intro's purpose :when the truth hurts, lying is the ticket out

I believe that the purpose of Amy Tan's piece was to inform the audience what the following parts were to be about which is that there are times when lying is the best thing to do, and times when honesty is the best.

In the intro, the mother lied to her daughter for safety reasons. The mother tried to sound persuasive by lying. Her daughter wanted to bike unsafely by the streets so she lied by telling her “it [the fact that she will fall and cry if she bikes by the corner when not to] is in a book, the Twenty-Six Malignant Gates.” (87). she most likely was lying when she said this because after some questions from the daughter, the mother was proven to of stated false evidence to back her statement up. And even though she said something false, her prediction of the fall was totally accurate. If the mother did not tell the lie, the daughter would have been injured sooner. If the daughter went with the lie, she would of not of been injured.

Lies sometimes are one of the best ways to support a person. In the part The Voice from the wall, Vena, the daughter many times lied to keep her father happier through her translations due to his poor Chinese. When her mother was giving birth, the son was not in good shape and dying. She was saying things in Chinese which the father asked for a translation. So she translated “She says we must all think very hard about having enough baby. She says she hopes this baby is very happy on the other side.” (112). This was not what she said. Rather, she was saying crazy things and stated negative things about herself, bragging about the great guilt she has for herself. Because of her father’s great sadness, she tried to prevent him from getting any worse by lying to make it sound not as terrible.

The purpose of the introduction was to inform the audience about what is ahead which was some usage lying. Because of the lies, vena’s father did not fell as sad if he heard the truth. Because of the lies mentioned in the introductory, the daughter at least got a warning that there was a consequewnce if she disobeyed. Though it is good to be an honest person, it is sometimes best to avoid it to prevent any harm since the truth can sometimes greatly hurt.