Lies and Invention Theme Analysis

We Were Liars is a meditation on the nature of objective truth. As the title itself implies, lies, misrepresentation, and fabrication are woven through the novel. Although Lockhart never explains why Cady, Mirren, Johnny, and Gat are called the Liars by the rest of the family, the constant use of this moniker reminds readers to maintain a certain level of skepticism. And whether the characters in the novel are lying to get what they want—as Gat and Harris Sinclair do—or simply deceiving themselves to avoid painful truths, this manipulation of truth calls into question whether or not it is possible to establish a reliable set of facts, separate from the experiences, motives, and incomplete memories of the people involved.

We Were Liars is told mainly from the perspective of Cady Eastman, who should be considered an unreliable narrator for a number of reasons. Cady is a gifted storyteller who narrates using surreal imagery that might be confusing to readers at first. For example, when her father leaves her mother for another woman, Cady adds that as he left, “he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest.” While at first, readers will take this information at face value, it soon becomes clear that her father did not actually shoot Cady with a gun; rather, his actions made her feel as though she had been shot and left for dead on the lawn. She continues this imagery throughout the story, as she mentions bleeding into Gat’s hands, when she is simply feeling an excess of emotion for him, or a giant using a rusty saw to slice through her head to describe the intensity of her migraines. Cady’s experience on the island after her accident is part real and part illusion, as she interacts with Johnny, Gat, and Mirren—who have been dead for more than a year—entirely in her imagination. Not only does she talk with them, but they also go on adventures together around the island, and she and Gat even share intimate moments alone. Even when she realizes that they are figments of her imagination, Cady continues to talk with them, blurring the line between reality and fantasy. When the details of the house fire come back to Cady, the story changes perspective temporarily, and the “facts” of the fire are told in the third person. This strongly suggests that what comes from Cady is not reliable information, reminding readers of the subjectivity of truth and memory. Cady’s actual memories of the fire are interwoven with fantastic elements like fairies and magic, again blurring the line between fact and fiction. It seems clear that the she is using this fantastic reinvention of the past as a way to deal with the harsh reality of what actually happened to the people she loves most.

Cady is not the only character in the novel with a tendency to lie—in fact, many of the people around her lie in order to obtain what they want. Gat’s love for Cady leads him to hold back the truth from her—a form of lying—because he wants to be with her even though he has a girlfriend at home. He acknowledges this later on, conceding that he should have told Cady about Raquel, his girlfriend in New York City, but that he wanted to hold on to both of them. Although Cady had found out about Raquel on her own, and knew that Gat had a girlfriend all along, she never mentions this to Gat, and they maintain a relationship despite—or perhaps because of—the deception.

Even within Cady’s imaginary relationship with the other Liars after they have died, Mirren, Gat, and Johnny keep secrets from Cady and lie about what they are doing when she is not around. When Cady spends a few days in bed with a migraine, she wonders what her friends are doing without her; later, when she asks them about what they have done, she catches them in a lie. Gat tells her that they went to the Nantucket doughnut shop for jelly doughnuts, but Cady knows that “Downyflake only makes cake doughnuts. No glazed. No Boston cream. No jelly.” The fact that Cady imagines her friends deceiving her suggests how deeply dishonesty is embedded in her world, and how little she is able to trust those around her.

Harris does not lie, per se, but manipulates the memories of those around him in order to reinforce his idealistic image of the family. Family memories are wiped clean of arguments or discomfort, and Harris replays those edited images on a loop in his head, creating a false set of memories for himself. He also lies to the rest of the family about his plans for his inheritance, exacerbating their conflicts. For example, when Cady talks to him about how much she loves Windemere, he tells her that he will not give it to Bess, whom he calls a “grasping wench.” But she finds out that Harris has also promised to the house to Mirren, asking for “a little time to get Penny out.” In the end, no one knows what he plans to do with his money, and realize that they have been fed lies. The patriarch uses the illusion of truth to manipulate those around him, further blurring the line between fact and fiction in the world of the novel.

The novel presents facts as subjective, muddied by the motives and flawed memories of whoever is telling the story at any given time. We Were Liars also highlights the possible motives for presenting an altered version of the truth. In the case of Harris Sinclair, those motives are rooted in a desire to manipulate and control his family members; for Cady, however, these lies provide her with a way of dealing with memories and events that are too harsh and painful to confront head-on.