In the short story “The Liar,” by Tobias Wolff, James is a young boy living with his mother and experiencing the loss of his father. His mom dislikes that he is always lying and making up stories that are not true. She finds a letter in his room that was suppose to be to his best friend stating something that was not true. She becomes fed up and sends him to the doctor so that he could help James with this issue. James lost his father at a young age he probably does not know how to deal with his emotions and lying may be a way to get him out of hurt or sadness. James probably does not lie intentionally to hurt his mother but he probably lies to because he is young and does not know any better. James probably does not share anything special with his mom, who knows his dad could have been a liar and he might want to be just like his dad. James shares a moment with his father when they go to a camping trip with the family. On the camping trip the bear that appeared at the campsite, his mother wants to have it go away. She throws a rock at the bear and James’s father does not like that. At this moment he is very scared and does not want the bear to get close to them. His father tell his mother not to do it again, she still did it without listening to her husband. James says he understood why his father was feeling that way when his mom was throwing the rocks because he felt scared too. For him and his father the scared feeling got worse though the night knowing that the bear was around. At the end of the trip James realized that maybe other kids have a way of bonding with their fathers and those ways can all be different but it wasn’t to late to share a bond with his father, and what they shared was how they both had the same kind of fear. This probably made James feel closer with his father he finally found something they had in common which is something he had not found with his mom. When James father passed away he felt like he lost a big part of him. It was left just him and his mom. Him and his mom didn’t have anything in common so he probably lied to spice things up in their relationship. His brothers and sisters had become successful and the house was left with just him and his mom. He didn’t lie to hurt her he just lied because he is young and he doesn’t know any better. He no longer has his father around and he had no idea how to make his mother happy then by keeping her on her toes to feed him attention. Maybe he was lost in emotions and just trying to find a way to find something in common with his mom.
Kelsey Nolan Professor Chappell EN 106W 29 March 2012 The Liar In Tobias Wolff’s story ‘The Liar,” the main character James begins telling morbid lies about his mothers health after his father passes away. James had many things in common with his father: they shared the same interests, both told puns, shared the fear of testing their limits, and both enjoyed poker. Playing poker with his father allowed him to become the good liar he is. Before he passed away, James’ father used to read him the paper. This paper contained gruesome stories that imprinted on James’ morbid lies he would tell after his death. James’ constant lies leave his mother fearing that when he’s older he will only remember what he’s made up not anything about his real life. James’ mother plays the rule of control in their family before and after her husband’s death. Even the way she walks, bent over like she’s fighting the wind, shows she’s the leading force fighting to keep her family moving forward. Her bent over motion could symbolize that she’s carrying the weight of taking care of her family on her back. When a bear disrupts the families camping trip she takes the initiative to scare it away; an act that the male figure would be more known to do. James’ constantly lies about his mother’s health. I feel that he is trying to weaken her because she’s so much mentally stronger than he is himself. James knows his lies affect his mother. In the “The Liar,” singing is used to portray lying. James’ mother hates when he sings because he is never in harmony with the rest of the family. Not being in harmony means that his stories are always different than everyone else’s; he always lying. When James is alone on the bus he sings in “an ancient and holy tongue (Wolff 512).” When James is alone he doesn’t have to worry about being in ‘harmony’ with others. The strangers rejoice in his music unlike his mother because they don’t know it’s a lie. They don’t know it’s a lie; therefore it’s the truth.
Cassie Ferraro Professor Chappell English 106W 28 March 2012 Coping with Death Naturally, after the loss of a loved one, people express their pain in varying ways. While some may make public displays of grief, others may shut themselves off from others in order to sort their feelings privately. In Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar,” Wolff introduces the reader to a young man, James, who struggles with the recent death of his father. In order to cope with this harsh reality, James begins to lie to mask the truth that his father is gone and to deal with the fears that he possesses. James does not realize the bond that he and his father shared until his father passes away. This realization does not come well to James. While he is in class, James goes “rigid” and refuses to open his eyes. (Wolff 500)This is symbolic of the fact that James does not want to accept the fact that his father has gone and that he needs to move on. In response to this refusal to accept reality, James begins to develop a habit of lying. Lying is James’ way of masking the fears that he and his father shared and it is a way of hiding the truth from himself. When Doctor Murphy comes to James’ home, James’ mother hopes that he will provide her with an answer as to why James is lying. Unfortunately, there is nothing medically wrong with James and the best explanation that can be provided is that he needs to work through the issues that were the product of his father’s passing. Even James, when asked, says he does not know why he was lying. It was almost a natural reaction for him. This upsets James’ mother who says, “You’re cheating yourself.” (Wolff 506) James’ mother is trying to explain to James that by not allowing himself to fully grieve, he is not going through all the necessary steps he has to in order to accept the fact that his father has gone. Despite the advice from his mother, James is not ready to accept the reality of what has happened to his family. We see this at the end of the story when James rides the bus and convinces everyone that he knows Tibetan. This only enhances the point that you cannot force a person to see that which they do not want to, they must come to these conclusions on their own.
Naomi Alphonso Writing 106-W Professor Chappell March 30th 2012
Imagine your seven year old waking up on Christmas morning knowing there’s no Santa, or looking under the pillow to find that the tooth ferry left her nothing but her fallen tooth. It would be a life of no hope and little happiness. These memories and ideas of how things happen stay with us and create lasting memories. These false ideas used to create a belief are known as white lies. Everyone does it. It’s something one does involuntarily. When someone dies, most people say something along the lines of “Everything’s going to be okay.” However, no one really knows that everything’s going to be okay. People also say things like “Don’t worry, he’s in a better place.” How does one know that? In some cases, people lie to protect the feelings of other and create an idea that they may live with. Lying to protect someone should not be something that is looked down upon. A lie that is frowned upon should be something that does harm. James lies to protect his mother and does not do it maliciously.
James’ father’s dead and gone. He left behind memories. James and his mother are also here in this world. Memories of their father and husband are all they have to hold on to. Why should they be bad memories? Why is it important that James tells his mother the so-called truth about how his father died? It isn’t. One should use their discretion in this world to decipher where lies are accepted. Not sharing the truth with his mother to protect her feelings does not make James a liar.
James lies about gruesome events like his parents dying when he is on the bus (496). James writes to a friend and tells him of his mothers serious Illness (498). However, these lies are not causing any harm. Similar to a fiction story, where the author explores fantasies, James is escaping from reality. James lost his father young and his mother forced him to move on instead of mourning. It is human nature to mourn the death of someone of significance to the individual’s life.
James lies to protect his mother’s feelings despite the fact that she didn’t protect his. When one has suffered a loss as severe as that of James, s/he shouldn’t be expected to move on (495). This little boy has not been allowed to do this. Therefore, his imagination found a way to do it for him. James’s mother appears to be someone who requires everything in her life to be a certain way. She has an image and want’s like to be identical to it. We see this when she contacts their family doctor. She is so concerned by James’ fantasies that she believes he needs medical attention (497). James’ mother is very self absorbed. She is only concerned with issues that concern her. She reacts immediately to lies created by James when they are about her. James’ mother insisted that James and his brother move on with life instead of mourning (497). This is forcing a dishonest act. James was truly sad about his father’s death. It is only natural to express this. However, he and his siblings had to put on an act and pretend like everything was all right. Therefore, this dishonest idea that was forced by his mother is what lead to his dishonest fantasies. James is not a liar, he is a young boy still trying to cope with the sorrow of his fathers death.
Ryan McDonald McDonald 1 Professor Bolster English 106W 29 March 2012
Like Father Like Son In Tobias Wolff’s psychoanalytic story “The Liar,” we are introduced to teenager James, whose compulsive lies and behavior is a big concern for his mother. James’ mother began worrying about her son when she discovered he had written a friend telling them she had come down with a mysterious unknown illness. James’ mother felt it was necessary he seek medical help to cure James of his tendency to invent things and embellish on reality, so she called her longtime friend and physician Dr. Murphy. It is at this point that the reader learns of the death of James’ father which is directly connected to the morbid lies James tells. “The Liar,” explores how family survivors cope with the loss of a family member and how they summon up the resources to go on living their lives. James’ mother's strength of character is brought to light most clearly to James when they went to Yosemite as a family when he was a young boy. There was an episode when a bear made his way into camp, it is his mother who successfully forces the beast off the premises by shouting and throwing rocks. Although James respects her straightforward way of coping with the loss, James realizes he is more indirect and unusual when coping with stress. James identifies his peculiar style and his morbid lies as allied with his father's neurotic temperament. James most notably identifies with his McDonald 2 father's use of word play as a tactic to manage with the fear and anxiety to which he feels both he and his father are especially susceptible to. Dr. Murphy encouraged James to start thinking about others and as a result his mother sent him off to live with his brother in Los Angeles where he would work with the needy. On the way to Los Angeles his bus he was riding in broke down due to severe rainstorm. When, amid the rain and thunder, he convinces people he helps with Tibetan refugees. At this point he invents his own make believe version of the Tibetan language and begins singing in what he himself is convinced is somehow a holy and ancient language, the moment becomes a magical one that is helpful to the passengers and gives James's capacity for make-believe a higher and spiritual purpose. The loss of his father was a tragic and life altering event that has James coping with it in his own particular style just as his father would have if the roles were reversed.
Brandon Johnson Professor Chappell EN 106 W 29 March 2012
In the short story “The Liar,” by Tobias Wolff, James is a young boy living with his mother and is coping with the loss of his father. Throughout the story James, shows how much of a pathological liar he is but knowone can tell him and his mother why he does so. In many ways, i think before his death, Jmes was able to connect with his dad more than he did with his mom. His dad seems to be the nicer parent and his mom being the strict parent it seems as that he lies to her a lot somtimes for a reason and other times just because he tends to beilieve his own lie . If James's father didnt pass away him having a male figure in his life during this time would easily have stopped his lying patterns. Earlier in my life, i went through a faze where i would lie to stay out trouble. But in time my lies manifested itself in my life. Lying so much that i litterally couldn't tell the truth even if I wanted too. But, during this same time in my life i didnt have a clear father figure to look up to to tell me right from wrong. My mom would tell me "Brandon, Lieing is Wrong" or say "if you keep lying your nose will start getting longer" and i would beilieve that to an extext but a mother cant teach a son like a father could teach a son. A man could do certain things to a child that nobody else could do. Eventually i would pass this faze in life as i quickly found father figures and this made me see how i was supposed to act. I feel like James Never had this chance and me and James are very similar. We have Moms that care very deeply about our well beings. Overtime I would eventually make a connection with my dad as well that would guide me into being a man. Since James's father died im sad because im not sure if he would truly grow out of the faze of lying . His father dying in many ways hurt James and him lying in my opinion is a reflection of him not having his father in his life. In Conclusion, I feel like if James had his dad he would be a totally different kid throughout the story. I really liked this book because I know that a lot of people can relate to the story in some form of a way. Tobias Wolff is a genius for making this story i liked it a lot.
In the short story “Liar” by Tobias Wolff many different themes are depicted. One theme display a single bond between a father and his son. In this story, after the death of his father, the main character James falls into a habit of constant lying. He mainly lies about the health of his mother. For what reason we do not learn by the end of the story. James reflects back to a time when him and his father and the rest of their family went on a camping trip. On this trip, they encounter a bear. The bear is circling their family’s camp while James’s mother throws rocks at it. James’s dad is anxious to get out of there, asking his wife to please sit and stop throwing rocks. James felt the same fear at the time. In the car on the way home from the trip James cracks a joke which only his father finds funny while the others just think James is sucking up. “The others turned cold looks on me. They thought I was sucking up. But Father smiled” (504-505). James claims that this situation was the one that brought them close. Throughout his father’s struggle with cancer, James and his dad become very close. Fear is the single bond that holds James and his father together before cancer wins the battle. Despite James’s pathological lying and having to face his judgmental therapist, fear of the bear and other things in the world acts as the glue keeping James close to his dad. James also grew up disliking the newspaper because of his dad. His dad always ‘cursed’ the society section in the local paper. “.. which he called the parasite section” (502). This is another way that the theme of fear bonded James and his dad together before his passing.
Perspectives Tobias Wolff’s, The Liar, emphasizes the idea of different perspectives and outlooks on life. Throughout the story, the mother and the son, James, have a distant relationship and are described as often disagreeing and having some sort of resentment towards each other. James’ late father is also described as being very different from the mother. The scene where the bear approaches the family’s campsite is very significant to the idea that people have different ways of thinking. When the bear approaches, the children are very frightened but the mother is the first to speak up. She keeps a calm exterior and suggests that they sing to the bear to make it go away. After that attempt fails, she stands up and begins to throw rocks at the bear, despite her husband pleading with her not to. After the bear incident, the father takes his family and drives the back to the city. This scene tells us a lot about the contrasting personalities of the mother and the father. The mother is proven to be a strong willed, determined person. The father, on the other hand, seems to be frightened easily and would rather avoid problems. Throughout the story he his depicted has someone who doesn’t like to take risks. He finds comfort in staying within his limits, not risking failure or challenging himself. He shields himself from certain situations in an effort to prevent himself from being disappointed. His fear controls much of his life. In contrast, the mother is much better at putting herself out there. She doesn’t display fear in the way that her husband does. She is determined and has a sense of confidence and pride that the father lacks. Her outlook on life is more or less one of attempting to challenge oneself and to take risks. These different perspectives teach us much about people in our everyday lives. People have different way of dealing with things, whether it be trying to solve something directly, or running from the situation. It all comes down to your outlook on like and where your comfort level is. Some people are comfortable enough to take risks while others are only comfortable in safe situations. Everyone has a different thought process and a different way of coping with things, no matter what the situation may be.
Christopher Harrison Intro to Fiction 3/29/11 Mr. Bolster Suppressed Emotions Lying is something us humans do naturally. Sometimes it is done to gain an advantage, sometimes for survival, sometimes even to prevent others from getting hurt. However, some lie for reasons they themselves could not explain. Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar” chronicles the life of the character James who is the definition of a compulsive liar. His mother, Margaret, is deeply concerned with his need to lie as a young boy particularly because the lies involving her are graphic. She attempts to “cure” him by sending him to a doctor. However, James’s need to lie about his mother in such graphic ways can be due to suppressed emotions he has against her. One thing noticeable about James’s lies about his mother is that they turn her out to be a woman who has the world of problems and is falling apart physically and mentally. His mother is in no way like this however and she is disturbed by this. In one part of the story, James writes to a friend in Arizona saying that his mother has been coughing blood. When his mother discovered this she was disturbed and insulted for her health is perfect. This could be the reason as to why James says this. James and his mother have never had a steady relationship. He may possibly view his mother as a woman who just strives to be perfect and doesn’t have one flaw to bring her down and he wishes that she would have one. Therefore, instead of telling his friend that his mother is doing well, James would rather imagine her doing terrible and tell people that. Another reason as to why James feels the need to lie about his mother in such a morbid manner is because the way he lies about her is the way he sees her. He doesn’t view her as a woman who is strong and can deal with a late husband and two dead parents because she goes to church and has a strong relationship with God. He views her as a woman who is crumbling on the inside, and this is his way of telling her that. Therefore, instead of living in the impulsive footsteps of his mother, James would rather lie in order to release his stress. In conclusion, James’s need to lie about his mother in such graphic ways could be narrowed down to his suppressed emotions towards her. There are many different things each and every one of us do that makes us unique. In James’s case, it’s his ability to lie.
Jennifer Linke Professor Chappell Eng106W April 29, 2012 A Mother’s Protection A mother lion will do anything to protect her cubs from danger in the wild. She will do anything to protect them, even endanger her own life. A mother is a strong figure in a child’s life, it is the first seen when an infant is born. A mother is a symbol of protection and strength. In Tobias Wolff story, “The Liar” the mother protects her children from danger, and tries to provide a normal and steady life for her children. In the story she approaches a bear and throws rocks to attempt to scare the bear away from their campsite. The mother in the story is a strong symbol of a woman trying to provide a good life for all her children. The mother in the story does not express patience when she is faced with certain situations, she is rushed and wants to know just the facts and get straight to the point. However, she is not to be underestimated because she is a strong woman who tries to provide her children with protection. After the death of her husband, she must raise her children on her own. All of her children seem to be on the right track and have a successful life; except for James. The mother seems to have a very difficult time with James because of his habit of telling lies; these are not normal lies most of them are morbid in which his parents are deceased or ill. James’s mother has a hard time understanding why her son has such an obsession with telling lies. She tries to provide a normal life for her children and her other children follow in her footsteps except for James. James takes after his father in many ways which was the real issue between them. Wolff says, “She was a lighter of candles. My brother and sisters took after her in this way. My father was a curser of the dark. And he loved to curse the dark” (501). In many ways James was like his father and this was difficult for his mother because of her lack of patience and time. James’s mother tries very hard to provide a normal lifestyle, be courageous, and provide protection for her children. She has a difficult time dealing with James, because it seems that she cannot understand why he has this need to lie, when she has provided him with as much of a normal life as she possibly could. Her impatience is her downfall and it is difficult for her to cope with the fact that she cannot protect James from being like his father and from his obsession with telling lies.
Nick Coutant Professor Chappell ENG 106W 30 March 2012 The Liar Nobody deals with the loss of a family member in the same way. Most people though, are able to find more productive ways to get though the rough times. Some people will talk about how they feel and find ways to overcome their loss. Not everyone is able to deal with these difficult times with such a productive manner. In Tobias Wolff’s The Liar, James turns to lying about almost everything, to get attention and sympathy. After the death of his father James started to lie a lot. James was not completely sure why he was lying he just was. It was just the way that he dealt with the pain of losing his father. When his father died he most likely started to receive quite a bit of attention from other people. Then when he started meeting people that did not really know him that well he would make up really awful stories so he could get some sort of sympathy or attention from that person. This was something that happened throughout the story. In the beginning of the story his mother found a letter that James had written to his friend and in the letter James had written that his mother had been coughing up blood and they were not sure what was wrong with her. This obviously was not true and did upset his mother very much. One other example of his attempts to get sympathy was at the end of the story when James was on the bus that had broken down. He made up a story that he was from Tibet and that his parents were killed by communists. He even went to the lengths of making up random words that the people on the bus made to be of the Tibetan language. Although the lies may be really bad, he doesn’ t mean to hurt anyone. This is just James’s way of dealing with his fathers death. I believe that he would eventually stop once he has gotten past the death, but as of now he just lies and I don’t think he really even thinks about what he is doing. He isn’t dealing with the situation in the best way, but nobody deals with death the same.
Facing the darkness The narrator and protagonist in “The Liar” is an adolescent boy whose struggle to come to terms with his fears of death, disease and powerlessness takes a somewhat unusual form. However, Wolff shows that James’s peculiar behavior is not too out of line with other people’s ways of dealing with their existential fears. All people have to face the fears of pain and death. The fears are not mere hindrances to overcome; they are essential forces shaping human consciousness. The necessity to cope with the fear of unavoidable mortality is at the roots of countless religions and philosophical teachings, and yet very few people find any of the teachings convincing and comforting enough to set them completely free of the fear. In “The Liar”, Wolff shows us one person who seems to be sufficiently comforted by her religion. James’s mother does not dwell on the dark aspects of life: she believes that every problem has a straightforward solution and that one of the best available solutions is prayer. She is convinced that she knows “what to think” (507). Her main concern is that everything about her house, her life, and her children should be normal and orderly. In fact, she cares about that too much. The most striking example is her reaction to the discovery that James, who was no more than twelve years old at the time, had moved his dad’s dead body to the bed and had not told her about that. Most mothers in her place would be horrified on behalf of the child and worrying about the impact the incident must have had on him. James’s mother is “shocked and furious”, but furious at James, not for him (505)! Even though she seems to be a loving enough mother in some other instances, her failure to even consider her son’s feelings during one of the most important crises of his life speaks volumes. For her, orderliness and normality are overwhelmingly important because they are a part of her deal with existential fears, her imagined ticket to a salvation. Wolff’s sketchy portrait of the paranoid Frances, who has completely succumbed to her fears, creates a perspective for examining the other characters’ struggles with theirs (496). Dr. Murphy is a knowledgeable, sane man who has lost his belief in a salvation and an eternal life but has not found any other guiding concept to replace the lost faith. James, in an amazing insight, compares the doctor’s chilly, forlorn outlook to “a raincoat hanging by itself outside a dining hall” (507). It is not surprising that the doctor keeps bringing up solipsism, one of the loneliest concepts known to humankind. He is lost, he doesn’t “know what to think any more”, and his only way to live with the biggest fear of all, that this world is nothing but endless, hopeless emptiness, is to try and joke about it (507). [continued]
[continued from part 1] James’s father, the “curser of the dark”, is not mired in philosophical bogs, but he is fascinated with morbid news. The fascination does not strike the readers as unusual: vast numbers of people are attracted to horror stories. Psychologists attribute that to an atavistic survival device: watching others die helped the early humans develop reasonable fear and avoid dangerous situations. In the case of James’ father, the outdated device, combined with the ubiquity of macabre news, poisons his life with a constant fearful expectation of the all-important death. In James’s words, “the anger of his life had been a kind of stage fright” (505). James loves his father and understands him very well. He shares the same fears and knows that his mother’s confidence in a higher power helping good people is an illusion (509). When the father’s death pushes James’s fears close to an unbearable level, he deals with them the best way he can: he starts telling himself and anybody who will listen stories full of pain and horrors, much like countless children tell each other scary stories in the dark, huddling around campfires. Instead of letting his fears poison him like they poisoned his father, James channels them into tales. His tales are sad, simple, and artless at first, but they show signs of getting better, more whimsical, more detached from reality. The “ancient and holy” language he speaks in the end of the story to a busful of not too real listeners is the language of an emerging author, the no longer afraid solipsist, starting to create his worlds (512).
Nicole DeFosche Professor Chappell EN 106W 29 March 2012
Without a Father In Tobias Wolff’s, “The Liar,” James, the young boy, lives at home with mother. James tries to get over the death of his father, but it’s somewhat hard for him, even though he may not show it throughout the story. During the short story, James shows the reader how much of a liar he is and how it affects his mother’s actions towards him. I believe James is this way because of the death of his father. His father was a huge part of his life growing up, as like any other kid’s father is. James and his father had a very good relationship before he passed away. James’s father taught James how to play poker and would help him with his homework. Not only did they play poker and do homework together, but they also loved to joke around, but James’s mother didn’t like the joking around. She never found it amusing. Just like James’s father told jokes and wasn’t amusing to his mother, his lies weren’t any better. The more James lied to more embarrassing and noisy his mother became. His mother would always check his bag before he left the house and this made it awkward for James, so in spite of this, James would tell neighbors and local people lies about his mother to get back at her. Now that his father isn’t around anymore to do these things, it makes James feel lonely. James and his mother don’t see eye to eye much as I stated earlier. James lies so much and it just makes his relationship with his mother unhealthy and confusing, but this is because of all the lying James does. James lies so much that at the funeral for his father, he did not cry and a couple of days later when his emotions finally caught up to him, he got very upset and cried. His mother thought he was lying when he was crying. Not only is the death of James’s father hard on James, but it’s also hard on his mother. James’s mother was always on his case about going out places or anything. I believe James lies and has a bad relationship with his mother because of the death of his father. He uses lying as a cover up for his emotional pain caused by the death of his father. His father did a lot of things with James that made their relationship special whereas James and his mother don’t have the relationship he had with his father. To me, I am fortunate to have my father in life that supports me and loves me so much. I am truly blessed.
Alyssa Downey Intro to fiction Dr. Chappell 30 March, 2012 Is Ignorance Bliss? The mother in Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar,” scolds her son James for his compulsive and brutal lying. She believes that he is not a part of reality, and lying is a self-centered act. However, James’ lies become a security blanket to him and make him feel better in tough situations. Lying creates positive outcomes and is useful for protection. James states at the end of the story that, “the woman next to me leaned back and closed her eyes… as I sang to them in what was surely an ancient and holy tongue (512).” There is a peaceful feeling at this part that carries the idea that ignorance is bliss. When the bus breaks down, everyone listens to James’ story and falls asleep quietly. Usually, when a bus breaks down, people are not happy and peaceful. They whine and complain about being late to their destination. By James lying about speaking Tibetan, it distracts the passengers and brings a peace to the atmosphere. Throughout the story, there is the idea that James has a hidden fear which fuels the lying. Part of this fear could be the fear of losing his mother. His lies are so intricate and brutal that it scares the mother of how real they seem. She says that James is not in true reality, but of his own made up reality. These brutal lies of his mother’s illness could be James’ way of preparing himself for when his mother dies. If he gets use to the idea of his mother dying, when the true event happens, he will not feel as much emotion than if he is caught off guard by it. James’ lies bring not only entertainment and peace, but security to himself. His mother criticizes him for being apart from reality. However, the separation does have benefits. The power of ignorance can make overwhelming situations easier to handle, and by creating emotional scenarios, one can prepare for difficult stages in life. Ignorance can be bliss.
30 March 2012 Parental Influences on Behavior In “The Liar” by Tobias Wolf, James’ reasons for lying and the content of his lies are reflected by his relationships with his mother and father. James’ relationship with his mother is strained. The way she has treated James lays down some of the motives behind his compulsive lying. James maintained a good relationship with his father until his death. Their closeness and their common interests make up some of the subject matter that is found in James’ lies. Throughout the whole story, the relationship between James and his mother is filled with tension, resentment, and misunderstanding. They don’t have the same sense of humor or get the same jokes. A huge aspect of their relationship that contributes to James; lying is how his mother has treated him in the past. His mother seemed to mistrust him, checking James’ pockets to make sure he had enough money to go out. These actions by his mother embarrassed him greatly. James and his mother never do find a commonality between them. James’ mother makes it well known that she dislikes James’s lies very much, especially “their mobility” (501). She feels the lies are a slight to her personally; She is not entirely wrong in thinking that. The way his mother used to embarrass him, he now embarrasses her with his constant lying, often involving an untruth about her. James has a much better relationship with his father. They have many things in common and discover things that bring them closer together. James and his father share the same sense of humor, getting the same jokes and puns that nobody else seem to get. They play poker together, which incidentally requires a good deal of lying in order to be successful at. They also realized that they had something else in common, “a shared fear” (505). These commonalities are most evident in the retelling of the family trip to Yosemite and the encounter with the bear. James and his father seem to be the only ones who actually fear the bear. James’ father’s joking after the fact was “perverse to the others”, but not to James (504). His father’s influence also contributes to some of the stuff James chooses to lie about. James’ father would read the paper to James very animatedly. The subject matter would most often than not be gruesome in nature. This transcended into what James’ has chosen to lie about. Most often his lies are morbid in nature, like his mother being sick with some unknown disease. James’ reasons and influence in subject matter in relation to his lying can most definitely be linked back to his parents and his relationship with them. The negative relationship with his mother and her actions towards James can be linked to why James lies in the first place. It seems a huge part of the lying is to get back at his mother for the embarrassment she has caused him. On the other end, the positive relationship James has with his father not only further strains relations between him and his mother but also contributes to the content James chooses to lie about.
William Arndt Professor Chappell English 106 March 29, 2012
The Whole World in my Hands
Lying is one of the many complications of life. Some lie to hide things about themselves, some lie to avoid situations, and others lie as an attempt to control and manipulate the world to be seen through their eyes. In Tobias Wolff’s, “The Liar” the reader is shown that James becomes a compulsive liar as an attempt to control the world he lives in. James lying becomes a big problem after the death of his father. His lying is a method of coping with his father’s death and trying to make sense of a world he doesn’t know. It is clear that James is a confused kid in search of a life that makes sense. "She thought I was coldhearted because of what happened the day my father died and later at his funeral. I didn't cry at my father's funeral, and showed signs of boredom during the eulogy, fiddling around with the hymnals (Wolff 495).” James does not cope with his father’s death through crying or sadness but rather through lying and stretching the truth. His mother fears that James’ lying will result in a life full of confusion and misfortune. She has him see a Doctor in order to figure why he acts the way he does. “She is so concerned by James’ fantasies that she believes he needs medical attention” (497). James would lie about many things, even saying his mother was very ill. His Mother has a large impact on the James acts. She is self-absorbed and very up front with conflict. This is shown in the incident where the family encounters a bear and the mother is quick to take charge and throw rocks at the bear. This assertiveness is shown when the mother forces James to “just get over” the death of his father or go see Dr. Murphy. He decides to lie and make the world he wants to hear as opposed to facing the truth.
William Arndt Professor Chappell English 106 March 29, 2012
The Whole World in my Hands
Lying is one of the many complications of life. Some lie to hide things about themselves, some lie to avoid situations, and others lie as an attempt to control and manipulate the world to be seen through their eyes. In Tobias Wolff’s, “The Liar” the reader is shown that James becomes a compulsive liar as an attempt to control the world he lives in. James lying becomes a big problem after the death of his father. His lying is a method of coping with his father’s death and trying to make sense of a world he doesn’t know. It is clear that James is a confused kid in search of a life that makes sense. "She thought I was coldhearted because of what happened the day my father died and later at his funeral. I didn't cry at my father's funeral, and showed signs of boredom during the eulogy, fiddling around with the hymnals (Wolff 495).” James does not cope with his father’s death through crying or sadness but rather through lying and stretching the truth. His mother fears that James’ lying will result in a life full of confusion and misfortune. She has him see a Doctor in order to figure why he acts the way he does. “She is so concerned by James’ fantasies that she believes he needs medical attention” (497). James would lie about many things, even saying his mother was very ill.
His Mother has a large impact on the James acts. She is self-absorbed and very up front with conflict. This is shown in the incident where the family encounters a bear and the mother is quick to take charge and throw rocks at the bear. This assertiveness is shown when the mother forces James to “just get over” the death of his father or go see Dr. Murphy. He decides to lie and make the world he wants to hear as opposed to facing the truth.
Keith Kirwan-Welsh Professor Bolster English 106 30 March 2012 Hidden Pain Tobias Wolff’s short story entitled “The Liar” depicts the story of a teenager named James who has a strange habit of lying. He lies about all sorts of things, most alarmingly the health of his own mother. James writes letters to friends detailing how his mother is suffering from a very serious illness, when in fact she is perfectly healthy. James has other siblings and none of them tell outrageous and ridiculous lies. Why James loves to fib is never told by Wolff but one must dig deeper through the text to realize the motivation behind his lies. James and his father were always a little odd, and therefore James was more comfortable around him. James’s siblings were not as similar to their father. This is evident when James was relieved that the family had left their camping trip because of a bear. James and his father are very happy to have left because they were very scared of the bear, while on the other hand the other siblings and their mother were not all too worried about the bear. James and his father also were not as into the roughhousing and goofing around. James tended to hang around his father when he was reading the paper and the others were playing. But when James’s father died, who now did James have? James was not as close to his mother as he was with his father and therefore James was not receiving the attention he longed for. James lied often because he wanted the attention of his mother, but having the strange personality that he does, he found himself at a loss of how to get his mother’s attention. So the way James could feel that bond he once had with his father was to try and get attention from his mother. Albeit strange, that is who James and his father were. They were different from the others in the family and because of that they shared a special bond. With that bond broken James has found himself to be a lonely teenage boy growing up without someone to connect with. Losing a bond like that can cause people to do strange and outrageous things in a hope to get that special connection back. James’s way of getting that bond is to get his mother’s attention. And the way he gets her attention shows how different he is. James lacks that connection and is seeking to fill that gap and by lying he hopes to fill that void in his life.
Zach Westfall Professor Chappell Intro to Fiction 30 March 2012 Lying Everyone at one point in their life has told a lie. I hope that no one has told lies like that told by James in the short story “The Liar,” by Tobias Wolff. James in a young kid whose father passed away when he was younger since the passing of his father he started making up morbid lies. A small lie that doesn’t hurt anyone is understandable pretty much everyone does it. Some of the lies James tells however are morbid like how his mother is coughing up blood or how he is an orphan. None of his lies are close to the truth they complete lies with no real truth in them. One of the things his mother feared is that he’d become good at lying. This at the end of the story on the bus with all of the strangers we find out he has become a great liar. Telling all the passengers on the bus an amazing web of lies and even pretends to speak a different language. I think that his lying s a coping method that his uses to blunt the fact that people in life die and if you lie about it you already brace yourself for when the ones you love die. His lies involve things like his mother being ill or dead. Lying isn’t a good practice but it’s worse when there is no truth in what you say. Most of the time when people lie it’s to protect someone. Like when I was younger and my hamster died I was told he ran away. This was a little white lie that really doesn’t harm anyone and actual at the time probably protected me from the reality of the death of my hamster. James doesn’t know why he lies he just does it not worrying about how it affect others and how its cheats them from the truth. “A small lie, if it actually is a lie, condemns a man as much as a big and black falsehood. If a man will deliberately cheat to the amount of a single cent, give him opportunity and he would cheat to any amount.” E. H. CHAPIN, Living Words I think this quote explains why James lies pretty well. Basically its saying if someone is given the chance to lie they will.
Trey Cole ENG 106W Professor Chappell 30 March 2012 Lost In Evidence People lie to cover either cover shit up or to spice things up; there’s no other reason. Needless to say that once somebody lies they’re the worst person in the world, right? Wrong. Now, while I might not be condoning lying that doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to gather up all the liars–myself included–and tell them that they cannot be trusted. Lying is a bad thing to do just like breaking a window or pulling the school’s fire alarm. The only difference is one kind of bad thing pisses of some people and the other kind of bad thing pisses off everyone. Is it a knock on someone’s character when they lie? Sure it is. But you have to take into consideration the fact that every once in a while, the truth isn’t so pretty. When one lies, it’s because one sees oneself as a low-life piece of trash and needs a reason to make oneself seem not so undesirable because quite frankly, that person probably hates himself or herself more than people who refer to me as a “piece of (censored) liar.” Sure, label someone who lies as untrustworthy, that might be the worst possible thing to do. You can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest. It’s the honest ones you have to watch out for. Thank you Jack Sparrow. But in all seriousness the people that aren’t fond of themselves deserve a bit of a break. Sorry that we don’t have our heads on together yet and sorry that we struggle with different internal things daily. And you can point the finger at me but every time you lie to mom and dad you might as well jump in my boat and tell yourself that you such as much as you think I suck. But here’s the thing, you don’t. You’re perfect because you’re flawed. No more than that. And if you’re beautiful in your own way, then that means I am too. So get off your hate train and learn to forgive. I’m working on it too. But quote me; lying really isn’t a good thing. In “The Liar,” by Tobias Wolff, the main character struggles with lying to many people that he comes in contact with. From his old friends to people that he just meets, he will fabricate any type of morbid scenario just for the sake of doing so. The story begins with the main character’s mother finding a letter in her youngest son’s—also the main character’s—desk drawer that is meant to be sent to his friend in Arizona. Without hesitation his mother reads the letter and finds nothing startling about it apart from the final paragraph. In that paragraph he writes that his mother had been throwing up blood and that the doctors were hoping for the best but still not entirely sure what was wrong with her. This part is clearly untrue and the mother is livid over it. Many different conclusions could be drawn after reading this story. Specifically in the case of the youngest son, I believe that he lied as frequently as he did because he could not stand the way that his mother had chosen to raise him after his father and her husband died. Despite claiming that his mother managed the family well, I can not help but think that “well-managed family” could not take the place of “fun-loving family always suspended in hysterics.” Everything had been routine from meals to homework to recreational fun. I believe that one possible reason for his fabrications was because he wanted to create something different for him to believe in. Another plausible reason for why he lied as frequently as he did could be because of how he compared to his other siblings. With one sibling happily married, another doing exceedingly well at Fordham—a great college—and another sibling just out in the world living his own, separate, and independent life, making things up in order to be the center of attention does not seem far from possible.
Stephanie Sereday Professor Chappell English 106W March 31st 2012
Coping Skills
There are several different ways of dealing with death. Needless to say, everyone deals with it a little differently. In Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar,” the main character is a young boy by the name of James. James loses his father to cancer. To cope with his father’s death, James acquires the skill of lying. When his father was alive, James would sit and listen to him read the paper. The paper that his father chose to read possessed quite morbid and twisted events that took place in the world. James and his father both found these stories quite fascinating. I don’t see James’ lies as lies per say, but stories. Stories like he used to read with his father. James’ lies are usually unpleasant and sad, like that of his mother being sick and coughing up blood. James is trying to keep a connection with his father through his stories. I also see these stories as a way for James to cope with his fears. If he lies about his mother being ill so often, when it really happens it won’t be as harsh because he has been getting used to the idea for so long because of his lies. James is covering up reality by creating his own horrible reality with his lies. Everything James says or does seems to be a coping skill for facing his reality, most of all his father’s death. By lying about his mother’s health, he is protecting himself in a way. He makes up these horrible lies and then has that feeling of relief when he is confronted with the truth, that she is okay. The “ancient and holy tongue” that James refers to is lying. People lie to protect themselves and others. It’s all coping skills (Wolff 512).
Tami Corsi Bolster 106W Escaping a mother's suffocating grasp through lies
Tobias Wolff’s short story “The Liar” represents the struggle youth has finding their true self apart from a parental figure. James, the main character in the story lies to try to separate himself from his mother and grow closer to his deceased father. Realistically, James is only a liar, a youth without a direction. However, James is compensating with his father’s death through his lies. Without James’s father his life is too organized and protected. James uses his lies to escape his mother’s protective field and explore what he can make up for himself. From the first page the reader can profile the mother. The third sentence says, ‘ “So When she found a letter in my drawer that was not addressed to her she read it. “What difference does it make if James has nothing to hide?” ’(495) . The biggest red flag is the mother is going through her son’s personal items in a room which is supposed to be a safe place. The equivalent would be as if a mother today went through her son or daughters text messages without their knowledge. It is an invasion of privacy and sheer disrespect to a personal space. All too often this leads to distrust between a mother or father towards their children. James lies because in a way his mother has lied to him. Having a drawer to close is a way of closing off the world from what James kept safe. Subtly, James’s mother lied to him by inferring his drawers especially in his room were safe. James is not unaware of his mother’s distaste for his personality. On page 499 Wolff writes, “Things were never easy between my mother and me, but I didn’t underestimate her. She underestimated me. When I was little she suspected me of delicacy…and this too mother seemed to hold against me, as if I arranged my hurts to get out of playing.” James’s mother throughout the story looks down upon her son in a way that he knows he is not being treated fairly. This is probably because James is more like his father than any of the other children are. Just as the confrontation between the mother and father in Yosemite Park and the bear was tense, so is James and his mother’s whole relationship. The tense relationship can be blamed on James’s mothers mistrust. She always ‘suspects’ something is going on with James yet never mentions anything about the other children doing any wrong. On page 500 Wolff writes, “When I went to camp she tore my pack apart in front of all the boys who were waiting in the bus outside the house. I would rather have gone without my sleeping bag and a few changes of underwear, which I had forgotten than be made such a fool of. Her distrust was the thing that made me forgetful.” The death of James’s father is not what makes him a liar; his mother’s distrust pushes him to escape her reality. Because she is so intrusive, James finds a way to be himself without his mother’s judgments through his stories of lies.
Kile Coty M. Bolster “The Liar” is a short story about a boy names James. His mother is overly concerned about his compulsive lying, more specifically, how morbid his lies are. His lies are often about sickness or death, and no one seems to figure out why. Even James himself does not know why he continues to do it. His Father died when he was young, and it seemed to not affect James too much. However, his lying could be a way of coping with the loss of his father.
James seemed to be closer to his father than any of his other siblings. They two would often joke together, and James remember things such as his father making elaborate names for his alcoholic concoctions rather than calling them by their traditional names. When someone loses a loved one, often there will be something particular that reminds them of their past relationship. Perhaps in James’ case lying about morbid things is a way of keeping his father’s memory alive. He continues to create elaborate statements and fake scenarios just as his father used to do when he was scared. James continues to lie about everything as a way to keep his father around. Lying was also linked to his father when James’ carried his dead father to his bed in order to make his mother feel better about the death. This is a direct link between the death of his father and lying to create a false reality that could be better than facing the true reality, such as facing the death of his father.
James’ mother as well as his siblings seemed to grieve during the funeral whereas James remained uninterested. The fact that the rest of his family dealt with the death, and eventually got over it could be a reason why James still continues to lie. He had never truly gotten over the death of his father.
Mitchel Cleveland Professor Chappell English 106W 1 May 2012 The Liar In the short story “The Liar” by Tobias Wolff the main character James continuously tells lies after his father’s death. He even goes as far as to lie about his mother’s health. We are stuck wondering the entire short story as to why he enjoys telling all these lies. At some points he even begins to believe his own lies like the last one he tells on the bus. He convinces everyone on the bus that he knows Tibetan and he goes as far as to say, “I sang to them in what was surely an ancient and holy tongue.”(Wolff 512) While convincing the bus he can speak Tibetan he ends up believing himself thinking he is great at singing in the Tibetan language which is false because as the reader we know he does not know Tibetan nor was he born and raised in Tibet. We soon see that James and his father have one thing in common and that is the fear of failing. We can assume that James lies because he is afraid of not being accepted by the people around him. In reality it can be because of his lying that people may not accept him. He is afraid that people won’t like him or won’t accept him for who he is so he lies about just about everything. His father was also had the fear of failure. This was the only thing he and his father had in common and was going to be the only thing. James was a kid full of confusion. He thought lying would make he accepted but others and not feel rejected by them, but in the end it rejection was all he got because of his lying. He was even some-what rejected by his own mother which is something a mother shouldn’t do. She thought that she was the cause of his lying and that he lied because of her. She even went as far as to think there was something wrong with him. She had James meet with a Dr. Murphy. When Margret James’s mother talked to Dr. Murphy he said’ “He was responsible. That means that James knows what he is doing, not that he’s going to stop doing it.”(Wolff 497) His mother was still persistant in saying something was wrong with James even though Dr. Murphy put it quite clearly that he was fine and just liked to lie. The mother had to feel that James’s lying was because of her because if she didn’t she would not have given the Thomasite Mission 1000 dollars for Dr. Murphy to examine James. Even after the two had talked Margret was still stuck on the fact that there was something wrong with James. She tried and tried to help him, but he just didn’t stop lying.
Jeff Semenetz Professor Chappell English 106W 5/7/12 Liar Liar Pants on Fire “The Liar” is about a young man named James who has a problem with lying to his mom. It reaches a point where she does not trust him at all and is constantly questioning him. The theme of this story was lying can ruin even the closest relationships. A mother and son relationship is one of the strongest that exists and it was demolished by lies in this story. James lied about everything, he told a different life to his mother and she grew paranoid. This distrust stemmed with James’s father, they liked to joke around and the mother hated it. She probably felt left out as they dropped puns and make jokes at the dinner table. When James’ father died, his mother probably had an expectation that they would improve their relationship, but James began to lie. He lied about everything and I mean everything, his mother saw it as a real problem, but it became evident that James just did not care what he told his mother. The distrust escalated to the point where his mother would double check his backpack before he went anywhere because she didn’t believe him when he told her what was inside of it. Considering their family dwindled down to just the two of them it is clear how lying can break down the strongest of relationships. They were all the family each other had and James could not tell the truth to his mom and she did not believe any word he had to say.
Karina Rodriguez
ReplyDeleteMarch 28, 2012
The Liar Response
Emotions
In the short story “The Liar,” by Tobias Wolff, James is a young boy living with his mother and experiencing the loss of his father. His mom dislikes that he is always lying and making up stories that are not true. She finds a letter in his room that was suppose to be to his best friend stating something that was not true. She becomes fed up and sends him to the doctor so that he could help James with this issue. James lost his father at a young age he probably does not know how to deal with his emotions and lying may be a way to get him out of hurt or sadness. James probably does not lie intentionally to hurt his mother but he probably lies to because he is young and does not know any better. James probably does not share anything special with his mom, who knows his dad could have been a liar and he might want to be just like his dad.
James shares a moment with his father when they go to a camping trip with the family. On the camping trip the bear that appeared at the campsite, his mother wants to have it go away. She throws a rock at the bear and James’s father does not like that. At this moment he is very scared and does not want the bear to get close to them. His father tell his mother not to do it again, she still did it without listening to her husband. James says he understood why his father was feeling that way when his mom was throwing the rocks because he felt scared too. For him and his father the scared feeling got worse though the night knowing that the bear was around. At the end of the trip James realized that maybe other kids have a way of bonding with their fathers and those ways can all be different but it wasn’t to late to share a bond with his father, and what they shared was how they both had the same kind of fear.
This probably made James feel closer with his father he finally found something they had in common which is something he had not found with his mom.
When James father passed away he felt like he lost a big part of him. It was left just him and his mom. Him and his mom didn’t have anything in common so he probably lied to spice things up in their relationship. His brothers and sisters had become successful and the house was left with just him and his mom. He didn’t lie to hurt her he just lied because he is young and he doesn’t know any better. He no longer has his father around and he had no idea how to make his mother happy then by keeping her on her toes to feed him attention. Maybe he was lost in emotions and just trying to find a way to find something in common with his mom.
Kelsey Nolan
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
EN 106W
29 March 2012
The Liar
In Tobias Wolff’s story ‘The Liar,” the main character James begins telling morbid lies about his mothers health after his father passes away. James had many things in common with his father: they shared the same interests, both told puns, shared the fear of testing their limits, and both enjoyed poker. Playing poker with his father allowed him to become the good liar he is. Before he passed away, James’ father used to read him the paper. This paper contained gruesome stories that imprinted on James’ morbid lies he would tell after his death. James’ constant lies leave his mother fearing that when he’s older he will only remember what he’s made up not anything about his real life.
James’ mother plays the rule of control in their family before and after her husband’s death. Even the way she walks, bent over like she’s fighting the wind, shows she’s the leading force fighting to keep her family moving forward. Her bent over motion could symbolize that she’s carrying the weight of taking care of her family on her back. When a bear disrupts the families camping trip she takes the initiative to scare it away; an act that the male figure would be more known to do. James’ constantly lies about his mother’s health. I feel that he is trying to weaken her because she’s so much mentally stronger than he is himself. James knows his lies affect his mother.
In the “The Liar,” singing is used to portray lying. James’ mother hates when he sings because he is never in harmony with the rest of the family. Not being in harmony means that his stories are always different than everyone else’s; he always lying. When James is alone on the bus he sings in “an ancient and holy tongue (Wolff 512).” When James is alone he doesn’t have to worry about being in ‘harmony’ with others. The strangers rejoice in his music unlike his mother because they don’t know it’s a lie. They don’t know it’s a lie; therefore it’s the truth.
Cassie Ferraro
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
English 106W
28 March 2012
Coping with Death
Naturally, after the loss of a loved one, people express their pain in varying ways. While some may make public displays of grief, others may shut themselves off from others in order to sort their feelings privately. In Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar,” Wolff introduces the reader to a young man, James, who struggles with the recent death of his father. In order to cope with this harsh reality, James begins to lie to mask the truth that his father is gone and to deal with the fears that he possesses.
James does not realize the bond that he and his father shared until his father passes away. This realization does not come well to James. While he is in class, James goes “rigid” and refuses to open his eyes. (Wolff 500)This is symbolic of the fact that James does not want to accept the fact that his father has gone and that he needs to move on. In response to this refusal to accept reality, James begins to develop a habit of lying. Lying is James’ way of masking the fears that he and his father shared and it is a way of hiding the truth from himself.
When Doctor Murphy comes to James’ home, James’ mother hopes that he will provide her with an answer as to why James is lying. Unfortunately, there is nothing medically wrong with James and the best explanation that can be provided is that he needs to work through the issues that were the product of his father’s passing. Even James, when asked, says he does not know why he was lying. It was almost a natural reaction for him. This upsets James’ mother who says, “You’re cheating yourself.” (Wolff 506) James’ mother is trying to explain to James that by not allowing himself to fully grieve, he is not going through all the necessary steps he has to in order to accept the fact that his father has gone.
Despite the advice from his mother, James is not ready to accept the reality of what has happened to his family. We see this at the end of the story when James rides the bus and convinces everyone that he knows Tibetan. This only enhances the point that you cannot force a person to see that which they do not want to, they must come to these conclusions on their own.
Naomi Alphonso
ReplyDeleteWriting 106-W
Professor Chappell
March 30th 2012
Imagine your seven year old waking up on Christmas morning knowing there’s no Santa, or looking under the pillow to find that the tooth ferry left her nothing but her fallen tooth. It would be a life of no hope and little happiness. These memories and ideas of how things happen stay with us and create lasting memories. These false ideas used to create a belief are known as white lies. Everyone does it. It’s something one does involuntarily. When someone dies, most people say something along the lines of “Everything’s going to be okay.” However, no one really knows that everything’s going to be okay. People also say things like “Don’t worry, he’s in a better place.” How does one know that? In some cases, people lie to protect the feelings of other and create an idea that they may live with. Lying to protect someone should not be something that is looked down upon. A lie that is frowned upon should be something that does harm. James lies to protect his mother and does not do it maliciously.
James’ father’s dead and gone. He left behind memories. James and his mother are also here in this world. Memories of their father and husband are all they have to hold on to. Why should they be bad memories? Why is it important that James tells his mother the so-called truth about how his father died? It isn’t. One should use their discretion in this world to decipher where lies are accepted. Not sharing the truth with his mother to protect her feelings does not make James a liar.
James lies about gruesome events like his parents dying when he is on the bus (496). James writes to a friend and tells him of his mothers serious Illness (498). However, these lies are not causing any harm. Similar to a fiction story, where the author explores fantasies, James is escaping from reality. James lost his father young and his mother forced him to move on instead of mourning. It is human nature to mourn the death of someone of significance to the individual’s life.
James lies to protect his mother’s feelings despite the fact that she didn’t protect his. When one has suffered a loss as severe as that of James, s/he shouldn’t be expected to move on (495). This little boy has not been allowed to do this. Therefore, his imagination found a way to do it for him. James’s mother appears to be someone who requires everything in her life to be a certain way. She has an image and want’s like to be identical to it. We see this when she contacts their family doctor. She is so concerned by James’ fantasies that she believes he needs medical attention (497). James’ mother is very self absorbed. She is only concerned with issues that concern her. She reacts immediately to lies created by James when they are about her. James’ mother insisted that James and his brother move on with life instead of mourning (497). This is forcing a dishonest act. James was truly sad about his father’s death. It is only natural to express this. However, he and his siblings had to put on an act and pretend like everything was all right. Therefore, this dishonest idea that was forced by his mother is what lead to his dishonest fantasies. James is not a liar, he is a young boy still trying to cope with the sorrow of his fathers death.
Ryan McDonald McDonald 1
ReplyDeleteProfessor Bolster
English 106W
29 March 2012
Like Father Like Son
In Tobias Wolff’s psychoanalytic story “The Liar,” we are introduced to teenager James, whose compulsive lies and behavior is a big concern for his mother. James’ mother began worrying about her son when she discovered he had written a friend telling them she had come down with a mysterious unknown illness. James’ mother felt it was necessary he seek medical help to cure James of his tendency to invent things and embellish on reality, so she called her longtime friend and physician Dr. Murphy. It is at this point that the reader learns of the death of James’ father which is directly connected to the morbid lies James tells. “The Liar,” explores how family survivors cope with the loss of a family member and how they summon up the resources to go on living their lives.
James’ mother's strength of character is brought to light most clearly to James when they went to Yosemite as a family when he was a young boy. There was an episode when a bear made his way into camp, it is his mother who successfully forces the beast off the premises by shouting and throwing rocks. Although James respects her straightforward way of coping with the loss, James realizes he is more indirect and unusual when coping with stress. James identifies his peculiar style and his morbid lies as allied with his father's neurotic temperament. James most notably identifies with his
McDonald 2
father's use of word play as a tactic to manage with the fear and anxiety to which he feels both he and his father are especially susceptible to. Dr. Murphy encouraged James to start thinking about others and as a result his mother sent him off to live with his brother in Los Angeles where he would work with the needy.
On the way to Los Angeles his bus he was riding in broke down due to severe rainstorm. When, amid the rain and thunder, he convinces people he helps with Tibetan refugees. At this point he invents his own make believe version of the Tibetan language and begins singing in what he himself is convinced is somehow a holy and ancient language, the moment becomes a magical one that is helpful to the passengers and gives James's capacity for make-believe a higher and spiritual purpose. The loss of his father was a tragic and life altering event that has James coping with it in his own particular style just as his father would have if the roles were reversed.
Brandon Johnson
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
EN 106 W
29 March 2012
In the short story “The Liar,” by Tobias Wolff, James is a young boy living with his mother and is coping with the loss of his father. Throughout the story James, shows how much of a pathological liar he is but knowone can tell him and his mother why he does so. In many ways, i think before his death, Jmes was able to connect with his dad more than he did with his mom. His dad seems to be the nicer parent and his mom being the strict parent it seems as that he lies to her a lot somtimes for a reason and other times just because he tends to beilieve his own lie . If James's father didnt pass away him having a male figure in his life during this time would easily have stopped his lying patterns.
Earlier in my life, i went through a faze where i would lie to stay out trouble. But in time my lies manifested itself in my life. Lying so much that i litterally couldn't tell the truth even if I wanted too. But, during this same time in my life i didnt have a clear father figure to look up to to tell me right from wrong. My mom would tell me "Brandon, Lieing is Wrong" or say "if you keep lying your nose will start getting longer" and i would beilieve that to an extext but a mother cant teach a son like a father could teach a son. A man could do certain things to a child that nobody else could do. Eventually i would pass this faze in life as i quickly found father figures and this made me see how i was supposed to act. I feel like James Never had this chance and me and James are very similar. We have Moms that care very deeply about our well beings. Overtime I would eventually make a connection with my dad as well that would guide me into being a man. Since James's father died im sad because im not sure if he would truly grow out of the faze of lying . His father dying in many ways hurt James and him lying in my opinion is a reflection of him not having his father in his life.
In Conclusion, I feel like if James had his dad he would be a totally different kid throughout the story. I really liked this book because I know that a lot of people can relate to the story in some form of a way. Tobias Wolff is a genius for making this story i liked it a lot.
Single Bond
ReplyDeleteIn the short story “Liar” by Tobias Wolff many different themes are depicted. One theme display a single bond between a father and his son. In this story, after the death of his father, the main character James falls into a habit of constant lying. He mainly lies about the health of his mother. For what reason we do not learn by the end of the story.
James reflects back to a time when him and his father and the rest of their family went on a camping trip. On this trip, they encounter a bear. The bear is circling their family’s camp while James’s mother throws rocks at it. James’s dad is anxious to get out of there, asking his wife to please sit and stop throwing rocks. James felt the same fear at the time. In the car on the way home from the trip James cracks a joke which only his father finds funny while the others just think James is sucking up. “The others turned cold looks on me. They thought I was sucking up. But Father smiled” (504-505). James claims that this situation was the one that brought them close. Throughout his father’s struggle with cancer, James and his dad become very close. Fear is the single bond that holds James and his father together before cancer wins the battle.
Despite James’s pathological lying and having to face his judgmental therapist, fear of the bear and other things in the world acts as the glue keeping James close to his dad. James also grew up disliking the newspaper because of his dad. His dad always ‘cursed’ the society section in the local paper. “.. which he called the parasite section” (502). This is another way that the theme of fear bonded James and his dad together before his passing.
Jihan Hage
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
ENG 106w
3/30/12
Perspectives
Tobias Wolff’s, The Liar, emphasizes the idea of different perspectives and outlooks on life. Throughout the story, the mother and the son, James, have a distant relationship and are described as often disagreeing and having some sort of resentment towards each other. James’ late father is also described as being very different from the mother.
The scene where the bear approaches the family’s campsite is very significant to the idea that people have different ways of thinking. When the bear approaches, the children are very frightened but the mother is the first to speak up. She keeps a calm exterior and suggests that they sing to the bear to make it go away. After that attempt fails, she stands up and begins to throw rocks at the bear, despite her husband pleading with her not to. After the bear incident, the father takes his family and drives the back to the city.
This scene tells us a lot about the contrasting personalities of the mother and the father. The mother is proven to be a strong willed, determined person. The father, on the other hand, seems to be frightened easily and would rather avoid problems. Throughout the story he his depicted has someone who doesn’t like to take risks. He finds comfort in staying within his limits, not risking failure or challenging himself. He shields himself from certain situations in an effort to prevent himself from being disappointed. His fear controls much of his life.
In contrast, the mother is much better at putting herself out there. She doesn’t display fear in the way that her husband does. She is determined and has a sense of confidence and pride that the father lacks. Her outlook on life is more or less one of attempting to challenge oneself and to take risks.
These different perspectives teach us much about people in our everyday lives. People have different way of dealing with things, whether it be trying to solve something directly, or running from the situation. It all comes down to your outlook on like and where your comfort level is. Some people are comfortable enough to take risks while others are only comfortable in safe situations. Everyone has a different thought process and a different way of coping with things, no matter what the situation may be.
Christopher Harrison
ReplyDeleteIntro to Fiction
3/29/11
Mr. Bolster
Suppressed Emotions
Lying is something us humans do naturally. Sometimes it is done to gain an advantage, sometimes for survival, sometimes even to prevent others from getting hurt. However, some lie for reasons they themselves could not explain. Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar” chronicles the life of the character James who is the definition of a compulsive liar. His mother, Margaret, is deeply concerned with his need to lie as a young boy particularly because the lies involving her are graphic. She attempts to “cure” him by sending him to a doctor. However, James’s need to lie about his mother in such graphic ways can be due to suppressed emotions he has against her.
One thing noticeable about James’s lies about his mother is that they turn her out to be a woman who has the world of problems and is falling apart physically and mentally. His mother is in no way like this however and she is disturbed by this. In one part of the story, James writes to a friend in Arizona saying that his mother has been coughing blood. When his mother discovered this she was disturbed and insulted for her health is perfect. This could be the reason as to why James says this.
James and his mother have never had a steady relationship. He may possibly view his mother as a woman who just strives to be perfect and doesn’t have one flaw to bring her down and he wishes that she would have one. Therefore, instead of telling his friend that his mother is doing well, James would rather imagine her doing terrible and tell people that. Another reason as to why James feels the need to lie about his mother in such a morbid manner is because the way he lies about her is the way he sees her. He doesn’t view her as a woman who is strong and can deal with a late husband and two dead parents because she goes to church and has a strong relationship with God. He views her as a woman who is crumbling on the inside, and this is his way of telling her that. Therefore, instead of living in the impulsive footsteps of his mother, James would rather lie in order to release his stress.
In conclusion, James’s need to lie about his mother in such graphic ways could be narrowed down to his suppressed emotions towards her. There are many different things each and every one of us do that makes us unique. In James’s case, it’s his ability to lie.
Jennifer Linke
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
Eng106W
April 29, 2012
A Mother’s Protection
A mother lion will do anything to protect her cubs from danger in the wild. She will do anything to protect them, even endanger her own life. A mother is a strong figure in a child’s life, it is the first seen when an infant is born. A mother is a symbol of protection and strength. In Tobias Wolff story, “The Liar” the mother protects her children from danger, and tries to provide a normal and steady life for her children. In the story she approaches a bear and throws rocks to attempt to scare the bear away from their campsite. The mother in the story is a strong symbol of a woman trying to provide a good life for all her children.
The mother in the story does not express patience when she is faced with certain situations, she is rushed and wants to know just the facts and get straight to the point. However, she is not to be underestimated because she is a strong woman who tries to provide her children with protection. After the death of her husband, she must raise her children on her own. All of her children seem to be on the right track and have a successful life; except for James. The mother seems to have a very difficult time with James because of his habit of telling lies; these are not normal lies most of them are morbid in which his parents are deceased or ill. James’s mother has a hard time understanding why her son has such an obsession with telling lies. She tries to provide a normal life for her children and her other children follow in her footsteps except for James. James takes after his father in many ways which was the real issue between them. Wolff says, “She was a lighter of candles. My brother and sisters took after her in this way. My father was a curser of the dark. And he loved to curse the dark” (501). In many ways James was like his father and this was difficult for his mother because of her lack of patience and time.
James’s mother tries very hard to provide a normal lifestyle, be courageous, and provide protection for her children. She has a difficult time dealing with James, because it seems that she cannot understand why he has this need to lie, when she has provided him with as much of a normal life as she possibly could. Her impatience is her downfall and it is difficult for her to cope with the fact that she cannot protect James from being like his father and from his obsession with telling lies.
Nick Coutant
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
ENG 106W
30 March 2012
The Liar
Nobody deals with the loss of a family member in the same way. Most people though, are able to find more productive ways to get though the rough times. Some people will talk about how they feel and find ways to overcome their loss. Not everyone is able to deal with these difficult times with such a productive manner. In Tobias Wolff’s The Liar, James turns to lying about almost everything, to get attention and sympathy.
After the death of his father James started to lie a lot. James was not completely sure why he was lying he just was. It was just the way that he dealt with the pain of losing his father. When his father died he most likely started to receive quite a bit of attention from other people. Then when he started meeting people that did not really know him that well he would make up really awful stories so he could get some sort of sympathy or attention from that person.
This was something that happened throughout the story. In the beginning of the story his mother found a letter that James had written to his friend and in the letter James had written that his mother had been coughing up blood and they were not sure what was wrong with her. This obviously was not true and did upset his mother very much. One other example of his attempts to get sympathy was at the end of the story when James was on the bus that had broken down. He made up a story that he was from Tibet and that his parents were killed by communists. He even went to the lengths of making up random words that the people on the bus made to be of the Tibetan language.
Although the lies may be really bad, he doesn’ t mean to hurt anyone. This is just James’s way of dealing with his fathers death. I believe that he would eventually stop once he has gotten past the death, but as of now he just lies and I don’t think he really even thinks about what he is doing. He isn’t dealing with the situation in the best way, but nobody deals with death the same.
Facing the darkness
ReplyDeleteThe narrator and protagonist in “The Liar” is an adolescent boy whose struggle to come to terms with his fears of death, disease and powerlessness takes a somewhat unusual form. However, Wolff shows that James’s peculiar behavior is not too out of line with other people’s ways of dealing with their existential fears.
All people have to face the fears of pain and death. The fears are not mere hindrances to overcome; they are essential forces shaping human consciousness. The necessity to cope with the fear of unavoidable mortality is at the roots of countless religions and philosophical teachings, and yet very few people find any of the teachings convincing and comforting enough to set them completely free of the fear.
In “The Liar”, Wolff shows us one person who seems to be sufficiently comforted by her religion. James’s mother does not dwell on the dark aspects of life: she believes that every problem has a straightforward solution and that one of the best available solutions is prayer. She is convinced that she knows “what to think” (507). Her main concern is that everything about her house, her life, and her children should be normal and orderly. In fact, she cares about that too much. The most striking example is her reaction to the discovery that James, who was no more than twelve years old at the time, had moved his dad’s dead body to the bed and had not told her about that. Most mothers in her place would be horrified on behalf of the child and worrying about the impact the incident must have had on him. James’s mother is “shocked and furious”, but furious at James, not for him (505)! Even though she seems to be a loving enough mother in some other instances, her failure to even consider her son’s feelings during one of the most important crises of his life speaks volumes. For her, orderliness and normality are overwhelmingly important because they are a part of her deal with existential fears, her imagined ticket to a salvation.
Wolff’s sketchy portrait of the paranoid Frances, who has completely succumbed to her fears, creates a perspective for examining the other characters’ struggles with theirs (496). Dr. Murphy is a knowledgeable, sane man who has lost his belief in a salvation and an eternal life but has not found any other guiding concept to replace the lost faith. James, in an amazing insight, compares the doctor’s chilly, forlorn outlook to “a raincoat hanging by itself outside a dining hall” (507). It is not surprising that the doctor keeps bringing up solipsism, one of the loneliest concepts known to humankind. He is lost, he doesn’t “know what to think any more”, and his only way to live with the biggest fear of all, that this world is nothing but endless, hopeless emptiness, is to try and joke about it (507).
[continued]
[continued from part 1]
ReplyDeleteJames’s father, the “curser of the dark”, is not mired in philosophical bogs, but he is fascinated with morbid news. The fascination does not strike the readers as unusual: vast numbers of people are attracted to horror stories. Psychologists attribute that to an atavistic survival device: watching others die helped the early humans develop reasonable fear and avoid dangerous situations. In the case of James’ father, the outdated device, combined with the ubiquity of macabre news, poisons his life with a constant fearful expectation of the all-important death. In James’s words, “the anger of his life had been a kind of stage fright” (505).
James loves his father and understands him very well. He shares the same fears and knows that his mother’s confidence in a higher power helping good people is an illusion (509). When the father’s death pushes James’s fears close to an unbearable level, he deals with them the best way he can: he starts telling himself and anybody who will listen stories full of pain and horrors, much like countless children tell each other scary stories in the dark, huddling around campfires. Instead of letting his fears poison him like they poisoned his father, James channels them into tales. His tales are sad, simple, and artless at first, but they show signs of getting better, more whimsical, more detached from reality. The “ancient and holy” language he speaks in the end of the story to a busful of not too real listeners is the language of an emerging author, the no longer afraid solipsist, starting to create his worlds (512).
Nicole DeFosche
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
EN 106W
29 March 2012
Without a Father
In Tobias Wolff’s, “The Liar,” James, the young boy, lives at home with mother. James tries to get over the death of his father, but it’s somewhat hard for him, even though he may not show it throughout the story. During the short story, James shows the reader how much of a liar he is and how it affects his mother’s actions towards him. I believe James is this way because of the death of his father. His father was a huge part of his life growing up, as like any other kid’s father is. James and his father had a very good relationship before he passed away. James’s father taught James how to play poker and would help him with his homework. Not only did they play poker and do homework together, but they also loved to joke around, but James’s mother didn’t like the joking around. She never found it amusing. Just like James’s father told jokes and wasn’t amusing to his mother, his lies weren’t any better. The more James lied to more embarrassing and noisy his mother became. His mother would always check his bag before he left the house and this made it awkward for James, so in spite of this, James would tell neighbors and local people lies about his mother to get back at her.
Now that his father isn’t around anymore to do these things, it makes James feel lonely. James and his mother don’t see eye to eye much as I stated earlier. James lies so much and it just makes his relationship with his mother unhealthy and confusing, but this is because of all the lying James does. James lies so much that at the funeral for his father, he did not cry and a couple of days later when his emotions finally caught up to him, he got very upset and cried. His mother thought he was lying when he was crying. Not only is the death of James’s father hard on James, but it’s also hard on his mother. James’s mother was always on his case about going out places or anything.
I believe James lies and has a bad relationship with his mother because of the death of his father. He uses lying as a cover up for his emotional pain caused by the death of his father. His father did a lot of things with James that made their relationship special whereas James and his mother don’t have the relationship he had with his father. To me, I am fortunate to have my father in life that supports me and loves me so much. I am truly blessed.
Alyssa Downey
ReplyDeleteIntro to fiction
Dr. Chappell
30 March, 2012
Is Ignorance Bliss?
The mother in Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar,” scolds her son James for his compulsive and brutal lying. She believes that he is not a part of reality, and lying is a self-centered act. However, James’ lies become a security blanket to him and make him feel better in tough situations. Lying creates positive outcomes and is useful for protection.
James states at the end of the story that, “the woman next to me leaned back and closed her eyes… as I sang to them in what was surely an ancient and holy tongue (512).” There is a peaceful feeling at this part that carries the idea that ignorance is bliss. When the bus breaks down, everyone listens to James’ story and falls asleep quietly. Usually, when a bus breaks down, people are not happy and peaceful. They whine and complain about being late to their destination. By James lying about speaking Tibetan, it distracts the passengers and brings a peace to the atmosphere.
Throughout the story, there is the idea that James has a hidden fear which fuels the lying. Part of this fear could be the fear of losing his mother. His lies are so intricate and brutal that it scares the mother of how real they seem. She says that James is not in true reality, but of his own made up reality. These brutal lies of his mother’s illness could be James’ way of preparing himself for when his mother dies. If he gets use to the idea of his mother dying, when the true event happens, he will not feel as much emotion than if he is caught off guard by it.
James’ lies bring not only entertainment and peace, but security to himself. His mother criticizes him for being apart from reality. However, the separation does have benefits. The power of ignorance can make overwhelming situations easier to handle, and by creating emotional scenarios, one can prepare for difficult stages in life. Ignorance can be bliss.
Chynna Burroughs
ReplyDeleteBolster
Eng 106W
30 March 2012
Parental Influences on Behavior
In “The Liar” by Tobias Wolf, James’ reasons for lying and the content of his lies are
reflected by his relationships with his mother and father. James’ relationship with his mother is
strained. The way she has treated James lays down some of the motives behind his compulsive
lying. James maintained a good relationship with his father until his death. Their closeness and
their common interests make up some of the subject matter that is found in James’ lies.
Throughout the whole story, the relationship between James and his mother is filled with
tension, resentment, and misunderstanding. They don’t have the same sense of humor or get the
same jokes. A huge aspect of their relationship that contributes to James; lying is how his mother
has treated him in the past. His mother seemed to mistrust him, checking James’ pockets to make
sure he had enough money to go out. These actions by his mother embarrassed him greatly.
James and his mother never do find a commonality between them. James’ mother makes it well
known that she dislikes James’s lies very much, especially “their mobility” (501). She feels the
lies are a slight to her personally; She is not entirely wrong in thinking that. The way his mother
used to embarrass him, he now embarrasses her with his constant lying, often involving an
untruth about her.
James has a much better relationship with his father. They have many things in common
and discover things that bring them closer together. James and his father share the same sense of
humor, getting the same jokes and puns that nobody else seem to get. They play poker together,
which incidentally requires a good deal of lying in order to be successful at. They also realized
that they had something else in common, “a shared fear” (505). These commonalities are most
evident in the retelling of the family trip to Yosemite and the encounter with the bear. James and
his father seem to be the only ones who actually fear the bear. James’ father’s joking after the
fact was “perverse to the others”, but not to James (504). His father’s influence also contributes
to some of the stuff James chooses to lie about. James’ father would read the paper to James very
animatedly. The subject matter would most often than not be gruesome in nature. This
transcended into what James’ has chosen to lie about. Most often his lies are morbid in nature,
like his mother being sick with some unknown disease.
James’ reasons and influence in subject matter in relation to his lying can most definitely
be linked back to his parents and his relationship with them. The negative relationship with his
mother and her actions towards James can be linked to why James lies in the first place. It seems
a huge part of the lying is to get back at his mother for the embarrassment she has caused him.
On the other end, the positive relationship James has with his father not only further strains
relations between him and his mother but also contributes to the content James chooses to lie
about.
William Arndt
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
English 106
March 29, 2012
The Whole World in my Hands
Lying is one of the many complications of life. Some lie to hide things about themselves, some lie to avoid situations, and others lie as an attempt to control and manipulate the world to be seen through their eyes. In Tobias Wolff’s, “The Liar” the reader is shown that James becomes a compulsive liar as an attempt to control the world he lives in. James lying becomes a big problem after the death of his father. His lying is a method of coping with his father’s death and trying to make sense of a world he doesn’t know. It is clear that James is a confused kid in search of a life that makes sense. "She thought I was coldhearted because of what happened the day my father died and later at his funeral. I didn't cry at my father's funeral, and showed signs of boredom during the eulogy, fiddling around with the hymnals (Wolff 495).” James does not cope with his father’s death through crying or sadness but rather through lying and stretching the truth. His mother fears that James’ lying will result in a life full of confusion and misfortune. She has him see a Doctor in order to figure why he acts the way he does. “She is so concerned by James’ fantasies that she believes he needs medical attention” (497). James would lie about many things, even saying his mother was very ill.
His Mother has a large impact on the James acts. She is self-absorbed and very up front with conflict. This is shown in the incident where the family encounters a bear and the mother is quick to take charge and throw rocks at the bear. This assertiveness is shown when the mother forces James to “just get over” the death of his father or go see Dr. Murphy. He decides to lie and make the world he wants to hear as opposed to facing the truth.
William Arndt
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
English 106
March 29, 2012
The Whole World in my Hands
Lying is one of the many complications of life. Some lie to hide things about themselves, some lie to avoid situations, and others lie as an attempt to control and manipulate the world to be seen through their eyes. In Tobias Wolff’s, “The Liar” the reader is shown that James becomes a compulsive liar as an attempt to control the world he lives in. James lying becomes a big problem after the death of his father. His lying is a method of coping with his father’s death and trying to make sense of a world he doesn’t know. It is clear that James is a confused kid in search of a life that makes sense. "She thought I was coldhearted because of what happened the day my father died and later at his funeral. I didn't cry at my father's funeral, and showed signs of boredom during the eulogy, fiddling around with the hymnals (Wolff 495).” James does not cope with his father’s death through crying or sadness but rather through lying and stretching the truth. His mother fears that James’ lying will result in a life full of confusion and misfortune. She has him see a Doctor in order to figure why he acts the way he does. “She is so concerned by James’ fantasies that she believes he needs medical attention” (497). James would lie about many things, even saying his mother was very ill.
His Mother has a large impact on the James acts. She is self-absorbed and very up front with conflict. This is shown in the incident where the family encounters a bear and the mother is quick to take charge and throw rocks at the bear. This assertiveness is shown when the mother forces James to “just get over” the death of his father or go see Dr. Murphy. He decides to lie and make the world he wants to hear as opposed to facing the truth.
Keith Kirwan-Welsh
ReplyDeleteProfessor Bolster
English 106
30 March 2012
Hidden Pain
Tobias Wolff’s short story entitled “The Liar” depicts the story of a teenager named James who has a strange habit of lying. He lies about all sorts of things, most alarmingly the health of his own mother. James writes letters to friends detailing how his mother is suffering from a very serious illness, when in fact she is perfectly healthy. James has other siblings and none of them tell outrageous and ridiculous lies. Why James loves to fib is never told by Wolff but one must dig deeper through the text to realize the motivation behind his lies.
James and his father were always a little odd, and therefore James was more comfortable around him. James’s siblings were not as similar to their father. This is evident when James was relieved that the family had left their camping trip because of a bear. James and his father are very happy to have left because they were very scared of the bear, while on the other hand the other siblings and their mother were not all too worried about the bear. James and his father also were not as into the roughhousing and goofing around. James tended to hang around his father when he was reading the paper and the others were playing. But when James’s father died, who now did James have? James was not as close to his mother as he was with his father and therefore James was not receiving the attention he longed for. James lied often because he wanted the attention of his mother, but having the strange personality that he does, he found himself at a loss of how to get his mother’s attention.
So the way James could feel that bond he once had with his father was to try and get attention from his mother. Albeit strange, that is who James and his father were. They were different from the others in the family and because of that they shared a special bond. With that bond broken James has found himself to be a lonely teenage boy growing up without someone to connect with. Losing a bond like that can cause people to do strange and outrageous things in a hope to get that special connection back. James’s way of getting that bond is to get his mother’s attention. And the way he gets her attention shows how different he is. James lacks that connection and is seeking to fill that gap and by lying he hopes to fill that void in his life.
Zach Westfall
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
Intro to Fiction
30 March 2012
Lying
Everyone at one point in their life has told a lie. I hope that no one has told lies like that told by James in the short story “The Liar,” by Tobias Wolff. James in a young kid whose father passed away when he was younger since the passing of his father he started making up morbid lies. A small lie that doesn’t hurt anyone is understandable pretty much everyone does it. Some of the lies James tells however are morbid like how his mother is coughing up blood or how he is an orphan. None of his lies are close to the truth they complete lies with no real truth in them. One of the things his mother feared is that he’d become good at lying. This at the end of the story on the bus with all of the strangers we find out he has become a great liar. Telling all the passengers on the bus an amazing web of lies and even pretends to speak a different language. I think that his lying s a coping method that his uses to blunt the fact that people in life die and if you lie about it you already brace yourself for when the ones you love die. His lies involve things like his mother being ill or dead. Lying isn’t a good practice but it’s worse when there is no truth in what you say. Most of the time when people lie it’s to protect someone. Like when I was younger and my hamster died I was told he ran away. This was a little white lie that really doesn’t harm anyone and actual at the time probably protected me from the reality of the death of my hamster. James doesn’t know why he lies he just does it not worrying about how it affect others and how its cheats them from the truth. “A small lie, if it actually is a lie, condemns a man as much as a big and black falsehood. If a man will deliberately cheat to the amount of a single cent, give him opportunity and he would cheat to any amount.” E. H. CHAPIN, Living Words
I think this quote explains why James lies pretty well. Basically its saying if someone is given the chance to lie they will.
Trey Cole
ReplyDeleteENG 106W
Professor Chappell
30 March 2012
Lost In Evidence
People lie to cover either cover shit up or to spice things up; there’s no other reason. Needless to say that once somebody lies they’re the worst person in the world, right? Wrong. Now, while I might not be condoning lying that doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to gather up all the liars–myself included–and tell them that they cannot be trusted. Lying is a bad thing to do just like breaking a window or pulling the school’s fire alarm. The only difference is one kind of bad thing pisses of some people and the other kind of bad thing pisses off everyone.
Is it a knock on someone’s character when they lie? Sure it is. But you have to take into consideration the fact that every once in a while, the truth isn’t so pretty. When one lies, it’s because one sees oneself as a low-life piece of trash and needs a reason to make oneself seem not so undesirable because quite frankly, that person probably hates himself or herself more than people who refer to me as a “piece of (censored) liar.”
Sure, label someone who lies as untrustworthy, that might be the worst possible thing to do. You can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest. It’s the honest ones you have to watch out for. Thank you Jack Sparrow. But in all seriousness the people that aren’t fond of themselves deserve a bit of a break. Sorry that we don’t have our heads on together yet and sorry that we struggle with different internal things daily. And you can point the finger at me but every time you lie to mom and dad you might as well jump in my boat and tell yourself that you such as much as you think I suck. But here’s the thing, you don’t. You’re perfect because you’re flawed. No more than that. And if you’re beautiful in your own way, then that means I am too. So get off your hate train and learn to forgive. I’m working on it too. But quote me; lying really isn’t a good thing.
In “The Liar,” by Tobias Wolff, the main character struggles with lying to many people that he comes in contact with. From his old friends to people that he just meets, he will fabricate any type of morbid scenario just for the sake of doing so. The story begins with the main character’s mother finding a letter in her youngest son’s—also the main character’s—desk drawer that is meant to be sent to his friend in Arizona. Without hesitation his mother reads the letter and finds nothing startling about it apart from the final paragraph. In that paragraph he writes that his mother had been throwing up blood and that the doctors were hoping for the best but still not entirely sure what was wrong with her. This part is clearly untrue and the mother is livid over it.
Many different conclusions could be drawn after reading this story. Specifically in the case of the youngest son, I believe that he lied as frequently as he did because he could not stand the way that his mother had chosen to raise him after his father and her husband died. Despite claiming that his mother managed the family well, I can not help but think that “well-managed family” could not take the place of “fun-loving family always suspended in hysterics.” Everything had been routine from meals to homework to recreational fun. I believe that one possible reason for his fabrications was because he wanted to create something different for him to believe in. Another plausible reason for why he lied as frequently as he did could be because of how he compared to his other siblings. With one sibling happily married, another doing exceedingly well at Fordham—a great college—and another sibling just out in the world living his own, separate, and independent life, making things up in order to be the center of attention does not seem far from possible.
Stephanie Sereday
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
English 106W
March 31st 2012
Coping Skills
There are several different ways of dealing with death. Needless to say, everyone deals with it a little differently. In Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar,” the main character is a young boy by the name of James. James loses his father to cancer. To cope with his father’s death, James acquires the skill of lying.
When his father was alive, James would sit and listen to him read the paper. The paper that his father chose to read possessed quite morbid and twisted events that took place in the world. James and his father both found these stories quite fascinating. I don’t see James’ lies as lies per say, but stories. Stories like he used to read with his father. James’ lies are usually unpleasant and sad, like that of his mother being sick and coughing up blood. James is trying to keep a connection with his father through his stories. I also see these stories as a way for James to cope with his fears. If he lies about his mother being ill so often, when it really happens it won’t be as harsh because he has been getting used to the idea for so long because of his lies. James is covering up reality by creating his own horrible reality with his lies.
Everything James says or does seems to be a coping skill for facing his reality, most of all his father’s death. By lying about his mother’s health, he is protecting himself in a way. He makes up these horrible lies and then has that feeling of relief when he is confronted with the truth, that she is okay. The “ancient and holy tongue” that James refers to is lying. People lie to protect themselves and others. It’s all coping skills (Wolff 512).
Tami Corsi
ReplyDeleteBolster
106W
Escaping a mother's suffocating grasp through lies
Tobias Wolff’s short story “The Liar” represents the struggle youth has finding their true self apart from a parental figure. James, the main character in the story lies to try to separate himself from his mother and grow closer to his deceased father. Realistically, James is only a liar, a youth without a direction. However, James is compensating with his father’s death through his lies. Without James’s father his life is too organized and protected. James uses his lies to escape his mother’s protective field and explore what he can make up for himself.
From the first page the reader can profile the mother. The third sentence says, ‘ “So When she found a letter in my drawer that was not addressed to her she read it. “What difference does it make if James has nothing to hide?” ’(495) . The biggest red flag is the mother is going through her son’s personal items in a room which is supposed to be a safe place. The equivalent would be as if a mother today went through her son or daughters text messages without their knowledge. It is an invasion of privacy and sheer disrespect to a personal space. All too often this leads to distrust between a mother or father towards their children. James lies because in a way his mother has lied to him. Having a drawer to close is a way of closing off the world from what James kept safe. Subtly, James’s mother lied to him by inferring his drawers especially in his room were safe.
James is not unaware of his mother’s distaste for his personality. On page 499 Wolff writes, “Things were never easy between my mother and me, but I didn’t underestimate her. She underestimated me. When I was little she suspected me of delicacy…and this too mother seemed to hold against me, as if I arranged my hurts to get out of playing.” James’s mother throughout the story looks down upon her son in a way that he knows he is not being treated fairly. This is probably because James is more like his father than any of the other children are. Just as the confrontation between the mother and father in Yosemite Park and the bear was tense, so is James and his mother’s whole relationship.
The tense relationship can be blamed on James’s mothers mistrust. She always ‘suspects’ something is going on with James yet never mentions anything about the other children doing any wrong. On page 500 Wolff writes, “When I went to camp she tore my pack apart in front of all the boys who were waiting in the bus outside the house. I would rather have gone without my sleeping bag and a few changes of underwear, which I had forgotten than be made such a fool of. Her distrust was the thing that made me forgetful.” The death of James’s father is not what makes him a liar; his mother’s distrust pushes him to escape her reality. Because she is so intrusive, James finds a way to be himself without his mother’s judgments through his stories of lies.
Kile Coty
ReplyDeleteM. Bolster
“The Liar” is a short story about a boy names James. His mother is overly concerned about his compulsive lying, more specifically, how morbid his lies are. His lies are often about sickness or death, and no one seems to figure out why. Even James himself does not know why he continues to do it. His Father died when he was young, and it seemed to not affect James too much. However, his lying could be a way of coping with the loss of his father.
James seemed to be closer to his father than any of his other siblings. They two would often joke together, and James remember things such as his father making elaborate names for his alcoholic concoctions rather than calling them by their traditional names. When someone loses a loved one, often there will be something particular that reminds them of their past relationship. Perhaps in James’ case lying about morbid things is a way of keeping his father’s memory alive. He continues to create elaborate statements and fake scenarios just as his father used to do when he was scared. James continues to lie about everything as a way to keep his father around. Lying was also linked to his father when James’ carried his dead father to his bed in order to make his mother feel better about the death. This is a direct link between the death of his father and lying to create a false reality that could be better than facing the true reality, such as facing the death of his father.
James’ mother as well as his siblings seemed to grieve during the funeral whereas James remained uninterested. The fact that the rest of his family dealt with the death, and eventually got over it could be a reason why James still continues to lie. He had never truly gotten over the death of his father.
Mitchel Cleveland
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
English 106W
1 May 2012
The Liar
In the short story “The Liar” by Tobias Wolff the main character James continuously tells lies after his father’s death. He even goes as far as to lie about his mother’s health. We are stuck wondering the entire short story as to why he enjoys telling all these lies. At some points he even begins to believe his own lies like the last one he tells on the bus. He convinces everyone on the bus that he knows Tibetan and he goes as far as to say, “I sang to them in what was surely an ancient and holy tongue.”(Wolff 512) While convincing the bus he can speak Tibetan he ends up believing himself thinking he is great at singing in the Tibetan language which is false because as the reader we know he does not know Tibetan nor was he born and raised in Tibet.
We soon see that James and his father have one thing in common and that is the fear of failing. We can assume that James lies because he is afraid of not being accepted by the people around him. In reality it can be because of his lying that people may not accept him. He is afraid that people won’t like him or won’t accept him for who he is so he lies about just about everything. His father was also had the fear of failure. This was the only thing he and his father had in common and was going to be the only thing. James was a kid full of confusion. He thought lying would make he accepted but others and not feel rejected by them, but in the end it rejection was all he got because of his lying.
He was even some-what rejected by his own mother which is something a mother shouldn’t do. She thought that she was the cause of his lying and that he lied because of her. She even went as far as to think there was something wrong with him. She had James meet with a Dr. Murphy. When Margret James’s mother talked to Dr. Murphy he said’ “He was responsible. That means that James knows what he is doing, not that he’s going to stop doing it.”(Wolff 497) His mother was still persistant in saying something was wrong with James even though Dr. Murphy put it quite clearly that he was fine and just liked to lie. The mother had to feel that James’s lying was because of her because if she didn’t she would not have given the Thomasite Mission 1000 dollars for Dr. Murphy to examine James. Even after the two had talked Margret was still stuck on the fact that there was something wrong with James. She tried and tried to help him, but he just didn’t stop lying.
Jeff Semenetz
ReplyDeleteProfessor Chappell
English 106W
5/7/12
Liar Liar Pants on Fire
“The Liar” is about a young man named James who has a problem with lying to his mom. It reaches a point where she does not trust him at all and is constantly questioning him. The theme of this story was lying can ruin even the closest relationships. A mother and son relationship is one of the strongest that exists and it was demolished by lies in this story. James lied about everything, he told a different life to his mother and she grew paranoid. This distrust stemmed with James’s father, they liked to joke around and the mother hated it. She probably felt left out as they dropped puns and make jokes at the dinner table. When James’ father died, his mother probably had an expectation that they would improve their relationship, but James began to lie. He lied about everything and I mean everything, his mother saw it as a real problem, but it became evident that James just did not care what he told his mother. The distrust escalated to the point where his mother would double check his backpack before he went anywhere because she didn’t believe him when he told her what was inside of it. Considering their family dwindled down to just the two of them it is clear how lying can break down the strongest of relationships. They were all the family each other had and James could not tell the truth to his mom and she did not believe any word he had to say.
i agree
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