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The Children's Hour Analytical Essay

1096 Words5 Pages

Lying is one of the most basic and common things that humans do, we lie continuously and constantly every single day. Even people who claim or act honestly have lied at some point in their lives, and will lie at a later point in their lives. Most of these lies are little, innocuous lies that are quickly forgotten and pushed under the rug. However, some of these lies have the potential to cause far more damage. Lies that quickly spread and become common rumors, gossip, and eventually to some unquestionable fact. The Children's Hour perfectly illustrates the true terrifying power of these rumors and gossip, how quickly they spread, the devastating impact they have on people's lives, and how they can be started by anyone for any reason, no matter …show more content…

“‘We found that falsehood diffuses significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth, in all categories of information, and in many cases by an order of magnitude’” (Aral). Additionally, they found that “false news speeds faster around Twitter due to people retweeting inaccurate news items.” (Dizikes). While this information is in reference to a social media platform, a concept that didn’t exist during the time The Children's Hour was written and set within. The facts drawn from it can still be applied to the story and one of its core ideas, that lies spread very fast among people and can very easily be adopted by people as the truth. There is very little doubt that many, if not most of the people who saw those fake news stories on Twitter believed them to be true. We can see a similar effect happen in the story, once Mary's grandmother Mrs. Tilford begins to tell people her daughters lie that Martha and Karen are gay lovers. It spreads through the town like wildfire and is universally believed, “That— that Martha and I are …show more content…

Lies can be created and spread very easily, however the reason that we care so much about this is because of the power that a lie can hold. Everyone has lied at some point in their lives, mostly about innocuous and unimportant things, such as doing the laundry or taking out the trash. Some lies, however, possess immense destructive power that can ruin and destroy people's lives. We see this very clearly illustrated in the ending to the story of The Children's Hour. The ending to the Children's Hour is not a happy ending by even the most generous definitions, the story ends with Martha and Karens school closed down, their reputation destroyed, and their hearts and minds destroyed emotionally. A line from Martha at the very end of the story shows just how much pain the lie has caused her, “But why this lie? She found the lie with the ounce of truth. Don't you see the picture? I can't stand to have you touch me! I can't stand to have you look at me! Oh, it's all my fault. I have ruined your life, and I have ruined my own. I swear I didn't know that! I didn't mean it, either! Oh, I feel so damn sick and dirty I can't stand it anymore!” (The Children's Hour,

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