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What are the events recounted in the essay? Who are the people involved?

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What are the events recounted in the essay? Who are the people involved?

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Almost the entirety of the essay was filled with the personal anecdotes of the author on a certain chapter of her childhood. In this case, the author wanted to share how she behaved when she was still a student in second grade. These mentioned anecdotes contain specific details on her thought process and what lies she used during that time as she tried to zig-zag her way to get her way. Some examples are when she lied to her teacher that it was her birthday so that she could wear a special dress during a school mass. Another one she mentioned was when she would claim to be a competitive swimmer that would need to leave school right when the bell rings to go to a taping of her “competition”. While proving on many occasions that she was very confident in herself with the types of lies she pulls off regularly there was another side to this, however. The author recalled imagining living an alternate life when she was away from a school where she would pretend to be anyone she pleased. This seemed very appealing to her at first but it was later shown that all these fantasies that she chose to experience were a form of escape for the young author. It turns out that a prominent detail in her childhood was the absence of her father where there was no known way of contacting him. As for her mother, she would leave the author and her siblings at their home to work and provide for them. These moments of her mother being absent at home would give the author time to think amidst the lonely and quiet night. This is where the last important detail in the author’s anecdotes comes in, which is her mom’s diary. Reading the written thoughts of her mom during those nights made her realize eventually she would have to stop escaping and remain ignorant of the harsh realities she faces in her family. That the lies no matter how much she sugarcoats were not enough to shield her from her troubles. The last portion of the essay would touch essentially on truth and specifically, seeking for it. Wherein the author looks back at the previously mentioned experiences and relates to how she lacked and avoided the truth in her childhood.

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How are the events narrated? (Is it chronological, episodic, or fragmented? Are thereflashbacks or foreshadowing in the essay?) What perspective(s) is/are presented in theretelling of the author’s experience(s)?

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How are the events narrated? (Is it chronological, episodic, or fragmented? Are thereflashbacks or foreshadowing in the essay?) What perspective(s) is/are presented in theretelling of the author’s experience(s)?

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Meanwhile, for the structure of the essay, the author did not give many hints on the actual order of the events and how long these events take place in her life. It was only mentioned at the start that the stories of her lying in school took place in second grade when she was eight years old. As well as that she first read her mother’s diary at 12 years old. Therefore this could be classified as an episodic narrative in the sense that there are groups of events that could have happened could have taken place in any order within each respective grove. Overall there is still a big story arc happening that puts all the episodes together. In terms of whose point of view we are on, it stays only on the author on her thoughts and insights of all the lies she said and all the lessons that she learned. It was her giving a commentary on her childhood based on her current view.

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How would you describe the author as portrayed in the essay?

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How would you describe the author as portrayed in the essay?

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In the earlier part of her essay, her cleverness and creativity are what shined the most. She would always try to construct a new lie every time and would make quick decisions at the same time whenever there is a counter or obstacle in making sure the lie is believable. Her poise and confidence throughout those times are what put all her wits and instincts together to constantly lie, especially to the same person. You could even call this version of the author a bit mischievous in the sense that she would do all these lies just for her benefit without any remorse for the people involved such as that classmate she stole money from. However, she did move away from this behavior and showed some newly acquired maturity from her self-realization when reading her mother’s diary. She was able to stop living in a world of her own and move on from it as well as realize how to improve herself. This helped create a positive image and more of a good example of self-improvement and discipline for people to refer to and learn from. Moreover, her analytical abilities were on display as well when figuring out the right questions to ask herself and to focus on. It would later result in knowing what specifically she is looking for in life and what to move towards.

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What do you think is the essay trying to say? What is its message?

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What do you think is the essay trying to say? What is its message?

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The themes that this essay in particular mainly dabbles into are escapism and maturity. First, let’s dive deeper into escapism and how the author experienced it. In the essay, aside from using lying as a tool of getting her wants, the author expanded her purpose for it by creating an alternate life away from the person she is in school and her family members. It allows living out any scenario she wants to be in with the limits being how far she can stretch her imagination. Meaning she creates a false reality to her liking where everything is good. It’s good to imagine these positive scenarios and all of us are guilty of being in certain situations living the best life. I understand personally why she would choose to go to her world instead of the troubled one she is in. I would have done the same thing especially if I was about 8 years old at that time. It can be difficult to have a child process and carry that emotional burden all while still trying to have a proper childhood. The fact that her single mom is bare with their family at home does not help at all with no one to guide the author to get through these hardships. At one point in the essay, the author stated that she admits that the lies did help and even saved her childhood. I find it admirable that by just using her mind and focusing on the safe space she created on her own, she was able to overcome the problems and was able to move on and still consider her life still having a childhood of sorts. It was also interesting to see how she followed up this by saying that sometimes these false realities can show who a person is. It is a good point that whatever fantasies a person thinks of can directly express the personal ambitions of someone which is a big part of someone’s personality. Therefore, you can infer that when a person lies, the root of the lie will bring you back to the truth.

This brings us to the next theme: maturity. I mentioned this multiple times previously and that's because it is such a prominent concept in the last two pages of the essay. You could say that the start of her maturity was when she was 12 years old reading the diary was poetic. It seems almost too perfect that the moment she realized to focus on reality, was when she was about to turn thirteen years old which some would say is the start of the maturing phase of a child. That diary opened the eyes of the author to consider many more aspects of life compared to her childhood where she was in her bubble focused on herself. There was also a hint that her childlike wonder disappeared in the quote:” I do think, however, that reading the diary took away the beauty and comfort of my lies and they had ceased giving me a safe space.”. To further support this she later said that this diary once again could cut her childhood short or that it could lose her innocence. She would also say that lying was a part of her childhood that if it were to end it would also end her childhood Hence, proving once again that ever since she read the diary a new chapter of her life began.

When we put these two themes together we can create the overall message of the essay. When you put it into perspective that from keeping her mind in any situation turns into her wanting to grow up and not running away from the truth anymore, the author has had a journey of finding one’s identity and figuring out what truly makes them themselves. It started where she was still in her childhood putting herself in imaginative scenarios that showed her ambitions and what she wants in life. However the harsh reality she was escaping from basically smacked her in the face where she was brought back to reality in a sense. During this new phase, she would be all about seeking the truth hidden away from the lies she made as a kid and trying to think who she is away from those lies and how others perceived her. In the end, despite some desire to go back to that childlike wonder she learned to accept who she is, where she is in life, and what is the truth. This essay comes out as a growing-up story where we see the evolution of the author’s approach to life and the lessons she learned from that process. Sometimes we cannot hide from the truth because we live in a reality that we cannot change. The truth is the truth and it is up to us what we do with it.

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Do you think that your chosen text is relevant to the world today? Why or why not?

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Do you think that your chosen text is relevant to the world today? Why or why not?

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I think the text is as relevant as it has ever been before since we are in a digital and online age. The theme of escapism is heavily applied since the internet is probably the most used form of escape in the world currently. You can be whoever you want to be while interacting with other users in many platforms such as social media and most especially virtual reality. Mental health has also been more mainstream knowledge over the past years which can be related to the personal and internal conflicts the author had with herself in changing her behavior while already going through harsh living conditions. The lessons of finding one’s self is important to share with the younger generation amidst all the celebrities and influences who the youth strive to be like up to a personality level.

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Seeing the text and the world in each other: What do you think the short story/poem/essaytells us about the world? How is our world reflected in and by this short story/poem/essay?

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Seeing the text and the world in each other: What do you think the short story/poem/essaytells us about the world? How is our world reflected in and by this short story/poem/essay?

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Well the texts proves that no one can ever truly escape reality and that it will always get to us. It also paints the world as where we live in the same reality at the same time we have our own personal realities we have to deal with. Unfortunately some are harder than the others just like the author. Essentially, the world is harsh and we have to be the ones keeping up with it not the other way around. Another detail is that it can be difficult to really know if someone if lying especially if the one lying has made it a habit. It can be easy also to fool people away from the truth which leaves anyone vulnerable to a certain extent.

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What are your personal thoughts, comments, and reactions to the short story/poem/essayyou chose? In what ways does your chosen text resonate with you?

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What are your personal thoughts, comments, and reactions to the short story/poem/essayyou chose? In what ways does your chosen text resonate with you?

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At the start I was actually enjoying reading about the author’s different lying schemes especially how she would face unanticipated hurdles. It was giving me a sort of mischievous but still light hearted aura in that portion. However the mood started to die down a bit when she started talking about her family situation with her mom and that she had to lie to herself to survive. My mood kinda dies towards the end where I felt a bit sad and melancholic just reading about the internal thoughts of the author during that big transition with the diary. For the ending of the story I was honestly hoping for a much lighter tone where she would finally be happy after all that but it turned out to be a bit bittersweet. I like the fact that she accepted to follow the truth and leave a life of lying, it kinda hurt a bit when she mentioned she still thinks of going back to that path. This portrayed her as someone on the rise in terms of personal growth but the past keeps on coming back to her sadly. Overall I think it still gives a good lesson on maturity and it makes me also look bak at my childhood and where it exactly stopped.