Little Lies: An Analysis Of Pretense In Old School

Little Lies: An Analysis of Pretense in Old School
Old School is a very unique novel in its execution. It appears to contain an archetypal “coming of age” story, with Catcher in the Rye and Dead Poet’s Society being other notable examples. Such stories are told in a formulaic, almost cliched way. Catcher is a first person stream of consciousness and Dead Poet’s Society is a third person narrative. Both however, are continual and linear in their story structure. Old School seems to consist of fragments and jumps from story to story in an abrupt way. In many ways, it imitates the fragmented, post-modernist structure of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. That book also consists of fragments and is told in a nonlinear fashion, but in a more
This anecdote is significant in a few ways. The audience gets to finally read a complete story start to finish, the first and only one until Arch Makepeace’s concluding vignette. Also, Susan Friedman’s story mirrors the narrator’s life in a surprisingly large number of ways, which of course is the reason the narrator plagiarizes it in the first place. The parental issues (the narrator with his father and Susan with her mother), the need to escape their company (the narrator with Grandjohn and Patty and Susan with her mother), their secret Jewishness, and the pretense of class among more affluent friends are among the major similarities between the two. As the author puts it, “The whole thing came straight from the truthful diary [he]’d never kept.” The narrator was looking for a story that would impress Hemingway, but instead found his story. More importantly, he found the answer to the question he had been asking himself during his tenure at the school: “How do you begin to write truly?”
He had been violation of the Honor Code for many years now and had no right to punish lesser offenders, especially this one, who’d been caught up in the hysteria for which Arch held himself partly responsible” (184-185). Makepeace considered himself responsible for the boys’ adoration of Hemingway and also for the school’s enthusiasm and desire to bring him to visit. His pretense had changed his life right from its beginning. Boys would give him looks of admiration, people would come to him especially for advice, and his peers respected him above all others. In fact, he explains, “At crucial moments, strong, difficult men had deferred to him” (182). Makepeace, through his reputation of knowing Hemingway, had his value as a person of opinion increase greatly. Had it lasted for a few days before he clarified the situation, it would have been a simple misunderstanding that he could forget about. However, now, Makepeace is not Makepeace unless you factor in his reputation of knowing Hemingway. The headmaster, upon Makepeace quits but has to come back because he knows he belongs at the school he quit for his