The Liars Weakness

Teenagers. When adults describe them, they’ll say things like ‘obnoxious,’ ‘rude,’ ‘self-absorbed.’ That just isn’t the reality of the situation. In actuality, teenagers are on a road to find themselves. This road is infinite and on fire. It is hell. So, when they reach the end, they are bound to have learnt some vital lessons. E. Lockhart’s poignant novel ‘‘We Were Liars’’ and Ryan Padovani’s poem ‘‘I’m Only as Weak as I Think’’ is quite possibly the story of a teenager's life. The narrators, through the use of metaphors, are demonstrating one running from their weaknesses and failures, convincing themselves that they’ll be alright, even if it is not true. But how does one go their entire life without an inch of doubt haunting them? In ‘‘We Were Liars’’ and ‘’I’m Only as Weak as I Think’’, through the use of metaphors, we learn that when we feel like failures and feel the weakness that comes with it, we must remember that it is only a barrier on the road we are taking to find ourselves.

86400 seconds in a day, 1440 minutes and 24 hours. Your mind is never at rest. The emotions you hold captive in your head are completely your own. So, how do you expect anyone to understand them? Lockhart and Padovani use metaphors to help the reader understand the captive thoughts. Lockhart uses this technique to help reader delve into Cadence’s intricate mind and fully understand her. We are able to acknowledge how crucial moments in Cadence’s life impact her. When her father left her, trampling on any pride or strength she had left and he ‘pulled out a handgun and shot [her] in the chest. [She] was standing on the wall and [she] fell. The bullet hole opened wide and [her] heart rolled out of [her] rib cage and down into a flower bed. Blood rushed rhythmically from [her] open wound, then from [her] eyes, [her] ears, [her] mouth. It tasted like salt and failure. The bright red shame of being unloved soaked the grass in front of [their] house, the bricks of the path, the steps to the porch. [Her] heart spasmed among the peonies like a trout.’ The pain Cadence feels, in this extended metaphor, is so immense that it resembles a bullet in the heart. The immense pain and ‘shame of being unloved’ is eventually what built up Cadence’s personality and the inner conflict she faces on a daily basis. It sprouts the idea of her tendency to run from anything that may make her vulnerable, which carries through the entire book. None of us are truly able to express ourselves in a way that makes perfect sense to others. We are angry, sad, confused, excited, irritated. And we just do not know how to explain what we are thinking. If an explanation meaning having an expressive outlet. Padovani and Lockhart use metaphors to help readers relate. Padovani’s speaker feels a ‘war within, moves [moving] around with nowhere to hide.’ This is supporting the idea of inner conflict. A war is essentially two or more sides fighting for something they believe in. A war inside one’s head is two or more contradicting thoughts fighting to influence one’s actions. The speaker and Cadence both have so many thoughts crossing their mind and they can not seem to push it away. Much like you, the reader. The metaphors in both of these texts represent the complex thoughts individuals have that do not seem to make sense to others, but they also represent the light at the end of the tunnel. When people finally understand you, through the use of universal emotions.

Failure : Noun
Lack of success.

We have all been there. That dark place where our self-doubt takes over our mind. There is no way to control it. Musky echos that poison our poise. Failure feels like regret, disappointment, and an incompetent performance. In both texts, the speakers share this common feeling of failure. In Cadence’s life, ‘no one is a failure.’ Except Cadence feels like she is. While they both share this idea of being a failure, what is different is the way they both handle it. Ryan Padovani's speaker feels like it isn’t necessary to acknowledge it. The speaker thinks it is best to just ignore that feeling. ‘Anger within, but no need to look back.’ The speaker is filled with regrets, frustration and ineffable emotions and doesn’t want to even acknowledge the mistakes they have made. On the other hand, Cadence, like any other teenager, is on the road to accepting feeling despite it being very hard. When she says ‘I [She] will prove myself [herself] strong’ she wants to convince herself that she can overcome the feeling she has of being a failure in the Sinclair family. The feeling of failure is incredibly common amongst teens, whether you feel like you failed your mother, your sibling or yourself, teens need to remember that like Cadence, accept it and prove that your are more than that mistake you made. Despite what people say, one or two mistakes doesn’t make you a failure.

As mentioned earlier, teenagers are on a road to find themselves. So while they are travelling they are simply confused teenagers feeling the aftermath of external pressure. Pressure from peers, parents, media are all elements that shatter teenagers confidence and cause the weakness that is ever so present in their life. Looking at Cadence’s story, we see the progress she made from being closed off and sensitive to ‘not actually caring.’ When teenagers pass the part of the road that, like Ryan Padovani’s speaker is passing, is filling them with the thought that ‘controlling [yourself] will keep [you] from being weak.’ They learn important morals that ultimately stick with them throughout their life. At the end of ‘’We Were Liars’’, Cadence, after reaching the end of her road, learns quite possibly the most important lesson in her life. That is to ‘be a bit kinder than you have to.’ Whereas, in the poem ‘’I’m Only as Weak as I Think’’, by the end of it, all the speaker has learnt is ‘controlling [yourself] will keep [you] from being weak.’ Which is not the right thing to take away from everything that you’ve dealt with. We are human. We have struggles in life. We have regrets, fears and haunting memories but after you let go of your past, come to terms with it, you are going to reach the end of your road much faster.

In both ‘’We Were Liars’’ and ‘’I’m Only as Weak as I Think’’, the authors, E. Lockhart and Ryan Padovani show the conflict teenagers face daily and by reading the end of both texts, you can see the difference it makes when you finally accept who you are, mistakes you’ve made and lies you’ve told. As a teenager myself, I’m still on the road to finding myself and letting go of my past. It is not easy. But what I hold onto is the hope that the end of my road will teach me as many things as it did to Cadence. Ultimately, no one can tell you if you’re reaching the end. The end of your road depends on the kind of person you are and the actions you choose to do. Even though we all want to reach the end of the road, only you can decide if like Ryan Padovani’s speaker, you want to be stuck with a closed mindset or if you want to be like Cadence and reach the end a better person.

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.”