An Academy for Liars

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of emotional abuse, animal cruelty and death, graphic violence, physical abuse, and death.

“It was dark in the bathroom, so neither Wyatt nor Sophia noticed Lennon in the doorway, or the fact that her reflection disobeyed her once again, breaking the tether that bound likeness to master. It was the same eyeless aberration that had appeared earlier that evening, and when it met Lennon’s gaze, it grinned.”

Lennon’s aberration takes on an antagonistic role in the early chapters of the narrative, as it is symbolic of Lennon’s perception of herself. At the beginning of the novel, she struggles to cultivate self-worth because of her insecurities and the powerlessness she feels in her relationship with Wyatt. The aberration’s cruelty toward her at a time of intense emotional pain—when she is seeing her fiancé cheating on her—illustrates the depth of Lennon’s self-loathing.

“Intervention was exactly what she wanted. A sign, a symbol, the grasping hand of some meddling but benevolent god who would reach down through a break in the clouds and shake her senseless, until she was forced to believe—really and truly—that her life had meaning and that she was destined for something more than mediocrity.”

Upon seeing Wyatt and Sophia being intimate, Lennon hopes for an indication that there is more to her life than her current rudderless existence. Lennon fears mediocrity, but she seeks meaning from an external power rather than seeking it for herself. This is illustrated by the allusion to divine intervention and the image of the “grasping hand” that will “shake her” into believing she has worth. At this point in the novel, Lennon is a passive character convinced of her helplessness.

“Unlike his peers, he wore no uniform. His shirt—several sizes too large—looked moth-eaten, and his feet were bare.”

William Irvine sticks out in the photograph because of his bedraggled appearance, alluding to the fact that Drayton’s polished exterior hides its exploitation of those it depends on most. The moth is a recurring symbol of both power and vulnerability in the novel, and the moth’s association with the image of William Irvine highlights that he possesses both.