Summary:
In "Nothing but the Truth" by Steven Lubet, the basis for the story is Phillip's lies and conflicts with teachers, school officials, and parents.
Nothing But The Truth is a great book for any student. What makes this book so great? The three big ideas, truth, opposition and cause. The idea of truth challenges the characters to tell the truth or lie, which then leads to opposition (the act of being in conflict) and with opposition there comes cause for all that happens . These three ideas bind together to make this a great book.
Truth is the most significant and important idea of Nothing But The Truth. It brings the climax out and adds personality to the characters. Right when you see the title, you start thinking of what the book could be about. Do all the characters lie? Are people getting in trouble for telling the truth? As for the great brain action "truth" brings to the reader, it also adds suspense and drama to the situation. Characters lie to eachother to make one another happy or to make themsleves look good. One example of this would be through out the whole book Philip isn't telling his parents and the other adults the whole story. He's lying by only telling them what Mrs. Narwin did and and telling them how he thinks everything is stupid and that people dislike him. Another time when a character only thinks about his appearence is when the assistant principal of Harrison High, Dr. Palleni, informs Philip and Mrs. Malloy that Philip was braking a rule by humming during the National Anthem and then Philip shares this with the reporter. Then later when the Superindendent of the school board is interviewed and questioned about the rule, she states that there is no such rule.
"Does the Harrison School District have a rule that students are not allowed to to sing the Star Spangled Banner""
"Of course not. Whatever gave you that idea", Who told you that""
"There's been a claim" (pg 105)
Truth is the backbone of the story, it's what makes the story come together and add a real climax to it. When the reporter publishes the story about Philips suspendence it gets the whole nation in on the action and talking about the inccident. Pretty soon the plot gets deeper by characters recieving letters from people they dont know, publicity sharing the the story without having all the facts and people continueing to lie to eachother. That's one way of "truth" adding climax to the story. The second way is how Philip comes home one day because Mrs. Narwin hates him and Dr. Palleni wont take him out of her class. That's Philps side of the story, but his mom believes him and pretty soon so does the whole country. (pg. 56) In conclusion "truth"is the number on idea of the book Nothing But The Truth, in fact, it is the book!
Although you may not think opposition has anything important to do with the story, it does. It plays a farly strong part in the plot and climax. This is because after all of the lying that happenes the reader finds themself in a big conflict. The conflict between Philip and Mrs. Narwin and as the reader continues on more and more characters enter the problem and make it more complex. One part where you will find opposition is when the principal of Harrison High finds out about what happened. (pg ) She is in conflict because first of all her assistant pricipal did not inform her about Philips suspention and because of the way the other characters take the incident much farther than it should go. Another character is put in the position of opposition as well, Mrs. Narwin. At the begining Philip is the only character against her because of the way she teaches and grades but then pretty soon his stubburness rubs off onto others who believe she was the reason that Philip got sent to the assistant principal in the first place. Mrs. Narwin is later asked to take leave for a while because of the bad image she is setting for the school. (pg. ) This shows opposition because she did not want to stop teaching, she loved teaching and because she was disliked by many, even people she did not even know. The idea of opposition follows second because it is the result of many lies. Philip lies to Mr. Palleni and his parents who then pass the story and their own version onto others until everyone thinks they know what happens. Then the story is tried to be set correct and this results into one big problem or opposition. Like when the track coach at Harrison High asks Philip to apologize to Narwin so that the whole thing would be forgotten but (pg ) when Philip disagrees the coach tells students to write a petition against Philip(pg ). This makes Philip mad, not only at the coach but his fellow class mates. Soon he's mad at everyone and people start to turn on him, resulting in another problem.
Opposition is very important to the story Nothing But The Truth. It adds depth and excitment which makes this a great book to read.
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