Leaving Lying to Your Imagination

To all the Young Gents, Little Ladies, and everyone in-between, do you guys recognize me? I’m sure all your parents told you about who I am and what I do. If they didn’t, I’ll give you a hint. I’m someone who you can trust. I’ll keep you safe and always help you in any way that I can. Any guesses? I’ll tell you, I’m the Sheriff of our little town! Which means it’s my duty to keep you safe. The only thing I ask, and what I’ve come to your class to talk about, is that you be entirely honest. It’s a simple concept, but sometimes it might seem like a difficult option. However, if you aren’t entirely honest with people, as you’ll see in some famous fairy tales you’ve read, there will likely be accidental, painful, or harsh consequences.

This next story will show how lying can cause more problems than you think. Many kids your age know the story of Pinocchio, a wooden boy whose nose grows when he lies. However, Pinocchio is not the character I’m going to focus on. In the original story of Pinocchio, the puppet meets a sly cat and fox. Both lie to Pinocchio in the beginning of the story forcing him to pay an absurd bill for dinner. Later that night Pinocchio asks a hotel employee, “‘Did they pay for the supper?’” and the inn keeper responds, “‘How could they do such a thing? Being people of great refinement, they did not want to offend you so deeply as not to allow you the honor of paying the bill’” (Collodi 33). Who Pinocchio thought were his friends lied and betrayed him. Later in the same story, Pinocchio sees them begging for food and money on the street (Collodi 122). Kids, the idea here is that the Cat and the Fox lied so much that they eventually ended up paying for their mistakes. They both ended up starving and homeless, despite how they stole, lied, and cheated. I don’t think that the Cat and Fox intended for them to be homeless. Clearly, they did it on accident because they didn’t truly know the consequences of lying. I encourage all of you to always tell the truth, because something, like what happened to the Fox and the Cat, will happen to you. Lying could cost you kids what you love most.

My next two examples show the everlasting effects of lying is in the story Cinderella and a study done on the effects of lying. As the story goes, the Prince dances with Cinderella at a fancy ball. On the last night, Cinderella accidentally leaves a shoe, the prince uses this shoe to locate the woman that he thought he was dancing with. Both stepsisters lie and despite neither one of them being the girl that the prince dances with, they even tried cutting off part of their foot to do so. After the prince discovers that Cinderella is the true owner of the shoe, the wicked stepsisters are sitting in church when birds peck out their eyes, making them unable to see for the rest of their life (Grimm 153). Obviously, the situation will never arise where birds will peck out your eyes for lying, but there could be some harmful consequences associated with lying. In a study that analyzes the consequences of lying, the authors explain that lying requires more work than telling the truth, so eventually, you’ll lose the mental capacity to think as well as you used to (Verschuere). As the stepsisters and the study shows, there could be long term effects, if you begin to lie too often.

Finally, in this last story, I will illustrate how bad lying truly is, if it is used repeatedly. In The Boy Who Cried Wolf, we learn that lying can have really mean and strict consequences. The boy, completely riddled with boredom whilst tending his sheep, decides to scream that he saw a wolf, despite never actually seeing one (“The Shepherd Boy & the Wolf”). He makes the villagers believe that he is in danger, although he isn’t. The boy decides to do this a second night, the villagers come to his rescue again (“The Shepherd Boy & the Wolf”). The boy feels accomplished that he tricked the village people twice. However, on the third night of tending his sheep, a wolf shows up. The boy knowing that the villagers would come to rescue, calls out “Wolf!” This time, no one shows up thinking that the boy is just joking again (“The Shepherd Boy & the Wolf”). The wolf eats all the Shepherd’s sheep and leaves the boy. This goes to show that when you start to lie, people will begin to no longer trust you, even when it comes to safety. In some renditions the boy gets eaten by the wolf all because he lied one too many times. Overall, nothing good will happen if you lie and it will only go on to hurt you.

I’ve said a lot today. Although, it is likely that a lot of you already knew that lying is bad, it is important to remember that lying will never just go away. It’s a problem that will continue to get worse. Hopefully, you learned that lying is more than a one-time deal. A lie can create a ripple of lies that will go on to create a massive complication in not just your life, but everyone you involve. The overall idea I want you kids to know, is that telling the truth will always be better in the long run. You might think that lying about a small thing here and there will be okay, and it might seem that way. In the end, the truth always comes out, so tell your truth now, before you face unintended, harmful, or harsh consequences.

 

 

Works Cited

Collodi, Carlo. The Adventures of Pinocchio. 1883.

Grimm, Brothers. “Cinderella.” The Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 148-153.

“The Shepherd Boy & the Wolf.” Library of Congress Aesop Fables, http://www.read.gov/aesop/043.html

Verschuere, Bruno, and Willem In´t Hout. “Psychopathic Traits and Their Relationship with the Cognitive Costs and Compulsive Nature of Lying in Offenders.” Plos One, 2016, https://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=12&sid=38bf9075-5399-44ec-b4d3-0822d468afc5@sessionmgr102.