Matt Kambic   

Mr. Maite

Honors English 9

March 15, 2001

A Lacanian Response to “The Lie”

The short story “The Lie” was an excellent short story.  “The Lie” was well written, it had a nice flow, and it held my interest throughout the entire story.  Throughout “The Lie,” I felt different emotions towards the characters because it touched on a few issues that I feel strongly about.  While I read the story I felt annoyance towards the mother, anger and understanding towards the son, and frustration towards the father.

            I was terribly annoyed at the way the mother carried on throughout the entire story.  I felt that the mother, Sylvia, was very snobbish and arrogant.  She demonstrated her arrogance in the following passage:  “Maybe I’m just a simple-minded country girl at heart…but I look through this catalog, and I see all the buildings named after Remenzels, … and I just can’t help thinking people named Remenzel are entitled to ask for a little something extra.”  Just by those words she said I could tell that she thought that her family was better than everyone else.  She talks constantly and obsesses on objects that are not very important.  For example, “I want Eli to have a room with a fireplace, if that’s possible,” she is told it isn’t and then replies, “I thought maybe by some fluke…” She was implying to her husband that he could pull a few strings to get Eli into a good room.  She doesn’t talk about Eli’s grades; she is too interested in whether or not his room will have a fireplace.

            The actions of Sylvia disturb me for a few reasons.  I am the type of person who cannot stand listening to uneducated and conceited people.  To me, Sylvia sounds like she is nothing but a ditz.  The reason I think this is because of the following sentence; “I wonder how many Remenzels have gone to Whitehill…If all the Remenzels who went to Whitehill were numbered, what number would Eli be?”  When reading these lines, I get the feeling of a person who has nothing better to think about on her mind than how many members of her family went to a college.  I can understand asking once, but she made the topic into a large ordeal by obsessing over it. 

Also, I find her conceited because she thinks she is better than everyone else.  I believe this because of the sentence where she states, “I just can’t help thinking people named Remenzel are entitled to ask for a little something extra.”  My parents have instilled in me a lot of morals and values.  One of those values is the idea that no one deserves anything until they have earned it.  Another one of these values is the understanding that it is imperative one gets a good education.  Lastly, they have taught me that it is important to be humble and to let other people “blow your horn.”

            The next character I had an emotional reaction to was Eli, the son.  I was somewhat angry with Eli but I also felt compassion and understanding for him.  I was angry with Eli because he was not fully honest with his parents.  He did not lie to his parents because he didn’t talk to them at all about his test scores, but he did hide the truth from them.  I am understanding of the fact that he was under a tremendous load of pressure from his parents.  I could tell he was under a lot of pressure when his mother stated, “Your father and I have always made you feel that you had to go to Whitehill, that nothing else would do.”  Despite that pressure, it does not excuse the fact that he was dishonest, but I do understand Eli’s reasoning behind what he did.

            There are a couple of reasons that these actions disturb me.  First, I am an advocate about being honest with my parents.  My parents and I have a very open relationship with each other.  There isn’t a lot that I do not tell them.  I believe that for children to grow up and to live good lives, they must have values placed upon them when they are children. That is what my parents have done with me.  On the other side of the fence, I do know how it feels to be under a lot of pressure.  I have to handle academics, usually two sports if not more at a time, my house hold and family duties, and still have some room to socialize with friends.  I do not know how it feels to be overly pressured by parents because my dad has never placed an amount of work on me that I can’t handle.

            Finally, the strongest emotion I felt toward any character was toward the father, Doctor Remenzel.  This emotion was complete and utter frustration.  I felt this way because of what Doctor Remenzel did at the end of the book.  He had just given his son a speech about how they are no better or worse than any other family.  “It would be a source of the greatest embarrassment to me…if I were ever to hear that you had used the name Remenzel as though you thought Remenzels were something special.”  Then, when he finds out his son did not pass the entrance examination he turned right around and did the exact thing he had instructed his wife and son not to do and that was to ask for special treatment.  “The first thing…is to get Eli admitted to Whitehill…There’s a majority of the Board of Overseers in this room at this very moment.  Every one of them is a close friend of mine, or a close friend of my father.  If they tell Doctor Warren Eli’s in, that’ it- Eli’s in.”

            These actions greatly upset me.  I would like to think of myself as a person of character and integrity.  I would like to think of myself as someone who would never go back on his word.  I have very little respect for people who do not keep their word.  I believe every person should value what he or she says enough to not go back on it.  In this situation, Doctor Remenzel jeopardized his integrity and the integrity of his family by asking the board members to make an exception just because of the Remenzel name.  I believe that a man has to honor what he believes in and I believe that he should stick by his word.

            These were my emotional feelings towards the short story “The Lie.”  Even though my feelings were generally negative, I thought it was an excellent story.  It was well written, flowed nicely, and did what it was suppose to do, make me reflect on my own life.  The story drew out of me many emotions such as anger, annoyance, and understanding.  “The Lie” was a great story to read because it forced me to reflect on the kinds of values I truly possess and the values I want other people to possess.