consider themselves honest people. She describes a week in which she tried to never tell a lie; it was debilitating, she claims. Furthermore, telling the truth all the time has serious consequences. She postulates that lying, though a form of hedging, must have some merit. She cites a broad definition of a lie from Webster’s dictionary, and asserts that this definition includes many types of lying.

In Ericsson’s essay she wrote about why lying threatens to become a “cultural cancer”. To explain why we lie, she tells us about different types of lies, and how they can still be harmful despite having good intentions. Ericsson is correct that lying threatens to become a “cultural cancer”. Lying threatens to become a “cultural cancer” because it can lead people going to a wrong direction. It can turn statements into excuses that can help people manipulate others. Also, it can make a person win over another person.

In the Ted Talk “How to Spot a Liar” By Pamela Meyer, She spoke about the tells of a liar and why people lie. Meyers had two truths, Truth #1 lying is a cooperative act. The lie has no power until the receiver believes the lie. Everyone who has been lied to has agreed to be lied too, for example when a lady asks her husband if she looks fat in a certain clothing item. Both he and she know that there is only one good answer to that question, the women just gave the man permission to lie to her. Meyer said “lying is an attempt to connect are wishes and our fantasies on who we are with we were and how we wish we could be with what we're really like” meaning, we lie to pretend to be someone we aren't. Then Meyer answered the question of when do we lie? A person can be lied to

In our society, many people assume that lying is something wrong to do; they use to say that you always have to tell the truth no matter the situation. I believe those people are certainly wrong because it is impossible for any human being to always tell the truth, Mark Twain said “Lying is universal—we all do it.” This world would be so bizarre if everyone would speak only the truth. It is just something that would never happen, but people are fooling themselves thinking that lying is wrong, that we must tell the truth always.

In her presentation Pamela Meyer claims that on any given day we're lied to from 10 to 200 times, and the clues to identify those lie can be inconspicuous and unreasonable. She demonstrates the conduct and "hotspots" used by those trained to recognize deception - and she argues honesty is a value worth saving.

After reading the book Tangerine by Edward Bloor, it is evident that the most important theme in the book is lies and deceit, and that lies can break a person down over time. One piece of evidence that proves this is the fact that Eric stole jewelry and precious items almost all through the book and nothing was done about till mom finally felt sick at heart about the situation and decided to address it. This is important because it ties back to the main theme in this book lies and deceit and it showed how far the pauls family would go to give Eric another chance. Eric wasn’t the only one that had to keep a lie Antoine had a fake address for every year he was at Lake Windsor just to play football there. Eventually, Antoine

A toolbox filled with many different tools that have many different purposes can be used to put broken things back together, or take whole things apart. This all depends on the person with the tools and their intentions. One could also substitute the toolbox for the act of lying and all of the tools inside of the box for the different types of lies that there are. In the essay written by Stephanie Ericsson, “The Ways We Lie” she examines and explains from her personal experience the different types of lies that there are. One might say that lying is immoral, and a terrible thing to do, but this just depends on how you lie and what your intentions are with the lies that you tell. If one deliberately puts oneself in a situation where they must commit a selfish lie in order to protect their reputation solely, then this would be an immoral lie. However, if one lies in order to help prevent harm or sadness upon another person than there is a logical and unselfish reason for the lie.

Lying diminishes trust between human beings. If people generally did not tell the truth, life would become very difficult, as nobody could be trusted and nothing a person heard or read could be trusted Everyone would have to find everything out for himself. Lying is bad because it treats those who are lied to as a means to achieve the liar’s purpose, rather than as a valuable end in themselves. Lies are bad for a person's health also, It can cause a person's brain to get used to lying about things and to get in a habit that is not one that a person needs to get