An Academy for Liars

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of emotional abuse, death, and child sexual abuse.

The quest for power drives many of the characters in An Academy for Liars. Lennon’s core desire is to cultivate power and possess agency. At the beginning of the novel, she does not feel valued in her relationship with Wyatt and is uncertain about her life’s direction. When she gets to Drayton, she discovers that she is not alone in feeling this way; many of her fellow first years are in similar positions. Lennon reflects: “In a conventional sense, none of them had been slated for particularly promising futures. They hadn’t graduated from Ivy Leagues or accomplished anything worthy of note. They weren’t moneyed or from the sorts of families that mattered” (77). Like Lennon, her classmates lacked direction and potential, and they felt powerless before Drayton.

However, once Lennon discovers her persuasive power, she grapples with the ethical implications of using it. She questions why she and her classmates are entrusted with abilities that can cause real harm. While practicing to hone her power, Lennon believes it is unethical to even persuade her rat in class. However, Dante tries to encourage her to cultivate her power and to assuage her concerns, telling her that ethical people like her must become powerful enough to stand up to those who do not have the same qualms.