Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Deception Essay on Three Stories

Good Essays
801 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Deception Essay on Three Stories
Period 3
November 19, 2011 Literary Essay Assignment

“Charles”, “A Mother in Mannville”, and The Giver Essay

Most often in literature, common themes are an aspect that different works tend to share. As a matter of fact, the short stories “Charles” by Shirley Jackson, “A Mother in Mannville” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, all discuss the message of deception. In each story, the protagonist dealt with the deception, and the motivation behind the deception was controversial as well. In the same way, the theme of deception was expressed to the readers. In “Charles”, the mother or narrator was deceived by none other than her son Laurie. The motivation behind the deception in that Laurie might be seeking attention. For example, stated in the story, ‘“Well, Charles was bad again today.” He grinned enormously and said, “Today Charles hit the teacher”’ (pg.6). This quote shows that Laurie wants attention from his parents and will do anything to get it; even lie to them and be proud about it. As a result of the deception, the mother attends the PTA meeting in hopes of discovering Charles’s mother. Stated by the narrator, “At the meeting, I sat restlessly, scanning each comfortable matronly face, trying to determine which one hid the secret of ‘Charles’” (pg. 11). Clearly, the deception in “Charles” was caused by the attention seeking of Laurie and was a substantial cause of his behavior. The writer in “A Mother in Mannville” was deceived by Jerry. In fact, Jerry was motivated to deceive the writer because he wanted to connect with her and create a mother from her. An example from the text stated, ‘“I think it’s 81/2,” he said. He looked at my hands. “Do you wear 81/2?” he asked. “No. I wear a smaller size, a 6.” “Oh then I guess her hands are bigger than yours”’ (pg. 64). This quote exemplifies that even though he doesn’t have a mother; Jerry tries to compare the writer to a mother so that he could build a close relationship with her. Also, the quote ‘“Come in, Jerry,” I said, “if you’re allowed to be away this late.” “I told maybe a story,” he said. “I told them you would want to see me”’ (pg. 63), shows that Jerry will lie to his orphanage in order to become closer to the writer. In dealing with the deception, the writer didn’t even acknowledge the boy’s cries for a relationship and continues with her frequent business plans to escape the situation. For example, stated by the writer, “I was a trifle abstracted about the boy, because of my work and plans. After my first fury at her- we did not speak of her again- his having a mother, any sort at all, not far away, in Mannville, relieved me of the ache I had him”’(pg. 64). Furthermore, the deception in “A Mother in Mannville” was caused by Jerry’s wanting of a mother and the craving of a close relationship with someone, but it was a shame how the protagonist dealt with it. Throughout the novel The Giver, Jonas, as well as the rest of his community was deceived by the Committee of Elders. In addition, the reason for the deception is the wanting of “Sameness” and the elimination of differences. As shown in the text, ‘“Climate Control. Snow made growing food difficult, limited the agricultural periods. And unpredictable weather made transportation almost, impossible at times. It wasn’t a practical thing, so it became obsolete when we went to Sameness”’ (pg. 80). Fortunately, Jonas dealt with the deception by coming up with an escape plan to seek freedom from his reprimanded society. He came up with this plan with the Giver after discovering the true process of release. As stated in the novel, “For the next two weeks, as the time for the December Ceremony approached, the Giver would transfer every memory of courage and strength that he could to Jonas. He would need those to help him find the Elsewhere that they were both sure existed. They knew it would be a difficult journey” (pg. 148). Therefore, the deception in The Giver was very crucial to the story considering it caused the protagonist to leave his own community to seek a better life for himself. Frequently in works of literature, stories share common themes. The short stories “Charles” by Shirley Jackson, “A Mother in Mannville” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, similarly, share the theme of deception. Although the motivations for the deception are different, the protagonists of each story are deceived by a trustworthy person in their lives. Overall, the message of deception was conveyed in each story and was involved in the progression of the plot.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Harry Lavender Essay

    • 269 Words
    • 1 Page

    Deception is an integral element conveyed in The Life and crimes of Harry Lavender. The idea of deception and facades is particularly shown though both protagonist and antagonist, as well as Sydney’s duality of light and dark.…

    • 269 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When authors begin to develop a story, he or she takes ample time to ensure the story has some meaning or a message behind the wording. Both Nathaniel Hawthorn’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are examples of how authors tell stories that have an underlying message. Both Shirley Jackson and Nathaniel Hawthorn use themes and much symbolism in their short stories show the fallibleness of human behavior and judgment.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unreliable Narrator Essay

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gothic literature intends to thrill readers leaving them confused, or to dwell on the thought that there is something beyond us. Two widely known gothic literature authors and their works are “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe, and “ An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce. Poe and Bierce not only write gothic literature, but both authors utilize unreliable narrators in their works to their advantage. Poe and Bierce had different intentions for the effect of the unreliable narrator on their audiences. Poe’s unreliable narrator constantly switches back and forth between reality and fantasy. “Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan” (Poe 117). Bierce’s unreliable narrator draws confusion, leaving his readers confused and puzzled. “Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge” (Bierce 8). These gothic narrators have readers engaged in the text, figuring out what really is occurring.…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Arthur Miller makes the claim “Lies and deceit can cause the worst trouble in a community”. This can be seen when Sarah Good, an old lady who is believed to be a witch, is asked to recite the 10 commandments to prove she isn't a witch. In the play titled The Crucible ,by Arthur Miller, Mary Warren, a young housemaid, is talking to Proctor and Elizabeth, a christian couple, and she states that, “Aye, but then Judge Hathorne say, ‘Recite for us your commandments!’ - leaning avidly toward them - and of all the ten she could not say a single one. She never knew no commandments, and they had her in a flat lie!” This means that Judge Hawthorne only judges by the peoples ability of reciting the 10 commandments, and if they fail, they are assumed…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I Stand Here Ironing

    • 569 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The central idea in this story seems to be the mother’s search of an understanding of her daughter’s personality and outlook on life. The majority of the story is the mother trying to depict reasons for why her daughter is the way she is, so delicate, reserved, needless, and even unhappy at times. She seems to also defend her parenting choices by making excuses or blaming the urges of others in order to not have all the blame on her. She speaks about how she had no other option but to put her in the care of someone else at the age of two, even though she knew the teacher was “evil” (Pg. 925). “It was the only place there was…the only way I could hold a job” (pg. 925).…

    • 569 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Lies In The Crucible

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” According to award-winning author and screenwriter Stephen King, liars have the ability to utilize the trust of the innocent to accomplish their own agenda. Similarly, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible delves into the inner workings that motivate people to lie. To illustrate this, Miller uses the various characters of the play to represent the different motives to lie which include fear, lust, and greed. As the play progresses, it becomes clear that all of these motives occur mainly due to self-interest and desire.…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Narrative Conventions

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Short stories often develop a theme in a short time frame. Their authors must do this with limited settings and characters. The short story Killer, written by Paula Goslings, contains many themes with the main one being deception. One of the ways the author expresses this is through the narrative convention of style or mood. In this piece the convention of plot is also utilised by the author to develop this idea. Characterisation is another narrative convention successfully utilised to explore this theme. By themselves these elements are nothing, but when together, they effectively portray the theme of deception in the fantastic short story Killer.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    On the other hand, Laurie is a kindergartener that made up a kid who was named Charles. He made up Charles so he didn’t get in trouble by his parents for doing all of those things to his teachers, peers, and classmates. You can tell that Laurie is Charles in the story because they both have the same personalities. Laurie said to his dad “Hi, Pop, y’old dust mop’’ which is the way Charles acts. Some…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    George Henry Lewes once said, “Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength”. In the story “Rocking Horse Winner”, by D.H Lawrence the mother Hester appears to be an ideal and caring mother, but in reality she is not. In the story “Tears, Idle Tears”, by Elizabeth Bowen Mrs. Dickinson (the mother) cares about how people perceive her in public more than her son’s emotions. Both Hester and Mrs. Dickinson are insincere but, Mrs. Dickinson is more insincere than Hester. Mrs. Dickinson can be very self-centered when it comes to her image. Hester enjoys impressing others by showing false affection towards her children. Mrs. Dickinson criticizes her son to maintain her own reputation.…

    • 923 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My perspective of the article is that I think the police should do thorough investigation, and that the article does explain very well of how a false confession can occurred. This topic does not affect me in a negative way. It show me that when I become a detective one day, I should be focusing on getting the truth, try to make that 21% decrease. It is significant because we in trust that our law enforcement will do a great job of getting evidence. But hearing that false confession could happen to anyone and possibly putting innocent in jail is world and it will affect the community. I hope the police well do a better job at detecting false confession, and preventing innocent from being lock up.…

    • 127 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Ways We Lie Essay

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lying is “a false statement or action made with the intent to deceive.” (Ericsson1) Lying is a bad thing for anyone to do for various reasons. Three writers that agree are Stephanie Ericsson author of “The ways we Lie”, Richard Gunderman author of “is lying bad for us?”, and Angela Haupts author of “How lying affects your health”. These three writers give great insight on how these lies can affect ones mental health, as well as their psychological health and also how you can improve from those negative symptoms from lying.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Deception Essay

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Othello is a mind-blowing tragedy about betrayal, trickery and how envy can be taken to another level. Most will say the theme of Shakespeare’s “Othello” is deception. Othello is a black general in the service of Venice. Othello promotes a man named Cassio to be his right hand man in his army. Iago, the protagonist of the story though that he was going to get the promotion of lieutenant, but when he did not he became furious and seeks revenge on Othello. This was the turning point of the play when in almost every incident a degree of deception would take place. Deception appeared many times in Othello, The few characters that were deceitful greatly affected the sequence of events. Those characters all use different degrees of deception to get what they want in the play.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    She was shocked, did Jerry really lied to her all along. I needed to talk to him. Poor boy, how long did he go without a mom. But why, why would he lie about his mother. I went back to the cabin. Could it be possibly the reason he was lying was because he wanted a mother so bad that he pretended to have one. I couldn't stop thinking about it. The next day jerry came to chop some wood, as he usually did, but today was his last time working for me for the next day, I was going to head to Florida. Maybe he wasn't lying, maybe he saw me as a mother figure. I couldn't just leave him here. I asked him if he ever been to Florida. "No I haven't, what made you bring up this question any way" he said. Oh nothing.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A suspect confessing to a crime is often thought of in a sort of “nail in the coffin” way when it comes to a trial. When a suspect is accused of a crime, and they admit to it themselves, that confession is often prioritized over other evidence. Not only do confessions appeal to a jury, but they generally reassure a witness that they made the right decision when identifying a suspect. However, confessions aren’t always the most reliable source. False confessions account for around 25% of wrongful incarcerations that were later overturned thanks to DNA evidence proving the confessor’s innocence. A study conducted in 2009 aimed to quantify how suspect’s confessions can sway witness testimonies.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Truth Telling

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Truth-telling is a moral issue or argument that has caused many problems in healthcare. That is why it is significant that people should truly understand what truth-telling means. Defined in the medical dictionary truth-telling is, a nursing intervention from the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) defined as use of whole truth, partial truth, or decision delay to promote the patient's self-determination and well-being (Keane 175). According to Thomasma, in the article “Telling the Truth to Patients: A Clinical Ethics Exploration”, truth-telling to a patient is important because it is “a right, a utility, and a kindness,” but it can be trumped by more important values (Thomasma 141). According to Lipkin, in the article “On Telling Patients the Truth” he argues that because the stress of being sick can distort patients’ thinking and because they lack understanding of medical concepts, it is…

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays