Irony In Avi's 'Nothing But The Truth'

Nothing but the Truth is a thought provoking book by the author Avi. It is the story of a young boy named Philip who recently started high school. He has an entertaining sense of humor and he loves to run track. One his teachers, though, dislikes him. She does not get his sense of humor at all, and he fails her class. This makes it so he can’t run track. One day in her homeroom, while the national anthem is playing, Philip starts humming along quietly. In anger, Miss Narwin (the teacher in question) kicks him out of class. Eventually, he is suspended. Next, in anger and because of pressure from his father, Philip makes the situation public and helps with an article about it. Soon, everything is crashing down around him as the situation escalates.

First up is his suspension. His suspension was not fair whatsoever. Students don’t listen to teachers all the time, and they don’t get suspended. He wasn’t even creating a scene. Students only got distracted when Miss Narwin started to pick on him. Miss Narwin was definitely biased against Philip. She was clearly annoyed with him, and that is what caused her to act up in such a way. Some might say that Philip chose his punishment of suspension, but he wasn’t given many options, and he was too stubborn and pressured to say anything else. Philip was given the options of suspension or apology. He really couldn’t apologize, though. He was a stubborn kid who was going through some rough stuff. Also, his father didn’t give him much of a choice. His father even said “Phil, listen to me. Don’t give in to that crap. Don’t let them push you around.” (57) Philip couldn’t have apologized because he would feel like he let his father down. As a result, Philip had to take the unfair punishment of suspension. Another unfair punishment Philip receives is that he is treated so horribly by his classmates and teachers after the whole blowup with the article, that he feels he has no choice but to go to a private school. It’s no secret that private schools are expensive. Philip is being punished, his family is being

At the end of the story a sad and desolate Philip is forced to use his college money to get into a new school. The school doesn’t even have a track team. All is for nothing in the end. Philip is lost. Who knows what will happen to him? All of this is very unfair. Yes he made bad decisions, but don’t we all? Our lives shouldn’t be flipped upside down because of it. The first reason that Philip was treated unfairly was that Philip is not mature and really can’t think things through. Next, Philip didn’t understand what he had gotten himself into. Third of all, Philip’s teachers didn’t try to help him, and even hurt him. Also, the people who made the game changing decisions wanted things skewed in their favor. Last, Philip’s punishments were too extreme. All, in all, this teaches us something. The world we live in today is a messy one. Fake news is on a rampage. Almost every day a completely untrue or “half true” article is published. Lies are spreading, and affecting people's everyday lives. Inaccurate information is also an important theme in Nothing but the Truth, because sometimes what we hear is anything but. Philip got caught in this web of lies by the throat. Can one really blame him? Adults believe and start false information everyday out of naivety and anger. Philip is a kid. He doesn’t understand what’s true and false. He understands what he feels. It’s unfair to treat him like