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Melinda Sanchez

Ms. White

AP Lang 4

March 5, 2020

Compare Analysis

Deception can be seen in our everyday lives, whether one tells a big lie or a small white

lie, everyone lies. The question is not if we lie, but rather ​why ​we lie. “Sometimes people lie to

inflate their image—a motivation that might best explain President Donald Trump’s

demonstrably false assertion that his Inauguration crowd was bigger than President Barack

Obama’s...People lie to cover up bad behavior, as Olympics swimmer Ryan Lochte

did...claiming to have been robbed at gunpoint at a gas station when, in fact, he and his

teammates, drunk after a party, had been confronted by armed security guards after damaging

property” (Bhattacharjee). These reasons for living can be seen present in both texts ​The Secret

Life of Bees b​ y Sue Monk and ​Amusing Ourselves to Death ​by Neil Postman, that cause society

to prohibit themselves from growth. ​The Secret Life of Bees ​by Sue Monk showcases a young

girl named Lily who goes through transitions while on her journey in search for a parental guide.

Lily grows up in a negligent home due to her mother passing away and is left with her father's

abusive ways. Since she does not have a parental figure, she becomes caught in a troubled life

that she tries to get away from through lying. As Lily sets out on a journey to learn more about

her mother, she finds herself in different situations that ultimately guide her to a better life. In

Amusing Ourselves to Death ​by Neil Postman, the author gives insight to different types of

media. He explains how things like television are perceived in a false fashion due to pre-placed
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societal norms. He gives examples on how media deceives viewers in order to boost their image.

Postman further expands on the concept that society positions themselves up for deception when

they stick to a bias paradigm, and withdraw room for other perspectives. In ​The Secret Life of

Bees b​ y Sue Monk and ​Amusing Ourselves to Death ​by Neil Postman, paradigms play an

essential part to creating a life with or without deception. With staying in the realm of deception

we risk not being able to obtain growth and altering our ability to think for ourselves.

In the Book ​The Secret Life of Bees​ the character of Lily is seen to evolve when she is in

different surroundings. In the beginning of the book, she lives with her dad, who she refers to as

T-ray. During that time, she does a lot of mischievous things that demonstrate the extent of her

immaturity. Later when Roselina and Lily stay with August, Lily has a shift of perspective and

begins to change as a person. Lily has just learned from T-Ray that her mother was going to

leave her before she died. Out of anger and disbelief, Lily runs off to the hospital that Rosaleen is

being contained at. She sneaks past the guard, by pretending she was confused about where she

was at, and enters Rosaleen's room. Lily proceeds to tell Rosaleen that she is going to help her

escape and does so by calling the administration desk of the hospital and lying. “Part of me was

saying these actual words, and part of me was listening to myself say them, thinking how I

belonged in a reform school or juvenile delinquent home for girls, and would probably soon be

in one” (Monk Kidd 48). Characterization is present when Lily states “part of me was listening

to myself say them”. When Lily describes how she is easily coming up with lies and just going

with what is happening in the moment it exhibits how she is senselessly taking action due to the

outrage she has towards her father. She also adds how she ‘belonged in a juvenile delinquent

home for girls’ as a result of the actions she was taking. Lily’s thought process reveals that she
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knows what she is doing is wrong, but she continues to do them anyway because she is so caught

up with how she is feeling in the moment. Since Lily does not process her emotions in a healthy

way, and instead covers them up with lies, she expresses the immature side of herself. Through

her lying, Lily demonstrates that she values lying and acts on the principle of putting deception

over telling the truth. During this time of Lily’s life, she is starting to experience a shift in her

demeanor. In the beginning of the book, Lily does not stand up to her father and tends to keep

quiet. In this section of the book, Lily finally goes against her father when he upsets her, causing

her to run-away. Lily begins to shift her attitude when she turns to the more rebelling side of

things and confides in the act of lying. Although she is accompanied by Rosaleen, Lily’s actions

change when she leaves her father's house and becomes independent. As Lily searches for a

parental role in her life, she begins to surround herself in a pool of lies to escape her reality.

When Lily lies, she tends to think about it self- consciously because she has guilt for deceiving

people. Towards the end of the book, Lily begins to accept that deception is getting her nowhere

in her new environment and decides to come out with the truth. Doing this, Lily begins to present

her maturity and allows herself to move on from her past. One day, Lily takes part in dancing

and singing with the Daughters of Mary. She becomes overwhelmed with being apart of a new

community and passes out. When she wakes up, she is nurtured by the Boatwrights, which is

something she has never experienced before. As Lily and August watch Tv, Lily later begins to

think about coming clean.“I knew one day I would go back into the parlor when no one was

around and touch the Lady’s heart. Then I would show August the picture of my mother and see

if the moon broke loose and fell out of the sky” (Monk Kidd 114). Lily ponders future actions

she plans to take. She thinks about coming out with the truth about her mother to August. Lily
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has a growth of characterization due to her straying away from lying, as she feels guilty about it.

She instead wants to take responsibility for her actions and come clean to August about

everything. She knows that telling something appalling should come out when the time is right,

so she decided to wait a little longer. Although she has not told August about everything, the fact

that she is preparing indicates her shift in values. She values relationships, as she is seen

idolizing August and the other female figures in her life when thinking of them. She turns her

value of relationships into a principle by telling the truth in order to keep a good relationship

with the people she cares about. While being in a new surrounding Lily is seen to behave in a

different manner and make different actions than her past. These actions consist of coming out

with the truth to August after spending some time in the Boatwrights household and learning

about their daily routines. Due to Lily now having female figures in her life, she starts to see a

different realm of relationships. Lily takes comfort in the Boatwrights way of doing things and

decides that she is comfortable enough to tell August the truth. Now that she has seen a different

paradigm through the way August and her sisters live their life, she sees that deception is not the

answer if she wants to move on. Lily experiences how a different paradigm can lead to a life

with or without deception. In the beginning of the book, Lily has the perspective of a crazy

senseless life that led her to create deception to others by repeatedly lying. When Lily lies, she

continuously thinks about why she is lying and how she comes up with her lies. Since she feels

stuck and relies on deception, she begins to stop thinking before she acts. In a way, Lily does not

think for herself during this time and allows her feelings to go ahead of her. Due to Lily

changing her perspective, she sees that deception was not the answer to evolving in life and

began to change her ways. Instead of letting her life spiral out of control, Lily changed and
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started thinking for herself about the rights and wrongs of deception. If Lily did not consider a

different perspective to life, she would have been stuck in a realm of deception. In a life of

deception, Lily would not have been able to exhibit growth in her relationships or change her

ability to think for herself. Likewise, paradigms construct a large impact in Niel Postman’s

Amusing Ourselves to Death. I​ n his book, Postman describes how society has been prone to

deception through media. Postman gives an anecdote about a co-anchor that was hired at a news

channel but later fired only because the viewers did not like her look. He claims how her look

had nothing to do with the news directly, but indirectly people stopped watching the channel

based on their perception of her look, causing them to discredit what she was reporting on.

“Hampered viewer acceptance means the same thing for television news as it does for any

television show: Viewers do not like looking at the performer. It also means that viewers do not

believe the performer, that she lacks credibility” (Postman 101). Postman gets his argument

across to the readers by presenting research. He explains to viewers how television viewing

works by giving a definition of hampered viewer acceptance and explaining how certain things

like appearance affect the amount of viewers a television show has. He also goes into his

research when he talks about specific situations where hampered viewer acceptance has been

seen. He reveals that people begin to base the truth off of the way society perceives it. Since

people think of credibility to look a certain way, viewers of tv are more likely to believe

someone who is nicely dressed rather than thinking about the facts that are actually presented to

them. Due to others discarding that people who look truthful may not be, they deceive

themselves in what information they decided to take in. The way people are perceived brings

bias as well as deception. The stereotypes viewers associate people’s looks with comes from
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years of societal norms. Due to society making these stereotypes seem factual, people tend to

blindly follow them and not think about the situation for themselves. Unlike Postman, viewers

are not looking into credibility and instead use society’s norms to guide their assumptions.

Postman continues to enlighten viewers on the deceptions that media, such as television, presents

to viewers. He starts to point out the accuracy behind the show Sesame Street being used as a

form of educational teaching for children. He concedes with the statement of Sesame Street

being able to teach children, but concludes that it is not measurable to the way that the school

system would. “Whereas a classroom is a place of social interaction, the space in front of a

television set is a private preserve. Whereas in a classroom, one may ask a teacher questions, one

can ask nothing of a television screen. Whereas school is centered on the development of

language, television demands attention to images” (Postman 143). Postman creates his argument

by using deductive reasoning. He compares the way that television gives information to children

and the way the school system teaches children. Due to the two different techniques of education

forms, Postman concludes that gathering an education from the television compared to the

schooling system is vastly different. He makes it clear to the audience that entertainment has a

manner of presenting itself as education. He talks about how society is often deceived by

television since they think of it as being solely educational, when in fact, television will give out

information that has been shaped to entertain its audience. Due to the way the audience perceives

television, they are at first glance, in belief that it is informational and not entertainment. When

being compared to another perspective, Postman is able to demonstrate how television deceives

the way the audience views things and concludes its goals to be surreptitiously entertaining.
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Paradigms can be seen in both ​The Secret Life of Bees b​ y Sue Monk as well as ​Amusing

Ourselves to Death by ​Neil Postman. In these texts, paradigms determine the presence of

deception in one’s life. Without deception, people are able to see a clear picture to think for

themselves and present growth. In ​The Secret Life of Bees, ​Lily deceives people in order to cover

up her bad behavior, which is one of the main reasons why people are known to lie. She then

shifts her paradigm after being in different environments and succeeds in growing her

relationships with the female figures in her life as well as forgiving her parents. However, in

Postman’s ​Amusing Ourselves to Death​, society's bias paradigms lead them into a life of

deception. Due to society having universal stereotypes, audiences often get influenced by these

stereotypes and begin to turn a blind eye to the deceptions of media. Postman concludes that

media deceives its audience in order to boost their image and warns that deception can lead to

audiences being unable to obtain information and grow from different learning experiences.
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Works Cited

Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit. “Why We Lie: The Science Behind Our Deceptive Ways.” ​National

Geographic,​ 18 June 2019.

Monk Kidd, Sue. ​The Secret Life of Bees .​ New York, New York: Penguin Books, 2003. Print.

Postman, Neil. ​Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.​ 20th

anniversary ed. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.