PRT Essay on "The Truth About Lying" by Judith Viorst

“The Truth About Lying”: A Personal Response
In “The Truth About Lying,” Viorst discusses a very common yet barely admitted human behavior: lying. For so many reasons, and using so many ways, people lie. According to Viorst, lying is not accepted per se by anyone yet is done only keep social wheel going on, maintain peace, protect and keel trust. These are types of lies, explains Viorst, which everyone has at some point said. This contradiction everyone is caught in is, argues Viorst, is part of human experience and is a dilemma not everyone has been able to resolve. Even for good liars, lying is still a moral issue. Overall, Viorst offers succinctly and realistically a view of lying and liars most, if not all, fail to admit in public for understandable (or not) reasons.
“The Truth About Lying” is, indeed, an open discussion about an issue widely seen and practiced yet hardly acknowledged. In exposing lying and liars, Viorst addresses readers directly using many ways. These include, most notably, using “you” and asking “What about you?” at each section’s end. In so doing, Viorst engages readers to think about lying loudly and put into critical question any assumptions and beliefs readers might have about lying and lairs. Further, Viorst uses “I” when referring to herself. This makes “The Truth About Lying” more of a conversation and less of a moral lesson. Indeed, admitting lying herself, Viorst lends her conversation more credibility and, more importantly, urges readers to admit lying as, perhaps, a way to stop lying or at least to do everything possible to avoid lying. So, Viorst manages to engage readers, one believes, effectively by direc...