This persona is lost between two worlds and the lying is just one way of dealing with the confusion.
The tone in "White Lies" is one of regret as the poet comes to terms with her own feelings about her heritage. She realizes how she wanted others to think she was someone different than she was because she did not like herself. She was not comfortable in her own skin. The soap is a symbol of purity and her mother means to clean the speaker's tongue but she knows the problem goes much farther than her mouth. When her mother washed out her mouth she swallowed the soap "thinking they'd work / from the inside out" (28). The poet realizes her shame and understands her mother's anger but she could never resist lying about herself to make herself look better...
At the end of the day, she is surrounded by shame on all sides.
"White Lies" captures an element of the human psyche that is confusing because it seems so simple. Yet in all its simplicity, humanity cannot seem to get a firm grip on it. Shame and pride pull at the human spirit in many ways. We see a grown woman reflecting on her youth when she took pride in the lies she told and the falsities it caused others to believe. It was easier for her to take the easy way out and let others think she was white even if that was a lie. The only people who ever knew the difference was her and her mother -- the only two people who mattered.
Work Cited
Trethewey, Natasha. "White Lies." Textbook. City Published: Publisher. Year.
