Lacanian Approach to “The Lie"
In “The Lie” by
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the character Eli possesses the unlimited devotion of his
parents, experiences poor parental communication, and is under a great deal of
academic pressure. I can relate to the character Eli because my parents would
do just about anything for me and at times I also struggle to talk to my
parents. My parents also pressure me to be the best academically that I can be.
Intro: Focused intro and thesis. Intro could be more developed and try to
make the thesis match the structure of the statement before it. Having the academic part of your thesis as
its own sentence seems awkward.
To begin with,
Eli like myself, has parents that would do anything to help their child succeed
and have a better life. In the story, when Eli’s father finds out that he was
not admitted to Whitehill, he immediately tried to change the minds of the
board members. “I’m going to see how quickly people can change their minds
around here…there’s a majority of the board of Overseers in this room at this
very moment. Everyone one a close friend of mine, or a close friend of my
father. If they tell Doctor Warren Eli’s in, that’s it-Eli’s in." His
father tried to do what he thought was best for his son by attempting to coerce
his admittance to the school by using the family name. By doing this, Eli’s
father was compromising his own integrity for the benefit of his son. Though my
parents have never done anything like this, they have given up many things so
that I may benefit. For example, before I started to play sports, my parents
used to play in a volleyball league. As I grew older and my sports began to
take more time, they quit their league so that they could watch me play and
offer encouragement. Both Eli’s and my parents possesses great
devotion for the well being of their child.
-- Try this: To begin, Eli, like
myself, has parents that would do anything to help their child succeed and have
a better life.
-- possess (pl)
-- Good parallels and it is Lacanian in spirit. However, you are only brushing the surface with a literal
parallel between The Remenzels and your parents. Remember, Lacanian is really symbolic. In other words, yes, saying the Remezels and your parents are
similar is Lacanian but if you were to say that the Remenzels were symbolic of
the mother-image that protects you – an image that you need to break away from
perhaps – then you are truly writing Lacanian.
Also, remember that Lacan said that specific words and their
connotations really represent our psychological response. In your paragraph, you are really just
dealing with the situation instead of specific language.
Next, a resemblance between the character Eli and My self is apparent in
“The Lie” because, at times, we both fail to communicate with our parents. Eli
stored within him the anger and frustration that he felt due to being forced to
attend Whitehill Prep School. He did not feel comfortable telling his father
that he had other thoughts and dreams that he wanted to follow. This lack of
communication caused a lot of problems between the two of them. “…I tried to
tell you a couple of times-but I just couldn’t. I didn’t know how.” Eli and I
both seem deficient in the ability to communicate with our parents, and this
allowed me to relate better to him in the story. For example, my parents may
want me to go to an after school enrichment that I do not want to attend, but
because they would be disappointed if I didn’t go, I don’t tell them my true
feelings. Eli does the same thing when he fails to tell his mother and father
that he doesn’t want to attend Whitehill, and then again when he does not tell
his parents that he wasn’t accepted. Eli’s and I had similar shortcomings,
therefore, I could relate well to him.
-- myself not My self…excellent
diction “deficient” is an interesting choice!
-- Exact same comments as
paragraph 2 above. Here, rather than
interpreting Eli’s inability to communicate with your parents as a literal
parallel to your inability to communicate with your parents, dig deeper. Lacan might say that Eli’s problem here is
really symbolic of your fear of leaving the mother image (in Lacan, our origins
are represented by the mother) and even worse fear of not being accepted by
others (in Lacan, others in society are represented by the father). In other words, get to the heart of WHY you
cannot communicate, what is holding you back.
Again, too, you are dealing more with what happens in the story than the
language it was expressed in. For
example, don’t just settle for saying you both cannot communicate with your
parents in general. Instead, focus in
on the way Vonnegut says it. Perhaps the phrase, “I didn’t know how,” is
particularly significant and appeals deeply to how you feel about communication
with your parents. See how that is
different than just saying that you and Eli just can’t do it. It’s more specific and gets down to the real
reasons….
Finally, the
academic pressures placed upon me are like Eli’s because the pressures come
from our parents. Eli’s parents expected too much from him, and they did not
accept him for who he was. "Your father and I have always made you feel
that you had to go to Whitehill, that nothing else would do." My parents
are like Eli’s because they want me to accomplish as much as possible and to
meet their expectations. Also, Eli is a reflection of the person that I am,
because in the story, when Eli learns that he has not been accepted, he feels
ashamed and cannot tell his parents. Whenever I have failed in my own mind or
have scored poorly on an assignment, I am always reluctant to show my parents.
I feel this way because, like Eli’s parents, my parents expect nothing but the
best from their child. In the short story, “The Lie,” the character Eli
portrays my feelings because we are both pressured academically.
Same as 2 and 3 above. Here, we have an even better chance to help
you understand Lacanian. Instead of
literally interpreting the academic expectations for you and Eli, be
symbolic. Your reaction to the pressure
you both are under is right on, yes!
But, Lacan would say that the academic pressure is really symbolic of
the psychological pressure you feel to please your parents in general or, even
deeper, the pressure you have subconsciously to balance the need to please your
origins (the mother) and be accepted by society (the father). You could even go deeper and say that the
pressure is actually your struggle to define who you are separately from your
parents. After all, though the pressure
to please our parents seems to come from them, any good psychologist will tell
you it actually comes from within ourselves.
In conclusion,
in the story “The Lie,” Eli is a reflection of who I am. The facts that we both
are privileged to have the devotion of our parents, we both fail to communicate
properly with our parents at times, and we both have academic pressures makes
us mirror reflection of each other.
Conclusion: Needs a lot of work.
Pretty good paper!
You have the form down and clearly understand that the point of a
Lacanian essay is to explore yourself through the character. The only difficulties you had were with depth,
specifically with seeing the story as symbolic of your inner psychology rather
than as literally parallel and with examining the language of story itself
rather than just the events and situations in expresses. Don’t feel bad at all, though. Those are the two hardest parts, and,
frankly, I do not expect that many freshmen, even honors freshmen, will make
that huge leap of understanding in one paper!
You’ve done a fine job and shall therefore receive a good grade. Oh, but, your intro and conclusion leave
much to be desired. You really need to
work on those – they made your grade lower than it needed to be.
Grade: B- 82/100