Bill was looking out the play set window at McDonalds when a woman in a blue uniform approached him.
“Young man, how old are you?” she asked in a curious voice.
“Uh...” he replied realizing the age limit on the play set was 11. “I’m 10” he said. Bill was actually 13. Was this right of Bill to lie? What will be the consequence? A similar situation occurred in the short story “The Lie” by Kurt Vonnegut. A boy named Eli lies about getting into a boarding school when he really failed the test and was not accepted into the school.
“The Lie” by Kurt Vonnegut was written because Vonnegut wanted the morale of the story to be even the smallest lie can grow to a great one when you do not tell people the truth. Vonnegut wants kids or maybe even adults to understand what the consequences might be and no lie is ever ok. Vonnegut was right when he thought that no lie was ok because when you think you just told a little lie that’s not going to hurt anyone it comes right back at you and either hurts you or someone close to you both physically or mentally.
Vonnegut wrote this story as a third person omniscient because when writing that way the reader always knows what all the characters are thinking. This helps the story because you know the inner thoughts of not just Eli but his family members too. That really helps the reader to understand how the other characters feel about the situation they are in.
The story is a tragedy because in the beginning Eli does tell a lie that will come right backs at him in the end f the story. Eli thought that his parents would never find out but when you tell a lie you better believe someone is going to find out. The lie for Eli starts out good but when things start to change he now knows he had done something wrong. At the end he was not able to get into the school because he failed the test and lied about it to his parents who are still confused n how he was not accepted even though he is a Remenzel.
Kurt Vonnegut was able in this story to get the message through clearly because most writing pieces are hard to get the lesson out of
Fall Assessment 2010
Magic and the Night River
The story Magic and the Night River by Eve Bunting is not a true story, but could still happen. In this story the master fisherman named Kano rents one of his two boats to Yoshi’s Grandfather who is a wise man. Kano gets his payment in the fish that Yoshi and his Grandfather catch. When Grandfathers not bringing in the fish. Kano is not happy, and thinks Grandfather is losing his skill of fishing.
Kano wants the boat back to rent so someone else, but Yoshi and his Grandfather have one more try left to catch a lot of fish. That night while they were fishing there lines got tangled with Kano’s and Yoshi and his Grandfather were forced to let the birds free. After sitting there in shock of what just happened they see one of the birds coming back with a fish and it was not attached to a chord. Then another came, and another. I think this happened because Yoshi and his Grandfather treated there bird with respect and care. Therefore the birds gave back to them by bringing back fish. That night they brought their boat back full of fish.
Kano on the other hand was still waiting for his birds to come back but they never did. I believe this happened to Kano because of the way he treated them, he shoved then in baskets didn’t treat them with care and respect. So the birds did not help him when he needed them. Kano returned to shore with only a few fish.
The meaning of this story I believe is treat everything the way you want to be treated and they will respect you back. Two examples are Yoshi and his Grandfather treated their birds with respect and care and they came back to help them when they were not on chords. Kano’s birds on the other hand did not come back to help him because they did not like the way they were being treated.
The magic they speak of in this story is just respect. So remember use the magic and treat others with respect and good things will happen.
