We Were Liars

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is a suspenseful fiction novel that serves as a social critique concerning white classist America.  The story follows an adolescent girl by the name of Cadence Sinclair and her family while they spend their summers at their family vacation home.  The story is told through Cadence’s perspective, whom is suffering from a debilitating brain disorder caused by an accident that happened one summer while vacationing with her family.  Her family shields the truth of the accident from her in hopes of lessening the trauma by letting her figure it out herself.  This decision causes Cadence to become distant from her family and set out to discover the truth herself.  She spends her time with her cousins; they are deemed The Liars.  Through this, Lockhart evaluates the American upper-class and the toxicity that is often present in their family environments.

At the beginning of the novel, Cadence introduces us to her family and immediately opens the reader’s eyes to the ignorance that lies within.  Gat, who is only present due to his relation to Cadence’s aunt’s boyfriend, is labelled as an outsider by the adults of the family.  He is of Indian decent and comes from a much more middle class family, thus he looks and acts very differently than the Sinclair family.  Lockhart uses Gat as an example to critique how close-minded some highly fortunate Americans can be, even those who seem to be progressive at surface level; the family are prominent democrats.  Furthermore, Cadence’s grandfather somewhat ostracizes one of his daughters simply for being with someone of a lesser social class (Gat’s Uncle), and even threatens to remove her from the family’s inheritance if she agrees to marry him.

To further critique upper class America, Lockhart displays how the Sinclair Family somewhat warps their children into believing that they cannot express or share emotions that would generally be seen as weak.  For instance, even though Cadence is suffering from a debilitating brain disorder that causes her great pain, her mother shows little to no remorse when around her family and usually tells her to ‘suck it up’.  The origin of this attitude can be seen near the end of the novel as Cadence is recalling then night of the accident.  Cadence’s grandfather and his three daughters are arguing over the inheritance and he begins to respond angrily to any ‘weak’ emotions being shown, which eventually leads to the family splitting apart and the eldest grandchildren searching for a solution to bring their family together, which proves detrimental (i.e Cadence’s accident).

Through her writing of We Were Liars, E. Lockhart effectively critiques the white classist society within America.  Furthermore, she conveys the trauma that such toxic family dynamics can imprint upon developing adolescents.