Caught in a Sea of Lies

The movie "Catfish" brings up several moral questions about lying and false identities but it also reveals how far people will go to hide their lies and displays some of the ways people try to cover up the truth. 

When Angela realized that Nev knew the truth, she still refused to accept the truth. She said she had cancer to gain sympathy, she said Megan was real because she saw that as a lesser of a lie, and she said she knew the girl in the pictures because thought that was better than stealing a stranger's identity. Even though everyone knows the truth, Angela titles her blog "Art by A" which could stand for either Angela or Abby, implying that she still holds on to parts of her fantasy. Even when she is found out, Angela refuses to embrace the truth. So why is it so important for her to keep this lie going? Why doesn't she just tell the truth?

For Angela, this lie was an escape. She was unsatisfied with her life and wanted more. Her art career was failing, she was taking care of two disabled children and her marriage was probably struggling. This world she created was her utopia. She was beautiful, her daughters were accomplished and present, and her art was given the recognition she thought it deserved. Her husband himself said "If there was something else [she] wants, then [she] needs to go looking for that." This was her way of looking for what she wanted. Angela wasn't lying with malicious intent, she truly cared about, even loved Nev. Her lies were a coping mechanism. Part of her must have believed her false persona as well. Nev and his friends even say that Angela actually loves Nev despite never meeting him in person. 

Can Angela be blamed for her actions? Yes, she lied online and ended up harming someone else's life, but doesn't everyone lie in some ways? Don't we all build personas of ourselves to make ourselves seem better than we are? Angela took this to the extreme with her 15 Facebook profiles but we all participate in this act on a smaller scale. We only show the side of ourselves we like online. In a way, Angela showed the side of herself she liked, just through the personas of Angela, Megan, and Abby. Where do we draw the line between a white lie and a harmful lie? Obviously, what Angela did was wrong, but her actions raise questions about lying in general as well as the ways that humans accept some lies and condemn others. It also reveals how little we understand the grey area between acceptable and unacceptable lies.