The Invention of Lying
With language and power, one is capable of achieving his/her goals just like Mark Bellison, since he does not have the power “due to his looks and unsuccessful financial situation”, Mark lies to the Bank teller that he has $800 in his account instead of $300 boosting his financial status thereby making him able to be accepted by Anna. This shows us how someone’s ability to communicate can help him/her gain some form of power or influence that he may want. There are several other instances in the movie whereby we see Mark using language to get what he wants. He is able to convince an attractive woman to have sex with him failure to which, the world will end. He also manages to tell a lie in order to prevent a police from arresting his friend. He also tells a lie about his mother having a joyful afterlife if she dies making her die happily after the invention of the story of the existence of heaven by Mark. He also gains a worldwide attention by his supposed new information about death. He becomes wealthy after a successful sale of his film with an invention of the story of the invading of the world by the aliens in the 14th century after which erasing the memories of all humans. Mark was able to become prosperous as a result of using language to lie. This is very similar to the way people use power to gain influence in different aspects of life. People use power to gain influence the same way Mark used language in form of lies to gain influence and popularity across the globe.
Mark was able to gain influence through his language by inventing interesting fictions like writing the screenplay for the film “The Black Plague” which sold very well all over the world. He became famous after gaining a worldwide attention by his concept of a joyful afterlife after death. With his numerous lies spreading all over the world, Mark becomes very famous after tactful lies which he uses in different circumstances to suit every situation thereby making him able to control many people as they would now refer to his concepts as far as different circumstances in life were concerned. He was able to control people who believed in his concepts as most of his lies were able to favor different circumstances. He gained control since most of his lies were on his favor, for instance, he managed to get Anna’s attention through his lies, he also managed to prevent his friend from getting arrested, and also later on in the film we see him becoming wealthy from the success of the sale of his film “The Black Plague”. Mark was able to get things work his way as a result of the lies that he posed to different situations. Even though Mark did not manage to discourage Anne from marrying Brad, he later managed to convince Anne to marry him. They can be seen later on the movie married and with a son who has learnt Mark’s lying tactics. Mark was therefore able to gain popularity as a result of the lies that he uttered. Several people believed him and his lies were used in different places. However, Mark’s lies did not always work for his favor. In some instances the lies worked for his disappointments. When he objected to the marriage of Anne and Brad, the officiant informed him that only “the Man in the Sky could cancel the wedding” this was an instance of his lies turning against him. He was therefore forced to confess that he was lying. However, this was after gaining a worldwide popularity as a result of his lies.
The Language assists in our perception of reality by making it easy for the readers to understand the reality. Language facilitates communication whereby people can interact to know what is going on in a given place. Mark uses language to express himself and tell other people things which may seem to be lies at some given point but later on turn out to be realities. When Mark talked about the person in the sky, it may have seemed to be a lie at that point but later on it was realized that there are some unseen powers that may influence the occurrence of situations. It is also evident from the movie that language makes the process of thinking easier and that it can be used to communicate the reality. Mark’s statement about death and heaven may seem to others as an illusion but it holds water to some extent. There is always a belief that once a person dies there is always life after death; a belief that has been confirmed by several myths and theories. However, Mark failed to give an accurate perception about life after death and the circumstances surrounding life after death. He claimed that a person could only have a happy life after death if he/she did not more than three bad things. This is a perception that is not true according to the existing beliefs. The concept of someone going to heaven only comes in when a person does all good and lives a flawless life.
References
The Movie: The Invention of Lying
