Examples Of Narcissism In The Lie

Depression is defined as a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being. People with depressed mood can feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable or restless. In “The Lie”, Lonnie is going through depression with narcissism. Lonnie wakes up every morning dreading getting up to Xana, the baby, and Clover, his wife, only to head to his miserable job at 6:15am every day. While Clover goes to her job that she loves and he stuck with taking care of “the baby”, as he refers to Xana. The beginning signs of depression and narcissism are revealed that first morning. Lonnie said “The room like the tumuli of the dead, a hard-driving rain drooling down the dark vacancy of the window—but everything seemed to have a film over it, a world coated in Vaseline. The baby let out a series of scaled-back cries.” . Lonnie’s description of this morning is very dark and doesn’t even refer the baby to her name, Xana, just calls her the baby.
When he just refers to Xana as the baby it shows that Lonnie doesn’t really care for the baby too much it almost like she is part of his depression. Xana is the first showing of narcissism in Lonnie. He named Xana after a movie he produces. Not what him and clover produced, just him. After dealing with the baby that morning Lonnie calls Radko, his boss at his awful job. The first thing Radko says when Lonnie calls is “let me guess sick again?” which tells us that this is not the first time Lonnie did not feel like going into work a day. Then this is where the lie begins. Lonnie tells Radko that Xana is sick in the hospital so he could have a day off. This is another sign of narcissism because he uses the baby which is one of the main causes of why his life is so depressing and using her to get a day off just to himself. He not using this day off to spend time with his daughter or his wife. Instead Lonnie is using this day off to just for himself. Lonnie even says ” I could do anything. Go anywhere. An hour ago it was sleep I wanted. Now it was something else. A pulse of excitement, the promise of illicit thrills, started up in my stomach.”. Lonnie then drops off the baby at Violeta’s house, the nanny, so his day to himself would start. Clover, Lonnie’s wife, is another huge component of his depression and narcissism. Lonnie was once in love with his wife but, not anymore. I feel that he is stuck in this job that he does not like while Clover is doing a job that she loves. Lonnie hates the fact the Clover is succeeding and he is not. Clover is off in law school about to become a lawyer which is her dream job. While Lonnie is in this job that he dreads going to everyday but he’s the bread bringer of the family so he has to keep the job to keep the baby healthy and to pay for clovers law school so Lonnie feels that he is stuck in this job. After Lonnie’s first day off he comes home with the baby to clover. Clover brings up that she wants to change her name. but Lonnie jumps right to the last name which is his name didn’t even think that she wanted to change her first name Lonnie says “My name’s not good enough for you? Like it was my idea to get married in the first place?”. This show that Lonnie does not want to be married to clover anymore. And that he is narcissist enough to jump to conclusions that it had to be his name that she wanted to change not her first name. Lonnie last sign of depression and narcissism is with is follow co-workers at his job.
After telling Radko another lie that the baby had died in the hospital to get another couple days off. Lonnie returned to work getting pampered by his co-workers with gifts, greeting cards and money. One of his co-workers even brought him his favorite coffee and did not even know his co-workers name. Lonnie is blind to the fact that his co-workers at his dreaded job actually care for him. After his day at work he heads home to clover and the baby. But will not tell clover about the money and gifts he has received from his co-workers. But then the phone ringed and clover picked up. It was Jeanie ,the secretary, her and clover talked and eventually Jeanie told her condolences to clover about the baby. But clover said there was nothing wrong with the baby. Lonnie had to explain himself to clover and told her about the gifts. Lonnie was caught up in his
lie. To conclude Lonnie life is dead. Lonnie says “I wasn’t about to answer her because the baby was dead and she was dead, too. Radko was dead, Jeannie the secretary whose last name I didn’t even know, and Joel Chinowski, and all the rest of them.” Everyone is dead to Lonnie he does not care for whatever the consequences are for doing what he did. He just wants his life to start over again.