Florian Benomar
Professor Todd Gutmann
EWRT 211
November 6th , 2014
Pathological Liar
Madame Zilensky, a well-known composer and pedagogue that Mr. Brook as head of the music department at Ryder College wanted to hire. Mr. Brook has seen her in musical journals, and even admired her work of a certain Buxtehude manuscript. In October after hiring Madame Zilensky, he met her and her three children Boris, Sigmund and Sammy three blonde children that all looked alike but nothing like Madame Zilensky. The first time he felt there was something wrong about Madame Zilensky. He believed Madame Zilensky got so mixed into her lies that she became a pathological liar; she got so used to lying that she does it without even noticing it. She does it so much that she knows nothing else but to lie. Carson McCullers shows that once you start lying it’s hard to stop. The evidence in this story shows that once you start lying it becomes a habit and it’s hard to stop. You’ll just keep doing it lie after lie.
In late October Mr. Brook lunched with Madame Zilensky one afternoon to get to know her a little better before school started in the upcoming fall. Little did he know the domino effect of lies just started. Recurring back to her lost metronome she then realizes that she in fact didn’t leave it on the train but actually with the father of Sammy the Frenchmen. Wanting to know why she only mentioned the Frenchman, the father of one of the three Mr.Brook asked “and the father of the other two?” (482) Madame Zilensky then said “Boris is of a pole who played the piccolo” (482) Mr.Brook was surprised that there was more than one father and curiously asked “And Sigmund?”(482). Madame Zilensky thought long and hard and finally replied “He was a fellow countryman” (482). Madame Zilensky having to think long and hard to who the father of her children seemed a little fishy so fishy so bizarre that Mr.Brook thought it was odd that the children all had different fathers but looked so much alike and nothing like Madame Zilensky. Madame Zilensky didn’t start off the meeting with Mr.Brook too well, since he was confused that the resemblance was so astonishing but the children all had different fathers. He had no prejudices he thought that “people could marry seventeen times and have Chinese children so far as he was concerned.”(482) This shows that even though clearly to Mr.Brook all the children look exactly alike Madame Zilensky insists that they all come from different fathers.
Madame Zilensky had gotten so used to lying that almost everything she said was in fact a lie. She worked long hours at the school and Mr.Brook could see her light on in her class in the middle of the night but still she “went out of her way to tell you she spent the evening in the cinema. If she had lunch in the Old Tavern, she would be sure to mention she had lunched with her children at home.” (484) Her lies were pointless and in fact a bit depressing because instead of actually dinning with her kids she would just make up a lie and say she did. Normally you don’t have to prove anything to anyone that you spent time with your kids; normally you just have dinner with your kids not lie about it. She had no personal life so lying about her whereabouts and what she did kind of helped her not only show other people she had a personal life but also to herself. Her work seems a lot more important that her personal life and her three kids that she claims are hers. She decides to lie for no reason even though there’s no point to be deceiving. She lied just for the fun of it she didn’t gain anything from it and it definitely didn’t benefit her in any way other than boosting her self-esteem. Seems like to make her think she had a personal life behind her work life as a composer and teacher.
When Madame Zilensky had a choice to go along her day without saying a lie she still chose to make up a fib. Mr.Brook minding his own business
