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Kurt Vonnegut's Short Story 'The Lie'

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Everyone knows the aphorism “Mama knows best,” but even a parent can be misguided. A parent’s behavior notably influences their children. In the short story “The Lie” by Kurt Vonnegut, the author scrutinizes the behavior of parents. A parents’ mission is to give their children opportunities to progress and develop, to show them that they need to amend mistakes, and to place them on the righteous path.
One objective of a parent is to give their children opportunities to progress and develop. In “The Lie,” Sylvia and Dr. Remenzel put pressure on Eli to excel at Whitehill School for Boys because he will be the 31st to attend in his family, telling him, “I’d be so excited I could hardly stand it. The best four years of your whole life are just about to begin.” (Page 1) Going to Whitehill for Eli isn’t a choice, his family considers his education there as destiny, this doesn’t let him grow due to not having an opportunity to make a verdict. But little do Eli’s parents fathom, Eli didn’t get accepted to Whitehill. Eli just sits inaudibly in the back of the car replete with remorse, probably pondering about telling his parents, trapped in a deep internal war. This decision will be the one to shape Eli’s identity, who he is and who he will be is going to be affected. Eli’s judgment is to …show more content…

Remenzel begged the administrators of the school to let Eli in, but they said no. This results in the end of the reign of Remenzels at Whitehill. The mistake to fix in this part of the story is that Eli’s parents act like they are royalty at Whitehill, at the end, Eli says, “A Remenzel asked for something---as though a Remenzel were something special…” (Page 8) They decide that no Remenzel will ever come to Whitehill school, but still have a bad reputation. This mistake will lay unresolved until a Remenzel redeems their

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