In her essay, “The Truth about Lying,” Judith Viorst examines the subject of lying. She acknowledges that she cannot decide whether lying is wrong, or right. So, she presented four different types of lies and gave her opinion on each. These four types of lies are social lies, peace-keeping lies, protective lies, and trust-keeping lies. As Viorst points out, in our culture lying is generally considered a morally questionable act. However, certain social norms, such as politeness and even compassion, require us to lie as we do not want to be rude cruel or damage our relationship. I believe that the four types of lying, social, peace-keeping, protective and trust-keeping lies, could be used for good intension but also bad, for you or the person being lied to.
The first type of lie discussed was the social lie. These are described as lies told in order to avoid causing unintentional harm to another person. Viorst considers them to be “acceptable” and “necessary”; without them relationships would be short and boring. She gives an example about declining an invitation. “We’re busy that night- so sorry we can’t come,” verses actually telling them the truth “rather stay home than dine with the so-and sos” (Viorst, 2010, 136).  If someone really told the truth and didn’t give a little “white lie” then one would just sound rude and disrespectful. In fact, she gives the opinion that to not tell social lies is arrogant. She does, however, refer to a man who is unable to tell even the smallest of lies because even social lies can make a person seem untrustworthy. Everyone tells social lies, most of the time this lie is used when one does not want to go to an event so they lie and say they have something previously planned that they forgot about.
Peace keeping lies are told in order “to not hurt anyone” or “avoid arguments” (Viorst, 2010, 137). While Viorst admits to occasionally telling this k...