Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Period 4/5, Blog Entry for Week of 10/07
Topic 2: The Virtue of Honesty
Directions: In a comment, respond to the prompt below in 300+ typed words. Also be sure to respond to a classmate's comment so that we can keep our classroom conversation going.
In "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant, Mathilde Loisel goes to great lengths to over compensate for the fact that she misplaced her friend's necklace. Had Mathilde Loisel come clean and told Madame Forestier that she lost the necklace, she may not have spent most of her life in debt. However, she chooses to lie to Madame Forestier by omission and live in poverty in order to replace the missing necklace.
Do you think that honesty is the best policy? Explain why or why not and cite examples from your own experiences and observations. Have you ever had an experience when honesty has done more harm than good? If faced with the choice between being dishonest and potentially ruining a friendship or being dishonest and putting yourself in an undesirable situation, which would you choose? Explain your choice.
Be sure to answer all parts of the question fully. Your comment/response to my prompt should be 300+ words. Your comment/response to a friend should be 50+ words. Your blog entries must be completed by 11:59 pm on October 14, 2012.
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i believe honesty is most deffenitly the best policy. Mathilde should have been honest from the start. If she did, she would have found out that the necklace was fake and that she didn't have to spent that much money to replace it. She wouldn't had to fire her maid, move to a smaller appartment, and spent 10 years paying off the debts. Also, she wouldn't have to spent most of her life feelings guilty and hurting inside. I've been in a few situations where honestly did more good then lying. It got me out of a lot of trouble, and till this day i thank god i chose the right decision to speak the truth. If i was ever faced with the situation of loosing a great friendship i wouldn't ruin it. I would be 100% honest because a friendship is one of the most important things in life. I know everyone says friends arin't always there for you, but my close friend is. She is like my sister and if i lose her i wouldn't ever be the same.
ReplyDeletei know how you would feel losing a really close friend. i would feel the sme way if i lost my bestfriend.i also really liked what you wrote and i agree 100% with you maria that honstley is the best policy. and not lying has gotten me out of a lot of situions as well.
Deletei know how if feels to have a really close friend. i still have a friend that i knew since kindergarden, and im closer her then my own sister. and if i lost her i wouldnt be the same too. i truly believe that honest is the best policy, and my friend and i werent honest with yeah other then i dont think our friendship wouldnt have lasted as long as it has.
DeleteI believe that honestly is the best policy. Mathilde should have told her friend that she lost the necklace because she and her husband would not have been in so much debt for those many years, would not of had to fire her maid and have her husband work so many jobs. She would have also not had to move out of her house and take money from the many land sharks. Also that Mathdile would have found out that the diamonds were fake and would have not had to worry about looking all over for it. In anybody’s life no matter what age they are they should always be honest and tell the truth. A life without truth and honesty is a life filled with bad decisions and a life of getting in trouble. But in life a person can tell white lies because white lies are not big lies. White lies are like saying you have something to do because you really don’t want to hang out with someone. Little lies like that in life are okay but big lies like saying that you did not cheat on test when you did those are big lies. So if you get caught in a big sitution than always tell the truth, but little white lies here and there are okay sometimes. I have been in a few situations where honestly more good than lying did. Telling the truth have gotten me out of many bad situations and have made that situation much better. Now being honest and telling the truth is part of my personality. I tell people what I think where they like it or not I always tell the truth and tell exactly what I am thinking. Many people do not like that but now it’s a part of me and if someone does not like that than o well it a part of me so they can get over it.
ReplyDelete"A life without truth and honesty is a life filled with bad decisions and a life of getting in trouble." That sentence is so true when you think about it and i totally agree with that.I have had some situations when i lied before and it always turns out bad in the end. Otherwise good story!!
DeleteI think honesty can be a good and a bad quality. You can use honesty as a good policy or as a bad policy. If you use honesty for a good thing then in that way it can be good. However if you use it in a bad way it can be bad or turn bad very quickly. From my own experiences it can turn bad very quickly. My mother can find out things anywhere and anytime from anyone. She's like her own CSI team. Whenever I find myself in a situation where I ended up lying it really never turned out good for me. I think you should always try to see yourself in the situation where what would happen if you lied and then where you didn’t lie. Now I look at lying like it’s that one friend who never does anything good for him/herself, my parents don’t like them and they would like me to find different friends. Lying never made me end up wanting to do it again. I also think that Mathilde Loisel should have just came out and told her friend. I think it would have saved her so much debt and she would have been happy for those 10 years that she lost trying to pay for the necklace. If faced with the choice between being dishonest and potentially ruining a friendship or being dishonest and putting yourself in an undesirable situation I would choose the one where I get to keep my friendship and put myself in a undesirable situation. I would rather have a friendship and be miserable and my friends cheer my up than have no friends and be miserable that I have no friends.
ReplyDeleteNicholas Chase
ReplyDeleteI think that honesty is the best policy that you can have in life or in a lot of certain situations. Honestly can make you be closer to a person or farther away by lying and it can make or break friendships. For example in the Necklace Mathilde Loisel is going to a ball but has nothing good to ware because they are broke so she decides to borrow a necklace from her friend. It was a very nice expensive diamond necklace at least that’s what she thought. She thought it cost so much money that the necklace was worth more than her life. She went to the ball with her husband who was saving money to buy a gun to go hang out with his friends while hunting but he ended up spending it on his embarrassed wife who had to look good and was somewhat of a brat. After the ball that they have enjoyed when they got home Mathilde Loisel had just figured out the diamond necklace was not on her neck and she flipped out. Her and her husband searched everywhere for it and they had no luck. What would they do? Instead of telling the truth to her friend they decided that they had to buy a new one that looked just like it and it was expensive so they took out loans from loan sharks and then finally bought it and returned it to her friend. They had to move because now they were so poor that they couldn’t even afford anything and that lasted for ten years. In the future Mathilde Loisel finally met up with her friend again and told her what had happened and it turned out the necklace was fake. This is the reason that honesty is the best policy and this could happen in real life and it could be happening right now.
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ReplyDeleteIn certain cases yes, honesty is the best policey. But, in this case honesty was definitely the best policey considering the necklace seemed like it was worth a lot. Mathilde Loisel had no right to steal something that wasnt hers just due to the fact that she couldn't afford it. I think that she she did what was right to buy Madame Forestier a new necklace to replace the old one because it was wrong and rude, of her to steal it in the first place. If i was Mathilde I'd be mad that it wasnt worth as much as she spent to replace it, but also releived. You should never steal, and certainly shouldn't steal from someone who you consider your friend because they won't be able to trust you again, even if you are honest. I'm sure if Mathilde lied about not stealing the necklace, Madame would have been mad. But, if she said she did steal it, and didn't replace it, she'd still be mad. Sometimes honesty works in tricky ways, some people will get mad if you tell the truth, but then will get even more mad if you lie, there is really no winning in this situation.
ReplyDeleteHonesty is a big deal. If you cant be honest to anybody you will have a hard time making friends. Honesty gets you respect, trust, friends and responsibility. I’ve learned that honesty can give your trust to anybody when they can count on you to do something. You should never lie or be dishonest, it can ruin a relationship with friends. If you ever have to lie or be dishonest then it should be in a way to keep a friend from getting hurt or being a big dramatic mess. I have been in a couple dramatic situations where someone will ask me about something embarrassing about one of my friends, and I lied and made sure my friend wouldn’t get hurt. If you tell someone the truth about an embarrassing situation it can ruin someone’s life and your friendship with them. A good thing to do is not exactly lie but change the story around so you wont hurt anybody. Honesty can be in a good way and a bad way. Its your choice to use it in the way you want. In any relationship for example a friendship, you should be willing to always be honest first because you never want to be hearing two sides of a story but another is so you can trust them. Trust goes along way in a relationship, if you lie once what makes you think your friend would want to trust you again, even if it was just one time. Honesty is what makes this world spin, if everybody lied then how would everybody know who to trust or what to believe. You never want to be lied to or hear completely different sides of a story, so do people a favor and keep honesty in the world. Spread honesty and don’t let this world continue with lies and drama, because it will also save you from drama in the future too
ReplyDeleteYes, I do think that honesty is the best policy. I think it’s the best because lying really doesn’t get you anywhere, its like digging a hole you just keep digging and digging, you don’t reach the top you just dig a bigger hole. For example I lied to my mom once and I kept the lie, however sooner or late she was bound to find out, and she did. I have honestly lied where it did more harm then good. If I was faced with the choice between being dishonest and potentially ruining a friendship or being dishonest and putting yourself in an undesirable situation, I would choose to be honest. I would because ive had to make this choice before, I have a friend, who is like another sister to me, that asked me for a favor and I did it for them. Them she asked me what “the result” was and I thought about lying to her and telling her what she wanted to hear. However then I thought about how she would feel when she found out the truth. Then I thought about how I would feel if it was me, and how I would feel if my bestfriend lied to me. I decided that it would be best if just told her the truth no matter how much it would hurt her, it could possibly ruin our friendship, but I decided it was the right thing to do so I told her. It turned out that she excepted the truth and we are still as tight as we were before. Sometimes I think back to that day and I think what would have happened if I had lied to her. I wonder if our friendship would have still existed. So in all honesty I do believe that honesty is the best policy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about honesty being the best policy. Thinking about other peoples feelings as if they are your own makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't want a friend to lie to me about something, so I also feel you shouldn't lie to them.
DeleteI feel like you should always try to be honest to the farthest extent. But, if someone is asking you a question, while the truth might hurt them, try your best not to lie. Only because when that person finds out the truth from someone else it could turn around and bite you in the fundament. A lot of people are really self-conscious, so you always have to be careful about what you say. But in terms of "The Necklace" the truth would have helped the most. Instead of spending 10,000 dollars on a necklace , they should have confirmed what she wanted in return for the necklace.
ReplyDeleteThat way she wouldn't have to spend the rest of her life paying off the loan sharks. Lie-ing can never turn out well. You will always end up loosing a friend in the end. Either it be about a lost dog, or if your girlfriend looked fat in her dress. Even if you don't like the truth, just try to make it as non-sol aunt as possible. That way people can't say you didn't tell the truth. By now I'm most likely repeating myself, and am completely off topic. But i don't wanna re-start because this took way to long. But, you shouldn't lie to make friends, because they won't be real friends, because you won't have anything in common with them. Then if you become attached to them and they leave you for someone who they actually connect with you won't be upset about it. Like for instance i still have that stupid spirit bear book from the 6th grade, and i said i handed it in like two weeks before they asked for it. So if anyone wants to borrow that to read, hit me up. I'm at 300 words , love you Ms. LOLO. bye
I definately think honesty is the best policy. Sometimes people think by telling a lie they will avoid hurting someone elses feelings, but in reality, it usually will backfire because the truth always comes out in the end. My mom always says "if you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory". It took me awhile to learn what that meant. It definately makes sense if you think about it. If you always tell the truth, your answer will always be the same, and you won't have to remember what lie you told to which person. I'm not going to say that it is always good to tell the truth though. If a friend asks you how they look, or if their new haircut looks good, and they look bad, it doesn't hurt really to fib a little and tell them they look okay. This avoids someone's feelings being hurt, and really isn't that big of a deal. My mom always tells me to tell her the truth and I won't be in trouble. Mom says that she would rather hear the truth from me rather then someone else telling her about something I did wrong. I have found that to be true 99.9% of the time. Sometimes she will ask me a serious question about something important. In one instance, she asked me if i did something, and I didn't tell her the truth. She told me that she trusted me, and believed what I answered. I thought about it for a little while, and felt so bad that I lied to her. I ended up going to her and was honest and told her that I lied. I had done what she asked and that I was sorry for not being honest. She told me she was proud that I told her the truth on my own.
ReplyDeleteI liked what you said about lying backfiring. Ithink that in some cases that is true. I also liked your anicdote about coming clean with your mom that must have been hard.
Deletehonesty is not the best thing in my opinion. If you always tell the truth it may be a bad idea. I tell the truth sometimes. if I do all the time I might not get what I want. Considering when I told the truth I got grounded for two long miserable lonely weeks. I have told the truth when I wanted to get my little cousin in trouble. I said he ran into the street when he really didn't. He is only 8 years old. I rather be dishonest in some situations, due to the fact I get more lucky. I would tell the truth to my friend though. for example if my friend mike mez asked me a question I would tell him the truth. Me and him like too sometimes fool around in class. So we always help each other dueing class work. I like to help my friend out because I do not want him to fail. Nor does he lie to me so I can pass ms.orlowskys 4-5 class. I do not like to put myself in hard positions. I love to be half and half with everyone! all in all, lying can go either way for both parties.
ReplyDeleteI think that honesty is the deffinlty the best policy. I think that is the best policy because if you dont then people can get hurt. i also think it is a good thing to tell the truth because if you dont you will get in serious trouble. I got grounded for not telling the truth. So since then i always tell the truth. If i dont tell the the truth i feel like i have let someone down when i lie. when my brother friend told me not to tell anybody that he stole 15 dollars out of his moms purse i had to tell his mom or i would feel horrible if i saw her and i would get scared so i would have to tell the truth. i think honesty is the best way to go all the time because if you lie it only hurts you and it doesn't help you at all. i alawys tell the truth because i dont want to get in trouble. i also dont like lying because it puts me in a bad situation and it doesn't make me feel right. i was to lie a lot then it wouldn't help me out all all it would only make me more of a bad person. thats why i dont lie no more so i feel right and feel like a better person. one time my cousion broke the tv and he told me tpo tell my aunt he diden't know what happened. so wyhen she came home she tried to turn on the tv and it wouldn't go on so she asked what happened and he said i have no idea and then she asked me and i said nothing then 5 minutes later i came back out and said my cousion did it and me and him both got in trouble for lying.
ReplyDeletei think you did good mike. i agree with you
DeleteHonesty is something that can sometimes take to much courage for somebody to do or tell. Being honest and telling the truth ESPPECIALY about something bad can be extremely scary or intimidating. To be honest is such an amazing quality. It just makes you that much better of a person. There’s always a grey area with honesty. If your kids dog dies you might tell an alternated truth to protect their feelings. Lies can cause problems but in some cases it might fix one. When it comes to lying its like playing with fire, you might get burned, meaning that you might feel the compulsion to lie to save yourself. It seems perfectly fine. If a math teacher says why don’t you have your homework, and you know she’ll buy “Oh my goodness! I must have forgot it at home. Ill have it tomorrow.” your going to do lie. Without a doubt, even I probably would. But whether or not it’s the best policy…. What makes it the best policy? Letting nosey people reprimand you for something they didn’t need to know and who’s business its none of. Lying only seems perfectly logical. Its certainly convenient isn’t it? If I or any body had the chance to get out of any kind of trouble just by lying its pretty hard to turn down. I’ve lied before and gotten away with it. And I have nothing to regret either how perfect. But it does make you feel big to tell the truth sometimes. Different situations will make different people do different things. Being persuasive and sly is all it takes to be a pro liar. But the job doesn’t pay well. If I had to choose between lying and potentially ruining a friend ship I would pick secrete option #3. If I was ever put in a situation where the circumstances were such, what caused it must have been a real catastrophe. I don’t make decisions like that, I just wouldn’t be that persons friend. If there was ever doubt or hate or stealing or fighting then there is no me. I don’t do drama, its unnecessary. I believe that there is an answer to everything. Where things seem to be impossible or unsolvable the real answer is optimism. There is also the open ended answer of trickery deception and persuasion. Lying is whatever you want to make of it. It can be a solution or an obstacle and that just depends on who you are. Generally honesty is the right thing but circumstance is never predictable only expectable. One time I told on some body for doing something and I got in trouble too. No matter what I did I couldn’t get out of it they just said that I was affiliated with it so I was in trouble. I had after school detention the first time I ever told on any body. So that definitely made me want to do the right thing…. Our whole lives and ones before ourselves we as a people have been lied to by our parents, the government, each other, social media and everything. If any body who ever tried to pin point negative influences just opened up their eyes they would see that its not cartoon network it’s the people who lie and control them. How would any body ever make good decisions if people they trust like their teachers and the media and their parents are constantly lying to and manipulating the children to shape them the way that they feel is good enough. Also, a lot of parents aren’t even trying to teach their kids how to behave or how to talk. When kids get into high school, they have a whole new world to deal with new friends getting up earlier and now you have to pick and choose what you do in school, and the parents are letting their kids do it themselves. And that’s the opposite of yet more bad habits that parents have. If their not ignoring their kids then their right up their butts dictating their lives and stalking them on facebook telling them what they “should” have done. Why cant any body make mistakes any more? People need to be more passive that’s why people are driven to lies, they not only fear the truth they fear the punishments that come with it.
ReplyDeleteI think honesty is the best policy! I’ve had many experiences with lying and it got me no were. If you tell the truth then you don’t have to get worried about getting caught lying. If you want to lie at least make sure you have a good lie. If you’re not a good liar and you know you will get caught it is not worth getting in trouble. You might as well just say the truth. The truth sometimes might mean you get in trouble. Take one for the team and suffer the actions you caused. The last time I tried to lie I got caught unfortunately. I lied because I sprayed painted my garbage can and I said it was a stranger at night. My parents believed me all day in till we were in tj max and they saw my shoes. Well it turned out I sprayed painted my shoes too. So they knew it was I. (I had old sneakers on) I would lie and save our relationship with my friend. It’s not worth to start something that you can’t finish. If you know you cant support your reason for messing something up then lie. That’s my opionion if someone does not like it oh well. Honesty has never really done me good. I’ve always still got into trouble somehow. That is why I can care less weather I lie or not because, I will just get into trouble either way. I’ve also, made sure I have told the truth and it helped me but got someone else into trouble. I hate when you’re in those situations. I hate it because I do not know who to pick or what to do. Its like two people asking you to hangout and there both your very good friends. With my luck my two best friends would hate each other. So therefore would not be able to hangout with them at the same time. All, in all lying to someone is your decision but always remember before you lie… make sure you know of the consequences.
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