59 pages • 1 hour read
Lauren Ling BrownSociety of Lies: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Character Analysis
Themes
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Princeton
Content Warning: The source text features sexism, racism, grooming, and emotional trauma.
The Princeton fictionalized in the novel symbolizes a toxic social environment. This is shown in both of the novel’s timeframes: first when Maya experiences and navigates its challenges and, again, when she returns a decade later. In Chapter 1, Maya returns to Princeton for Naomi’s graduation; by the end of the chapter, Maya learns that Naomi is dead. What Maya experiences in 2023, she felt as a student. One of her first memories is of a boy pouring beer on her from an upstairs window at the Cottage eating club. Ostensibly, her initiation into Greystone gives her confidence and a friend group. Yet Greystone exposes her to greater adversity since the secret society subjects her to a world of lethal deceit. Minus Princeton, Greystone doesn’t exist, so Greystone and Princeton are synonymous. To “escape” Greystone, Maya must leave Princeton. She starts spending her weekends in New York City with Nate. Maya says, “[W]hen we came back to campus, the protective cloud would dissipate, and my memories would crowd in” (523). Returning to Princeton is tantamount to going back to a site of trauma. It inevitably disquiets her.
As the story progresses, this symbolism expands. Princeton’s toxicity doesn’t stay within its physical boundaries but it follows Maya into her postgraduate life. Images of the disturbing Princeton symbol resurface for Maya in Brooklyn, on the Jet Skis, and at Kai’s wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut. The virulence also trails Naomi. She tries to get away by staying at Ben’s uncle’s loft in the West Village, but through Cecily, Princeton finds her, and the impact is lethal. The symbol of Princeton follows the characters as a sign of guilt and conscience; when Maya embraces the truth, she is released from it.
The Eating Clubs
The eating clubs created in the novel are distinct social organizations with a separate ethos and culture. This allows the novel to create them as opposing symbols of right and wrong, highlighting the corruption at the heart of Sterling. As Daisy and Maya walk down The Street, Maya describes the different clubs. Cottage is a “pipeline straight into Wall Street,” while Tiger is “the laid-back one with Animal House—style ragers” (101). The scene has a United Nations atmosphere, with clubs symbolizing specific countries. Maya and Naomi join Sterling, which Naomi describes as “Princeton’s most prestigious eating club” (17). Sterling is an illustrious superpower but, once Maya and Naomi become familiar with Sterling/Greystone’s landscape, they realize that it’s dangerously corrupt. DuPont serves as its oppressive leader, keeping files on everyone to squash dissent. The club in the novel is like a corrupt and oppressive regime.
The different club images allow for juxtaposition. When Maya goes to Terrace to see the band play, she experiences a different eating club and another country. The atmosphere is “eclectic” and amicable. Lacking the pressure of Sterling/Greystone, people are friendly and expressive. At Terrace, Maya meets her future husband Nate, and Nate strongly opposes Greystone, calling its members a “bunch of power-hungry pricks” (348). In doing this, Nate demonstrates that he’s on the side of inclusion and decency and provides the narrative with a moral alternative.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Society of Lies features an array of literary references—from Poe to the Bronte sisters to Shakespeare. The most symbolic and recurrent of these is F. Scott Fitzgerald, as the novel draws closely on the author’s life and works. The canonized American author attended Princeton from 1913-1918. He wrote an autobiographical novel about his experiences, This Side of Paradise. The novel doesn’t feature murder, but like the characters in Society of Lies, the people in This Side of Paradise are preoccupied with status. While eating clubs play a prominent role in Fitzgerald’s novel, the characters care more about merriment, art, and literature than money. Thus, through This Side of Paradise, the Fitzgerald motif subverts the themes of Society of Lies, presenting a more playful and less pernicious view of Princeton.
In Lauren Ling Brown’s novel, Maya attends Gatsby Night at Sterling. Through Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, the motif supports the three central themes. The titular antihero, Jay Gatsby, uses lies to create an illustrious image. To maintain his celebrated and mysterious position, Gatsby tries to keep the truth at bay. As in Society of Lies, the duplicity foments violence and death. A woman is killed in a car accident, and the husband of the woman, believing Gatsby killed his wife, murders Gatsby. Like Brown, Fitzgerald links elite spaces to corruption and death.
