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Symbolism In We Were Liars

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“The most beautiful things in life are not associated with money; they are the memories and moments. If you do not celebrate those, they can pass you by.” -- Alek Wek “We Were Liars” is a novel that focuses on family reality, love, competition, and mystery. Cadence Sinclair is the narrator who tells us about her journey through summers on her family’s beach island, trying to remember what happened to her during her accident. E. Lockhart uses strong symbolism, imagery and figurative language in her writing. Cadence, the protagonist, uses variations to describe her family affairs through fictional writing. Cadence frequently experiences headaches due to head injury and PTSD from her accident. As a result of this, she has to take medication. …show more content…

The Clairmont house is where Harris Sinclair lives. He owns all of the houses and things the aunties are fighting over. Cadence claims that it is just a house, not a home. “We burned not a home, but a symbol. We burned a symbol to the ground.” (Lockhart 152) The significance of this quote is how the house is filled with expensive things that will eventually tear the Sinclair family apart if they keep fighting. They care more about money and their inheritance than each other and the qualities of family. Cadence feels regret from not only ruining her grandad’s house, killing her friends, and making her family grieve; but also for killing the two innocent dogs that got trapped in the fire. Cadence was close to these dogs and cried at the thought of how much they suffered. “How could I have forgotten them like that? How could I have been so caught up in my own criminal exercises, the thrill of it, the anger at all the aunties and granddad?” (Lockhart 190) This quote shows symbolism because Cadence committed the crime only thinking about the effects it would have on the liars. She was not thinking about anything in her path except ruining the source of the problem. Clairmont and the golden retrievers are symbols of Cadence’s crime and the Sinclair family’s problems regarding

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