Liars with Eyes Shut

Everyone, Everywhere is constantly pushing away reality. Parents, Peers, Friends, Teachers. Whether it be the reality of ourselves or the people around us. We always have those moments in our lives where everything feel right, like it is meant to happen, or meet people who we instantly click with. We want to hold on to those precious moments or people forever more because they make us whole, they make us feel like life can’t get any better. Both “We Were Liars“ by E. Lockhart and “Eyes Shut” by Olly Alexander delve deeply into the concept of pushing away the realities of life. Lockhart's ravishing novel “We Were Liars” is set on Beachwood Island, where the “beautiful Sinclair family” lives. They are strong, perfect, and untouchable. At least that’s how they depict themselves. The family that everyone strives to become. They are the epitome of the “all American white families, and Alexander’s phenomenal song “Eyes Shut” explores the idea that nothing will ever hurt us if our eyes are shut, but the fact that we can never hide from our reality forever. In both “We Were Liars” and “Eyes shut,” we learn (grasp the fact) that in life we cannot shut our eyes towards reality because we will have to face it in one or another way. We will have to eventually be strong enough to face the reality in front of our eyes, both authors display this theme by using metaphors to exaggerate their characters way of thinking.

Everyone is constantly pushing away reality. The reality of life; reality of relationships or just the reality of who we are in general. Both Lockhart and Alexander explore the concept: why do people push away reality? For Cadence it is the idea of pushing away the reality of loving someone. In “We Were Liars” Cadence knows that “ I [she] shouldn’t love him,” referring to Gat (her love interest). She is pushing away the pain because she fears he won’t be there when she needs him most. She always says “It is what I [she] [is] afraid to do.” To lose Gat. Some might argue that Cadence is just afraid to love him because she knows that it is going to be bad for the family, but the truth is that it is much deeper than that. They both know that it's wrong Gat keeps emphasizing that “You don’t know me.” She feels enslaved not to love him because he’s not there. She is so terrified to lose him that she imagines him. She is trying to hide from the fact that he’s dead. Cadence is trying to hold onto the last thread of hope for her, which is Gat. If he slips out of her hands it’s all over. While in “Eyes Shut” the character states that “nothing’s gonna hurt me [him] with my [his] eyes shut. This clearly depicts the fact that with his “Eyes shut” Meaning that when he is closing himself of from the reality he believe that nothing is going to hurt him nothing will be able to get to him as long as his eyes are closed. Both authors talk about this theme in very contrasting ways as in “We Were liars”, Cadence eventually learns that she is not going to benefit by pushing away reality as we have to face it at some point, learning to accept the fact that there are not always going to be people who are there for us in our worst times, we have to learn to be there for ourselves. While in “Eyes shut” the character clearly doesn’t change his mind about the fact that his eyes will always be shut to reality as that's what he thinks is best for him. This is also acceptable because some people like living by themselves where they know that no one can hurt them. People are always trying to find easier ways out of problems in their lives. For Cadence and the character in “Eyes Shut” it is pushing away reality. That is their shortcut to an easier life.

The human brain is the most complex organ in the human body and probably the most complex creation present in the world today. This is clearly why it is so hard to understand other people's feelings and emotions as it is even hard to understand your own. Both Lockhart and Alexander show the exaggeration of emotions in their characters using metaphors to reveal to the readers the characters inner thinking. In “We Were Liars”, Lockhart uses this craft move only in very momentous scenes of pain for instance here Gat “wrapped my [her] wrists in soft white gauze” (pg.30). The white Gauze representing Gat taking care of Cadence when she was going through the toughest of times, the word soft referring to his touch, the way he holds her and when Cadence talks about her dad who “pulled out a handgun and shot me [her] in the chest.” The handgun referring to the look in her dad’s eyes as he was leaving. The overwhelming sadness she felt like a “handgun shot me [her].” In “Eyes shut.” Alexander uses this craft move in the first verse of his song. He says “throw your heart to me” to “let it fall and hit the ground, let it go.” Putting this into context he says “throw your heart to me” meaning if you give me your heart it will “fall and hit the ground.” He is so closed off from reality that even when people are trying to care for him, show him that he does still matter. No one can get through to him he says that “You're [everyone’s] timing was so wrong.” They missed the time to actually get through to him, they waited to long before going to show their love. Everyone just want’s to be found sometimes. People hide and disconnect totally from the world to find out who are our really friends, who are the people that really care about us. This can be a very hard by hard I mean tough to get through process because what if there is no one that really cares about us? What is no one comes to rescue us? Wouldn’t that be the most heartbreaking things. This is the contrast between “We Were Liars” and “Eyes Shut”. In “We Were Liars” there are people that really care about Cadence like the liars Gat, Mirren, and Johnny but the only problem is that none of them are alive and that is why she is having a really hard time finding love in the world. While in “Eyes Shut” there is no one for him in the world. It is too late now for him to be found. All he wanted was “to be found” but no one found him. Pushing away reality all connects back to the fact that both characters are pushing away reality to find out who really cares about them. To find out who will be there for them in the very end.

All these points come together to help us readers understand how everyone in the end just wants to be found. Both “We were Liars” and “Eyes Shut” are written in first person narrative. In “We Were Liars” it is written In Cadence’s perspective giving us readers an even harder time trying to figure out what's going on as all the other supporting characters already know what exactly happened the night of the fire. Lockhart’s goal was to get us readers inside her mind, teaching us that we all need to be found by someone, or be strong enough by ourselves even if nobody finds us. Cadence SInclair was found by Gat but after his death no one was able to find her making her want to hold onto him even more, leading to her pushing away the reality of loving someone so deeply. Alexander’s Goal was to send a message that we cannot have our “Eyes shut” because we will eventually “see through them.” There is no point closing our eyes when something is right in front of our faces. He wants us readers to learn that we are all better off facing our reality today rather than tomorrow because as much as we push it down it will keep rising up and up higher each time. So why not just keep our eyes open all the time?

Lockhart and Alexander want us to learn that we don’t need people to always care for us because we are strong enough alone to take care of ourselves. As a teenager myself, this is an issue that is very relevant to me and the people around me because we are all going through the hardest part of life - Adolescence. This is where we learn everything we need to take away for adulthood. One of the biggest things we learn is that we are not the only ones that matter in the world, everyone matters. So we can’t always have people by our sides every step of the way because everyone is going through the same journey. We need to learn to take care of ourselves. As long as we believe in ourselves, that is all that is needed to get us through the hardest parts of life. When you start loving yourself, other people will admire for that very factor will want to be around you more because you release a sense of positivity and wholeness. Which is something they lack. These few simples things are what shine bright through both E.Lockhart’s novel “We Were Liars” and Olle Alexander’s beautiful song “Eyes shut.”