The Lie Kurt Vonnegut Summary
The short story “The Lie” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. follows the Remenzel family and the secret Eli has been hiding from his parents. Eli was born into a high class family, all of whom have been accepted to the prestigious school Whitehill. Eli however, did not pass the entrance exams and has hid this fact from his parents. Due to this they believe he was accepted and when they learn the truth both parents change their opinions about entitlement. A lesson this story suggests is that those who believe they are entitled will deny it until they don’t get what they want.
Even at the very start of the story we get a hint of entitlement from the Remenzels. This is mainly due to the comments from the mother about Eli. She claims multiple times that Eli should get special treatment due to who he is. She mainly does this to annoy the father and somewhat agrees when he tells her no but we can still see how much she believes it is true. This is shown in the quote, “I just can’t help thinking people named Remenzel are entitled to ask for a little something extra.” This provokes the father to say that Remenzels have never asked for anything and should never ask. This is significant because at that moment he believed Eli had gotten into Whitehill.
Entitlement is shown again towards the middle of the story. This is when the parents speak of the
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It is shown that the father does not like to be denied as it is embarrassing to him. A quote that exemplifies this says, “There’s a majority of the Board of Overseers in this room at this very moment. Every one of them is a close friend of mine or a close friend of my father. If they tell Doctor Warren Eli’s in that’s it-Eli’s in.” This illustrates the theme because when the father is denied he quickly changes his opinion and his tone. This longer quote shows the chaos in the father’s head as he begins to panic. This is all while he is trying to avoid embarrassment and get what he
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