Cady's Injury In 'We Were Liars'

When Cady woke up after hitting her head on a rock while swimming, she never would have guessed the secrets and excuses that would soon be masterminded by her own family. In her novel, We Were Liars, E. Lockhart writes about Cadence Sinclair Eastman, also known as Cady. Cady struggles throughout the book as she attempts to remember the events that occurred before and during her traumatic head injury, which left her with significant memory loss and hallucinations. In the summer, she lives on a private island with her extended family. Her grandfather, Harris Sinclair, is extremely wealthy, allowing his daughters to primarily live off of deep trust funds. As Cady spends the summer with the Liars, a group consisting of her cousins, Mirren and Johnny,

After the fire that the Liars set is exposed, Cady sets off to question her mother. Instead of feeling relieved that she knows more, the only thing that she can think about is why her mother actively kept the event from her. She goes to see her mother, and argues about how she would never “‘want [her] whole extended family keeping secrets from [her]—even the twins, even Will and Taft,... rather than know what happened?’”. Her mother snaps back, confirming that she believes Cady is “‘so fragile [she] can’t even know simple facts’”, as well as states she wasn’t “‘sure [she] could handle [Cady’s] reaction’” (Lockhart 206) to finding out about the events. When Cady finally confronts her mother by listing all of the people that have kept secrets from her at her mother’s command, she emphasizes how isolated they all made her feel, since it seemed like everyone on the island was working against her. Instead of apologizing for her obvious wrong, her mother decided to explain to Cady all of the reasons why she didn’t tell her. Both of the weak reasons, Cady being too fragile and her mother not being able to handle the reaction, made Cady feel humiliated. All summer, she had been focused on her efforts to relearn her traumatic events, and all summer, her mother had been keeping them from her for seemingly selfish reasons. Cady felt undermined, since it would have been less complicated to have been told by her mother all along. Cady even understands that a betrayal has occurred, actively noting that she is hurt by her mothers actions. At the end of the book, Cady finally learns the truth that was kept from her for two years, that the Liars died in the fire, and she is led into a depressive state. Cady notes that the “knowledge goes from [her] spine down [her] shoulders and through [her] fingertips”, and even “turns them to ice.” She feels her body “chip and break,” and the