Don’t Hide From the Truth

Spencer Johnson stated, “Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” Tangerine by Edward Bloor uses symbolism to show that you shouldn’t hide from the truth. To summarize the novel, Paul and his family adjust to life in Tangerine. Overtime, Paul finds out the secrets of those around him. Edward Bloor uses the infestation of the mosquitoes and termites to symbolize all the lies told, which connects to the theme that you shouldn’t spend your life hiding from the truth. 
Take for example, when Wayne, a volunteer firefighter took Paul to deal with the infestation, he said, “‘it looks like that whole street has them, all along the west side’” (161).This is saying that all those termites are the lies told since there were a ton of termites.  Also, on the same trip, Wayne said, “‘it was all groves around here. When they cleared this land for houses, they just set fire to all the trees and plowed them under. You see how that whole blue-tent street seems to be on a hill?’”(161). Thus, this shows that there is a reason for the infestation which means there is a reason people lie, but if you just tell the truth, there won’t be a problem.
In addition, an example of Paul not telling the truth was when Coach Warner asked who the people who crashed the Senior Awards Night ceremony were, “I didn’t hesitate. I hit that red bar at full speed and never looked back” (252). By that happening, it shows that Paul didn’t want to tell who the people were which didn’t make the situation any better. But, when Paul interrogated his parents, they told him the truth, ‘“The doctors told us that you might never remember. And we figured that that was the best way to handle the situation” (257).  Because his parents told the truth, Paul could live knowing that he could trust his parents more.
All of this points to the conclusion that, the theme that you should the truth is symbolized by the infestation which is connected to the all the lies told. Symbolism is important because it makes the book have a deeper meaning and not even thinking. Along with symbolism, theme is a very important element to have. Themes are things you could refer to in life to make you a better person. With that said, books contain morals and it’s your job to figure out what it is.