The Ways We All Lie

Professor Jackowe

English 111-11:40-1:00

November 1st, 2016

The Ways We All Lie

Since childhood, one is taught not to lie. One is told that lying is wrong. There is a saying that states “the truth will set you free”. Telling the truth could be beneficial, but the truth may also make a situation worse. No one likes to hear the truth especially if it is about something that really affects him or her. The truth sucks. In some instances, lying sucks even more. Lying may get you out of a situation faster, but one would have to keep on lying to keep that original lie from failing. Lying is like a snowball effect. You have to keep lying over and over again until you have nothing else to lie about. Then again, lying could lead to a good thing. Say there was an instance where one is trying to surprise someone. It would not be a surprise if you tell them what it is. One would obviously have to keep the secret from them. Which is a lie of omission. Lying is a tricky thing to think about though. One may absolutely love the feeling of lying. Lying could give you a feeling of euphoria. One may know that what they are doing is wrong, but they love that feeling of being deceitful. Lying can be good in certain cases, but lying can be bad in others. The truth will always hurt either the liar to the person being lied to.

In The Storm by Kate Chopin, there is lying all throughout the story. Calixta is married to a man she does not truly love. She is with Bobinot because she knows she could never be with Alcee. Alcee was in a higher class than Calixta. Calixta is lying to herself. She's ignoring the plain facts. The fact is that shcxbe has such a great connection with Alcee and Calixta share a sense of intimacy. They cannot keep their hands off each other. Calixta allowed Alcee into her home while Bobinot and Bibi were at Friedheimer’s. Alcee and Calixta had sex. She cheated on Bobinot. Of course she isn’t going to tell Bobinot about it either. She is living in this life of delusion. She isn’t thinking of the consciences of her actions if it so happened that Bobinot found out what had happened. Alcee is also lying to himself too. He thinks he has this wonderful marriage with Clarisse but they both enjoy being away from each other. "Devoted as she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something which she was more than willing to forego for awhile" (Storm 3). Clarisse enjoys being in Biloxi with the kids. She's not doing something horrible by not telling Alcee she likes her freedom. That means Clarisse's white lie wasn’t all that bad. She wasn’t putting Alcee in a bad position nor was she hurting him. Alcee was just fine without her there. Calixta is putting up a façade. She and everyone else knows what happened in Assumption and she just hides behind a fake version of herself. She’s still the same girl she was in Assumption. One would be able to tell by the simple fact that she got with Alcee all over again. The story ends with “So the storm passed and everyone was happy” (Storm 3). Everyone was happy with a lie though even if they do not realize it. Calixta was going to go back to always being angry with Bibi and Bobinot. Alcee was going to continue to believe he has a wonderful marriage. Bobinot is never going to know his wife cheated on him. Clarisse is going like her maiden days better, which could infer that she isn’t really into the whole marriage with Alcee. She’s not cheating but she may not want to be married.

In Kate Chopin’s other work At The Cadian Ball, All the characters lie even if they don't realize it. Bruce lies to Clarisse about Alcee’s whereabouts. Bruce tries to cover up for Alcee because Bruce is Alcee’s servant. Also, Bruce knows what Alcee went through with the crops and how badly Alcee was feeling. It is evident why Bruce would do that for Alcee. Bruce tells Clarisse