Lies My Teacher Told Me Literary Elements

non-fiction, history, US history

recent United States history, from the mid-19th century to the late 20th century

The book is told in the first person, narrated from the point of view of the author.

The narrator presents himself as omniscient, revising history according to the facts that he has discovered, or that he believes that others have overlooked. The tone of the book is sharp and intelligent, with little patient for the mistakes or cover-ups of the past. The mood is determined and sure, unwavering in its mission to tell the real history, unvarnished.

Since this is a historical nonfiction book, we could say that the protagonist is the truth, seeking to be heard, and the antagonist is the many cover-ups or half-truths that have been told in the past.

The major conflict throughout the book is between what we have learned in high school history class, and what is the actual, fully fleshed-out truth, which is often not revealed until college, if at all. The author seeks to understand why high school history is taught this way, and why it is so sugar-coated and neutered, thus placing everyone at a disadvantage, since they cannot make informed decisions about their future without knowing their history.

Because this is a historical nonfiction book, there is no true climax, since there are multiple narratives within the book, and many individual histories explored. If anything, the case could be made that the book's overall climax comes when the author examines why history is taught this way in Chapter 11. There, he delves into the reasons—from publishing houses looking to maximize profits, to strict school boards seeking to offend the fewest people—thus revealing that the textbooks and history are written by the victors, ensuring that incomplete information will be rewritten and republished with each edition, until someone takes a stand.

The entire book foreshadows its conclusion through its title, "Lies My Teacher Told Me." It foreshadows that everything one learned in high school history class was wrong to some degree.

Additionally, in the first chapter, there is more foreshadowing: "This chapter is about heroification..." (9).

"African Americans want to see positive images of 'themselves' in American history. So do we all" (54).

'So do we all' is an understatement here. It is sarcastic and wry in its observation that African-Americans deserve to be treated just as equally by history as other groups, yet they are not.

"Irving's three-volume biography of Columbus, published in 1828, still influences what high school teachers and textbooks say about the Great Navigator" (27).

This is a dramatic understatement, as Irving's biography of Columbus almost entirely shapes the modern view of him as a hero and explorer from Genoa hired by the Spanish royalty, instead of the terrible person that he was.

"They allow textbooks to give space to characters such as Blackwell and Hansberry, who relieve what would otherwise be a monolithic parade of white male political leaders." (Loewen 9)

This sentence alludes to the first female doctor and to the first African-American woman to have her play performed on Broadway.

"Is Chester A. Arthur more deserving of space than, say, Frank Lloyd Wright?" (9).

Here the allusion points to one of the US presidents, and to a great American architect.

"the latter born with a silver Senate seat in his mouth?" (9).

The allusion here is to George Bush's privileged position in life from the moment he was born, especially due to his father's status as a Senator.

"Learning that Spaniards were coming, one day [the cacique] gathered all his people together to remind them of the persecutions which the Spanish had inflicted on the people of Hispaniola:
"Do you know why they persecute us?"
They replied: "They do it because they are cruel and bad."
"I will tell you why they do it," the cacique stated, "and it is this — because they have a lord whom they love very much, and I will show him to you."
He held up a small basket made from palms full of gold, and he said, "Here is their lord, whom They serve and adore ... To have this lord, they make us suffer, for him they persecute us, for him they have killed our parents, brothers, all our people ... Let us not hide this lord from the Christians in any place, for even if we should hide it in our intestines, they would get it out of us; therefore let us throw it in this river, under the water, and they will not know where it is."
Whereupon they threw the gold into the river" (94).

This imagery is part of a contemporaneous account from an Arawak leader who had fled from Haiti to Cuba, about the European explorers and showed what they were actually like. It is a wry and bitter account of their exploits and the reasons for their terrible deeds.

This book is rife with paradox, as the author explains the difference between history's heroification of figures and the reality.

"The myth of lazy, helpless black folk... In reality, these black people enlisted in Union armies, operated the plantations themselves, and made raids into the interior to free slaves on mainland plantations." (Loewen 151)

"While celebrating the 'Little Giant' for his 'powerful speech' or 'splendid oratory,' nine textbooks silence him completely" (146).

This example shows the paradox that though textbooks praise Stephen Douglas for his masterful oratory, many do not quote him at all because of the racist content of his speeches, which would not fit with their praise of him.

"Some teachers still teach what their predecessors taught me forty years ago: that Europe needed spices to disguise the taste of bad meat, but the bad Turks cut off the spice trade. Three books—The American Tradition, Land of Promise, and The American Way—repeat this falsehood." (Loewen 32)

This parallelism between how history was taught in the past and how it is taught in the present shows how stagnant changes in the field are for high schoolers. It also illustrates how dire the need for change is.

"The textbook authors seem unaware that ancient Phoenicians and Egyptians sailed at least as far as Ireland and England, reached Madeira and the Azores, traded with the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands, and sailed all the way around Africa before 600 B.C." (Loewen 36)

This sentence shows the parallelism between the Phoenicians and Egyptians. Both are ignored in the history of exploration in the Americas in favor of the myth that Columbus 'discovered' America. Both civilizations are mistreated and denied their right to credit for the dramatic and skilled voyages that they undertook.

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"Therefore it will come as no surprise that heroification has stolen from us the important facets of his life..." (27).

The personification here occurs when heroficiation is said to 'have stolen.' As a noun and idea, heroficiation cannot steal anything. Instead, the author is taking liberties with his choice of words to illustrate his larger point.

"Europe also expanded the use of new forms of social technology" (33).

This sentence depicts personification because the continent of Europe cannot expand anything. It is simply a land mass. The author personifies it in order to detail the actions of multiple explorers from that continent in the Americas.

"...our culture encourages us to imagine that we are richer and more powerful because we're smarter" (35).

This sentence shows personification because a culture is an idea and a system of beliefs and values, not something that can actually encourage itself. It is the people within the culture that encourage certain ideas and actions.