Lying is a concept that has the disastrous potential to cause destruction but also has the ability to protect. In 'Candelo', more often than not it is not lying that creates havoc for the characters but the withholding of the truth.

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TEXT RESPONSE: CANDELO

Lying is a concept that has the disastrous potential to cause destruction but also has the ability to protect.  In ‘Candelo’, more often than not it is not lying that creates havoc for the characters but the withholding of the truth.  It is arguable that both are as bad as each other.  The consequences of this issue affects the way the characters in Candelo live and it is evident that they struggle to move on with their lives because of a past never dealt with.  The book investigates many themes such as death and relationships but ultimately they all revolve around the themes of deceit and lies.  Everyone in the book has to deal with the problems caused by lies.  All the characters underestimate the capacity of lies and the consequences for many of them are quite tragic whilst for others a lie proves to be a saviour.

Trust, truth and guilt are all awkward relations to lies.  Candelo chooses to form its basis on the message that these three themes protrude.  Every person in the book is somehow unfortunately negatively related to these themes.  Ursula, the main character and narrator, breaks her trust with everyone, including her mother and brother, boyfriend and friends.  She hides things from her family and cheats on the one she professes to love.  The dire consequences of this are the disintegration of her family, loss of respect from those close to her and an empty life.  She later confronts her past and faces the harsh reality of what she has done and in doing so states, “What was wrong with me?” and “how could I fall in love and stay in love?” (Candelo, p.105).  Bernard, Ursula’s father, is the obvious liar in the text as he blatantly hurts those he loves by deserting them and brazenly lies to the police.  The life changing consequences of this are the lasting problems it caused his son, Simon and his estrangement from his family and a lack of faith in himself.  In this case, however, lying did have the ability to protect as Bernard’s consummate lies to the police prevented Simon from being imprisoned.  Simon’s life is destroyed by a tremendous guilt based on the lies of his past.  His life is empty, boring and almost lifeless as a consequence of his actions at Candelo.  Through these three characters we can see the potential lies have to destroy lives. Throughout the text we are also led to believe that lies have the ability to protect but more often than not this leads to further and more serious problems.

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The consequence of lying in the novel affected the way characters were able to, or not able to form  proper relationships.  The family relationship in the book between Ursula, Simon and their mother Vi was not healthy.  Lies laid a frail foundation in which nothing positive or honest could eventuate from it.  It had been destroyed through deceit and the hiding of the truth from each other.  Vi was sick and frail and needed the support of her children.  The secretive and untruthful nature of their relationship created an alienation within the family.  A balanced relationship ...

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