We Were Liars, By E. Lockhart

People in past and present societies are always longing and searching for power. Every person that has ever lived on the earth wants to have some sort of power and control. Its human nature. People do not like the feeling of being restricted, so they will go to great measures to obtain authority in their own lives. That power though, is not always used properly. Once some get the power that they have worked for, it can start to be misused. One can use power to help or to harm. Power is a very dangerous thing and needs to be handled with great care and respect. This is clearly demonstrated in the novel, We Were Liars, written by E. Lockhart. Within this story, we see a quest for power by Harris, Cadence and the other three liars. We learn the
possible detriments that power can bring. Although power can do so much good in society, it is something that needs to be treated with caution as it can cause damage to relationships, oneself, and even end lives. Power can be used to create so many positive things.
It can be used to build and to save and to learn. However, when placed in the wrong hands, power can be a scary thing. It can also be something that people will do anything to keep. Individuals will risk and sacrifice a variety of possessions in order to keep a small amount of power. A lot of times too, people are not careful with what they are willing to sacrifice. Priorities need to be set on what you are willing to lose in order to obtain what you are working for. Power is a greatly desired thing, but what are you willing to lose in order to achieve or keep your
power? Harris, Cadence’s grandad, is a very power-hungry man within the story. He is the oldest of the family, and therefore he is the most powerful, especially after his wife, Tipper, dies. Harris is in control of all the families finances, and his three children, Penny, Bess, and Carrie, are in great need of funds. Bess and Penny are “living off the trust money” (Lockhart 159), and Carrie is getting supported by her boyfriend, Ed. The money of his three daughters is starting to run out, and Harris is withholding the family wealth from them. In fact, he eventually gets the girls to turn on each other because they are worried about having material things. Harris’ daughters get caught up in trying to please their father to get what they want from him. Harris uses his power to start “manipulating all of [them]” (Lockhart 163) and stress his children out to the maximum. He uses the power he has, as the eldest in the family, to destroy the relationships between himself, his daughters, and his grandchildren. The power that Harris yields is completely detrimental to himself and those around him. Power, whether placed in the wrong hands or misused, can cause massive amounts of physical and emotional harm to oneself. The choices one makes when one is having thoughts of power can be dangerous. It can give you a false sense of protection or cause one to act irrationally without considering the potential consequences. When one is on a quest to take power from another individual, decisions can be made that will ultimately be regretted. A person needs to take into consideration what can be lost or damaged in the conquest for power. It can end up being something irreversible that is lost.
Cadence is one that gets hurt in her attempt to remove power from her grandfather.
She is tired of seeing her mother and aunts in total disarray from being manipulated by her grandfather. She decides to take action one night with the liars, Mirren, Johnny, and Gat. However, their attempts take a turn for the worse when plans go wrong, and Cadence ends up on the little beach alone. She ends up in an accident involving a traumatic brain injury which then causes severe migraines for several years. Pain becomes “nothing but ordinary” (Lockhart 33) in her everyday life. Cadence’s struggle to remove power from her grandfather ended in a terrible accident, resulting in doctor after doctor and “prescription after prescription” (Lockhart 34). She was willing to risk and sacrifice her own safety in order to try and achieve her overall goal.
People often take into consideration those around them. Usually decisions are made as to not cause harm or injury to surrounding individuals. However, things can go wrong. Plans made with a group of people, whether big or small, can cause misfortune for anyone in the party. Steps are typically taken to ensure to security of all, but with regards to getting power, these steps can be overlooked. Greed and looking out for only yourself often weighs on everyone else negatively. The consequences that come from thinking only about oneself can often be severe and
unfavorable.
The four liars, Cady, Gat, Mirren, and Johnny are no strangers to things going wrong. On the night of Cady’s accident, all four liars were attempting to confiscate some of their grandfather’s power. They plan to burn Clairmont, Harris’ home, to the ground in order to destroy all the material possessions that the whole family was concerned with. They wait until they are the only ones on the island to do their deed. The four of them gather gasoline cans from the boathouse and kindling to make sure the house is reduced to ashes. The plan is to douse the house, “see it catch, see it burn” (Lockhart 203), and then run. Each member of the group was assigned a separate floor. Cadence, assigned to the ground floor, feels “giddy and powerful” (Lockhart 204) as she stands and looks at the house doused in gasoline. Her next move is her fatal mistake, though. She lights her floor and exits the house, after running back through the flames to the exit. She removes herself from the burning building and watches as everything lights up. That was when she hears it. “Someone screams” (Lockhart 205). Gat, Mirren, and Johnny are still caught in the house. The flames engulf the house so fast that there are no other survivors. Cady’s act of lighting the house “kills them” (Lockhart 209). She kills her friends on their quest for power. Cady makes an irreversible mistake which costs the lives of her liars, her friends.
In the case of Cady and her liars, power was a very deadly thing. The quest for power left Harris with ruined relationships among his family, Cady with a severe brain injury and terrible pain, and the liars burnt to ashes. Power is something that the whole of them put too much importance on. The outcome and events within the story can teach us about what should and shouldn’t take priorities in our lives. Family and the health of relationships should be a main focus. We need to work on helping one another out rather than tearing each other down like those in the Sinclair family. We should worry more about the safety and wellbeing of our friends rather than what we selfishly want for ourselves. Power is something that is useless to us after we lose so much. We need to watch what we are willing to sacrifice and not push it past your breaking point. Don’t wait until it’s too late and the damage cannot be reversed before you change your course for the better.