TOW #1- Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying

Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying by Adrienne Rich (from The Best American Essays of the Century)

Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying was written by Adrienne Rich in 1977, the year that the National Women’s Conference took place in Houston, Texas. Rich was a Radcliffe College graduate, and her and her works received many awards, including the National Book Award for Poetry and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lannan Foundation. This essay explains to readers how and why women lie by exploring the different techniques and motives that the majority of women are known to use when stretching the truth. Rich writes to women, frequently using words like “we” and “us” to connect to her audience. In addition, it is apparent that she is writing for women in order to convince the readers that they are their own person, and that they should not let anyone get in their way of happiness. She writes about how men are the main reason that women lie so often, and that women have been forced to change their own looks, personalities, and lives simply to please men; however, Rich believes that women deserve to create their own honor, and that they have the potential to be more truthful. Throughout Women and Honor, Rich continually uses repetition to further prove the importance of her purpose. For example, she asks, “As we cease to lie with our bodies, as we cease to take on faith what men have said about us, is a truly womanly idea of honor in the making?” (Rich 415). Her use of repetition at the beginning of the two consecutive phrases shows that what she is writing is imperative for the reader to comprehend and retain. She wants this specific statement to be ingrained in her readers’ minds; she wants it to stand out to them, and she wants them to truly ponder the question she is posing. The author’s frequent repetition is successful because her main points are highlighted and stick out to readers due to the recurrent reiteration.