A Painted House: Secrets and Lies

A Painted House: Secrets and Lies
Everyone lies. People make it seem as though they don’t but however truthful, real, innocent, or honest a person may come across as, everyone lies. Even little 7-year-old Luke Chandler, from John Grisham’s A Painted House, lied. This novel is based upon secrecy and lies because Luke kept two major secrets (involving 3 brothers beaten senselessly and a man being murdered) all because he was afraid and felt threatened after being caught witnessing these events.
One of the first major secrets Luke kept would be when he witnessed the 3 Sisco brothers beaten senselessly and kept this secret because he feared he would get into trouble and drive the Spruills away from the far. A couple of the Sisco brothers were beating a hill boy behind the store and when things started to get out of hand that’s when Hank Spruill stepped in. Hank interceded and started to beat the Sisco brothers and took it to a new extreme when he uses a piece of plywood to beat the brothers. In the end Hank ends up killing one of the brothers, forcing the Sheriff, Stick, to step in and start an investigation. After Luke had witnessed this event Stick came to visit the Chandler’s asking about the fight that had taken place.   After being questioned on whether or not he had seen what happened Luke lied about what he had seen just so he could save his own skin, along with his family’s income. Luke thought soon after his questioning that “any involvement with the Siscos would make my life dangerous and I didn’t want the Spruills to get mad and leave” (Grisham 79). With Luke lying about what he had seen he was saving his own skin so as not to get in any trouble. As a result of lying Luke still had to live with a murderous, over aggressive, bully, who threatened him with everything he did, and all because he lied about witnessing an event.
In another cause of lying that involved Luke or in this instance kept to himself, because he feared for his life along with his...