Essay for Writing Class

Thought maybe I'd post the essay I wrote and just see what people think. Maybe you don't agree with the point, but that's not what concerns me. I would appreciate feedback on how well the paragraphs flow together and if the essay is clearly understandable. Maybe what part you think needs work?
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Your Parents – The Shadow Makers

Half of everything your parents told you is a lie. Did those lies hurt you? Did you know they were lies? Parents are, to their children, the shadow makers Plato describes in The Allegory of the Cave. The shadow makers work behind the scenes, carrying objects back and forth in front of a fire. The shadows thrown on the wall of the cave as a result is the only reality the prisoners know.

As a very young child you were a prisoner, held captive by the values your family chained you down with. Your parents decided how you should behave, what you should know, and what you should believe. Your only view of life was what your parents chose to tell you. This idea is suggested by Plato. “The truth would be literally nothing but shadows of the images (Plato 450)”. It was the same for you. Unable to see anything else, you took your parents stories for truth. You were happy in your cave, trusting the reality your parents fed you.

One of the big lies parents tell their children is the myth of Santa Claus. You are regaled with stories from infancy of a jolly fat man in a red suit who lives at the North Pole. All year long, Santa and his team of vertically-challenged North Pole citizens, whom are referred to as “Elves”, prepare for Christmas Eve by making toys. Ponderously, these same toys seem to be available at every toy store. This man, this Santa Claus, we learn is magical. He knows if we’ve been bad or good. Good little children get toys and bad little children get lumps of coal. So you must be sure to be on your best behavior - at least from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve when your parents are reminding you every five seconds that Santa is watching you. He even knows if we’re sleeping or not. (How does that little bit of the story not frighten more kids into hating Christmas?) On Christmas Eve, the man in the red suit loads all the toys into a big sled pulled by nine reindeer, one of whom as a big glowing red nose that acts as a fog lamp, and flies off to deliver joy and happiness to all the children of the world. Forget for a moment that we’re supposed to believe somehow reindeer can fly, we’re supposed to accept that Santa can magically squeeze himself and a giant bag of toys down thousands of chimneys without getting stuck? At least this myth has some understandable value. It teaches you about having faith in something, or at the very least it gives your parents a rest from all the fighting for a few weeks while you’re trying your best to make up for all the bad things you did that year in the hopes of getting a new bike.

The story of the Easter Bunny makes no sense at all. First of all, Easter is a Christian holiday celebrating the day Jesus was resurrected after his crucifixion. Did someone decide all the talk of death was too scary for the little kiddies and try to come up with something less frightening? Yeah, a six foot rabbit is a lot less frightening than dying and coming back to life! What does Mr. Bunny do on Easter? He brings you a basket filled with candy and leaves brightly colored eggs hidden in your yard. There is no obvious connection between the Christian story and the Easter Bunny story. What do dyed eggs have to do with Jesus? (Except for the fact that Jesus died and the eggs are dyed.)

If you think the Easter Bunny myth is conflicting and Santa is a little scary, consider the Tooth Fairy for a moment. Picture this, you’re about five years old and you have a loose tooth. You show it to your mom and what does she tell you? Put it under your pillow and the tooth fairy will come when you’re asleep and give you money for it. We’re supposed to believe that somewhere out there is a little winged fairy so obsessed with teeth that she’s compelled to slip into children’s bedrooms while they’re asleep and trade cash for their little incisors and bicuspids. What does she do with all those teeth? We’re never given a satisfactory answer to that question. Maybe where she comes from teeth are currency. Maybe she builds her house out of teeth. Maybe she doesn’t take the teeth at all, but magically turns them into quarters. No wonder this is one of the shortest believed lies parents tell their kids.

As you get older, the truth comes out. You start asking too many questions and your parents decide it’s time to tell you the truth or they just get tired of keeping the myth alive or some mean kid at school tells you the truth because he thinks you’re stupid for still believing at twelve years old. However you find out, the result is the same. First there is denial. You want to keep on believing. Perhaps, you aren’t sure which version of reality the lie is. The reaction to this kind of sudden appearance of truth is described by Plato. “Forced into the presence of the sun…his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities (Plato 451)”. The sudden shock of light makes reality confusing and blurred. It’s painful and you want to turn away.

Then the denial wears away. Oh the horror! Your little world comes crashing down around your sobbing little head. How could mommy and daddy have lied to you? You start wondering what else they lied to you about. After all, if they lied to you about such huge pieces of your childhood, they could be lying to you about other things. Did your mom really like that poem you wrote? Did your dad really love that tie you bought him for Father’s Day? Do they really think you can do anything? Do they believe you’re smart? Do they see you as pretty or handsome? Possibly you start to question if you can trust your parents at all. Have they ever told you the complete truth about anything?

Is there any harm done when a parent lies to their child? Last year, a psychological study was conducted which showed that when parents lied to their children, it did cause harm. In this study, Dr. Gail Heyman asserts that parents who lie to their children “have created a good deal of confusion about right and wrong and—maybe worse—undermined the child’s trust (369)”. Not only does a parent’s lie possibly cause a breach of trust, it confounds a child’s understanding about right and wrong.