Secrets are a controversy in the daily lives of the human race. Teenagers are a particular group that delve into unraveling the frustrations and the power that comes from this concept. When you are the only person that doesn't know a secret, you are left out, an outsider. The person who knows the secrets of others has leverage and can use that to their benefit. If you are the person on the outside and your friends know something that you don't; then you start thinking up of ways to get them to talk. Secrets are not limited to truths that very few people know. A secret can be anything that is even partially covered up. The poem : The History Teacher demonstrates this idea. The events of history are known to many and therefore history is not a secret. However, history becomes a secret when the teacher changes the course of history with the intent of protecting his student's "innocence". The students then do not understand the importance of history and they do not learn from the mistakes of the past. The truth covered up can also impair the judgments of a person leading them to make ignorant decisions that can affect many lives. Then, as people might think, it would be best if everyone told nothing but the truth. Wrong. Truth to an individual, is based on a person's perspective and their past history. To the history teacher, the War of Roses is a series of wars for the throne of England. To the students, their truth is that "The War of Roses took place in a garden". They are both truths to the individuals and therefore truth is not objective but subjective. That is why, in our society, there is the concept of lying. It is to judge another person's truth or subject our own truths to be evaluated as fact or not. In the end, the person with the most facts that are tainted with the least emotions holds the highest truth. This person has the power to change other peoples perspectives and can influence many others. Talk about pressure.
Resources: The History Teacher by: Billy Collins
"Wars of the Roses." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wars_of_the_Roses>.
Wow, Anna, you were able to derive a really deep and philosophical blogpost from The History Teacher poem! Nice analysis of the relationship between truth, lies, and perspective.
ReplyDeleteYour post reminded of The Things They Carried and how the class discussed truth and lies about the war based on perspective. I like how you defined truth as subjective and how lying comes from that..great post!
ReplyDeleteI think that you did a really good job putting your thoughts into words and going deeper with your analysis. Great work :)
ReplyDeleteI like how you present a lie as another person's truth. However, if truth is subjective (I agree with you on that point), how can you boldly say "Wrong" (line 12) to the views of others? :)
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