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The Way We Lie In Stephanie Ericsson's The Ways We Lie

709 Words3 Pages

Justin Luna
Eng 90
September 25, 2015

Have you ever wondered why we lie? Is it to make ourselves look good or is it because it's too embarrassing to tell the truth? I believe everyone lies in one way or another and that not all lies are intentionally told to cause harm. In fact, lying sometimes might be the best approach when it comes to protecting our privacy and ourselves.
The story I have chosen is Stephanie Ericsson’s The Ways We Lie, and it covers the different ways that we lie to each other and why we do it. The author herself has lied to her husband and her friends but she only does this to spare their feelings and to avoid confrontation. Ericsson says, “We lie. We all do….but it doesn’t hurt anything. Or does it?” (165). Ericsson gives us ten different types of lies. This includes white lies, facades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes/cliches, …show more content…

Stories eventually get mixed up and after a while, the person who started the lie doesn’t even know what the truth is any more. On a personal scale, you lose your credibility and people will not trust you anymore. Recall the story about the boy who cried wolf. While the boy gets hurt in the end because the villagers refused to come when there really was a wolf, the moral of the story was that lying could result in loss of trust. People will not believe you, even if you speak the truth, if you always lie. Trying to rebuild that trust will take a long time.
In conclusion, everyone lies in one way or another and not all lies are intentionally told to cause harm. In Ericsson’s The Way We Lie, she provides the different examples of lying and why we do it. We lie for many reasons and it’s been said that the truth can hurt sometimes. I too have lied but I don’t let it take control over my life as I doubt it's healthy to constantly lie on a daily basis. The more we lie, the more we become separated from everybody

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