We Were Liars

By Ally Dunlap -
An important theme in We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is family. The Sinclairs are a family that is very wealthy but there are a lot of problems beneath the surface. One thing I noticed throughout the novel is how family values and attitudes greatly impact the adolescents in the family.

An example of this is seen with Cadence. Early in the novel, Lockhart writes, "Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family. No one is a criminal. No one is an addict. No one is a failure" (3). From the outside looking in, the Sinclairs make everything look perfect, but in reality, there are many problems in the family. The person they tried to hide the most was Cadence. Cadence's family affected her because after her "accident," there was no communication or explanation on what happened. The doctor told the family that it would be best to let Cadence remember on her own. However, Cadence is constantly questioning things, and I think this is why she continuously gets her headaches.

Second, after Cadence's accident, she was constantly giving her belongings away. I think this also has a lot to do with the family she was raised in. Her mom and aunts have been dependent on their father's money. They want to be the most wealthy and have the most things without having to work. Cadence says, "Grandad did nothing but fuel them. We watched them quarrel over Gran's things and the art that hung in Clairmont--but real estate and money most of all. Granddad was drunk on his own power and my mother wanted me to make a play for the money" (170). Cadence is directly involved in this because her family is making it clear that the main focus is money. The focus is not on her granddad losing gran or family values.

Family is something that impacts Cadence because she is in a family of people who are more worried about money than each other. The problem with this is that it many times causes the children to grow up to be the same way.

Comments

  1. Anna GilfillanOctober 16, 2019 at 11:28 AM

    There are a lot of families that have the same view as the Sinclair family. To them the most important thing is money and how they look to other people. Thankfully I was raise in a family that was based on love and not material things. That is not the case for some children.

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  2. Tiara A WintonOctober 16, 2019 at 5:26 PM

    Thank you for your blog post. To be honest young adult novels that talk about the wealthy elite is something that I usually do not read and that is mostly because as a reader I personal feel like i can not relate to any of the characters. But your blog post makes me realize that we can all find something in common with book characters. Cadence and I have family issues that have affected our childhood. My family issues are not related to money problems but I can understand the importance of having good role models with proper quality traits that will carry on to adulthood.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kiara McVayOctober 18, 2019 at 11:39 AM

    I agree with your statement about the way children are raised has an affect on their future motives. I’m not sure if this is a book that I would read but from your summary of the book the lot does catch my attention.  Though I cannot relate to this family’s traits, it would be interesting to get an idea of why some people base their love off of materialistic things.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carter McGillOctober 20, 2019 at 5:56 PM

    Ally,
    I love the way you dissect the Sinclair family and expose them for who they really are behind closed doors. I, also, think you do a great job of showing how this can greatly affect adolescents as a whole because it can cause a huge identity issue. This could also cause an adolescent like Cadence to become unaware of what the outside world is like for others such as Gat. She has only seen one side of life merely because her parents try to make it seem like a perfect world when it's clearly not.

    ReplyDelete

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