Self-deception is a beautiful lie that is intended to allow individuals to indulge themselves in pursuing their elusive dreams. In “The fall of the city”, Alden Nowlan illustrates a boy Teddy, deceived himself in his own imaginary world. Even when his uncle reminds him that his paper palace is not real, he start to argue with his uncle, and want to escape from the reality. Therefore, by juxtaposing the two settings, the attic and downstairs, Nowlan demonstrates how self-deception undermines individual’s basic human skills, which are imperative to function in a realistic world. First of all, the setting of the attic shows how Teddy deceives himself by creating an imaginary world. The setting of the attic is also Teddy’s imaginary world. Teddy…show more content… At downstairs, Teddy acts the exactly opposite when is in his attic. In this case, Teddy is being a follower, and acts weak in front of his aunt at downstairs. For instance, Teddy “obeyed his aunt when she told him to take smaller bites and to take his elbows off the table”(Nowlan, 2). The action that Teddy does downstairs is totally the opposite of what he does in the attic. Hence, juxtaposition is shown in the setting of attic and downstairs. Moreover, this shows that Teddy is being self-deception, because in the attic he lies to himself that he is a leader, but in reality he is totally the opposite of that. In another case, because Teddy was too obsessed with his paper palace, so he start to get estrange with human beings. For example, when Teddy was eating supper with his aunt and uncle, he start to daydream that, “he was pondering on the tactics that would have to be used by King Theodore in relieving the siege of by the river”(Nowlan, 2). In brief, this shows that Teddy is too into his own imaginary world, so even when he is in front of human beings, but his mind is always thinking about things that is unreal, and living in his own imagery word. Thus, the setting at downstairs shows that Teddy acts totally different in the realistic world, which is caused by his
