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The Ways We Lie Essay

651 Words3 Pages

"We lie,we all do.We exaggerate,we minimize,we avoid confrontation,we spare people's feelings,we conveniently forget. We keep secrets,we justify lying to the big-guy institutions.Like most people,I indulge in small falsehoods and still think of myself as an honest person.Sure I lie,but it doesn't hurt anything.Or does it?"This is said by Stephanie Ericsson in
The Ways We Lie.I do agree with her.If your lies are not bad for yourself or others,why should they be banned?
First of all,the white lie assumes that the truth will cause more damage than a simple, harmless untruth.Here I just give you two examples.First,telling a friend he looks great when he looks like terrible can be based on a decision that the friend needs a compliment more than a frank opinion.
Second,the sergeant in Vietnam who knew one of his men was killed …show more content…

The Nary command in Hawaii assumed Pearl Harbor was invulnerable -the Japanese weren’t stupid enough to attack the United States’ most important base. On the other hand, racist stereotypes said the Japanese weren’t smart enough to invent a torpedo effective in less than 60 feet of water; after all, U.S .technology hadn’t been able to do it. On Friday, December 5,normal weekend leave was granted to all commanders at Pearl Harbor, even though the Japanese consulate in Hawaii was busy burning papers. With the tight, good-ole-boy cohesiveness of the US command in Hawaii the myth of invulnerability stayed well

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Lying with Good Intentions There are many times when lying is the best option, the act is reasonable as long as it’s justified. Similar to Ericsson’s experience in her essay “The Ways We Lie”, telling the truth isn’t always possible. When a person receives a notification for a late fee, the first instinct is to find a way out of the situation with a lie. Knowing that the bill has yet to be paid, the lie is easier than facing the repercussions of the truth. According to Ericsson, “I discovered that telling the truth all the time is nearly impossible” (1).

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The Ways We Lie by Stephanie Ericsson explains how everyone lies in this world, one way or another. Ericsson expresses the many ways people lie and why they do so. She educates her audience by describing the different types of lies told daily by sharing personal stories, asking rhetorical questions and creates hypothetical situations to support her statements. She begins with the white lie, which is a harmless lie instead of the truth, if the truth was bad news. Then she continues to explain a façade, changing your personality making people believe something you are not.

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In The Way We Lie by Stephanie Ericsson telling such little white lies is done in order to save someone's feelings from being hurt. Though it could also be argued the person themselves have alternative motives, such as not wanting to be seen as a bad friend or person. While these actions are more or less admirable, it is still nevertheless lying. While Donald Trump's motive for using artifice, is simple, he wants the population to like him and believe he is a good president. His motive are more narcissistic than most, wanting only to be liked, makes him a manipulative liar.

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Throughout life, we sometimes don't take the time to think about what comes out of our mouth. We feel the need to tell a falsehood to make ourselves look better or feel better. After all, we don't want to accept the harsh truth of reality that is lives are not perfect. Sometimes we even forget why we're even lying at all. However, we are not alone as human begins it's in our nature to lie.

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In “The Way We Lie”, author Stephanie Ericsson gives her readers a list of ten lie we sometime use it for a purpose and sometime we did not realize we did it. She starts out her story with four lie she used in the same morning as she is starting out her day. She explains these lie are intentionally use to minimize the complications and make the day goes much smoother. However, she questions whether these lie can actually make an impact on the person who carry out and the person who receive the lie.

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Rhetorical Analysis Most people tend to believe that lying is a way of life, that without it the whole world could crumble and fall. While some tend to believe that any form of lying is a sin and there should be consequences. One author, Stephanie Ericsson, wrote “The Ways We Lie” published in 1993 she talks about how we all lie, it has become an everyday chore to make life easier. She begins by trying to strengthen the bond between the reader and writer showing how they are one of the same. She does this by referencing past experiences, adding informed opinions, and using quotes from other well acknowledged authors, her argument is strong throughout the whole article that lying isn’t just evil, it can be used for good when used the right way.

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Furthermore, telling the truth all the time has serious consequences. She postulates that lying, though a form of hedging, must have some merit. She cites a broad definition of a lie from Webster’s dictionary, and asserts that this definition includes many types of lying. She narrows in on a specific type of lie in the next section of the essay: the white lie.

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Lying has not been formally considered morally wrong or right regardless of the severity. Although it’s near impossible to go through a whole day without even stretching the truth once and decide which types of lies are okay or not. Stephanie Ericsson uses strong metaphors and personal experiences in “The Ways We Lie” to justify the use of our everyday lying. This unbiased essay will help readers decide whether it’s okay to lie on a daily basis. Ericsson starts out with saying she told the bank that her deposit was in the mail even though she hadn't written out the check (495).

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