We Were Liars written by E. Lockhart When trying to build a new government for American society the founding fathers were tired of a total dictatorship and the tyranny it imposed upon them. It is known that with ultimate power comes ruin and corruption. This is a powerful theme within the novel We Were Liars. A deep need for power embedded in the structure of the family is what ultimately destroys it. Power’s destruction is shown in Harris Sinclair’s treatment of the family, the death of the grandchildren, and the Clairmont property being destroyed in fire. Harris Sinclair has total control of his family. He has three daughters each with their own children. He provided each of his girls with a summer home, an inheritance/trust, and an education. Despite everything Harris Sinclair has given his girls they have not managed to make successful careers and therefore fully depend on him and his money. In order to keep their inheritance the sisters know they need to stay in their fathers favor. Sinclair knowing this creates a lot of tension between the girls who fight over money and let go of their own morals, such as not marrying someone just due to their skin color, in order to please him. "Granddad did nothing but fuel them […] Granddad was drunk on his own power and my mother wanted me to make a play for the money." Harris’s constant trying to put the girls against each other makes their relationships slowly start to fall apart. In addition to tearing apart his daughter’s relationships with each other he also creates the destruction of his grandchildren. The “Liars” Johnny, Gat, Mirren, and Cadence see the damage their grandfather is causing and realize that they need to devise a plan to get rid of the patriarchy. It was their hope that if they destroyed all of the material possessions the sisters were fighting over all of their relationships would improve and the four could remain as friends and family for the remainder of their lives. Their desperation for a better future completely blinded them of the reality of the danger they were putting themselves into. The plan they came up with was to burn down Clairmont which literally was the grandfather's summer home but figuratively represented all of the power Harris Sinclair held. “We should not accept an evil we can change. We would stand up against it, would we not? Yes. We should. We would be heroes, even.” The liars did not take into account that change must happen within a person and not just from the burning of possession. Finally, the fire itself was an example of a want for power. The liars did not want power for the same reason but they did set fire in the hopes of taking it from their grandfather. They thought in doing so they would bring peace to their families. In some ways this was successful as the children were able to bring their families together in harmony as they had hoped. Not knowing their children would die made them lean on each other. However, of course they killed themselves, aside from Cadence, in the process. If they had not died this would have been an unsuccessful attempt at bringing the family together. Instead youth, innocence, and futures were destroyed. This is symbolic as it shows if we are to let a power for hunger to overtake us we will lose all that is important to us and the only thing that could truly set us free; the future. “We did not, after all, save the idyll. That is gone forever, if it ever existed. We have lost the innocence of it….” If the liars had been able to keep their need for something more cohesive at bay then they could have created a better future for themselves and their eventual families instead they lost everything. In conclusion the need for ultimate power can be all consuming and lead to anyone's ultimate demise. The Sinclairs despite their perfect exteriors were not immune to this same fate and destruction. Humans of course should fight against what is not right but they must know their limits everyone has them no matter how powerful they truly believe themselves to be.