Nothing But The Truth

Nothing But The Truth is a 1992 novel written by Avi. It focuses on the subjectivity of truth, particularly the distinction between "nothing but the truth", or individual facts that become misleading when taken out of context, and "the whole truth".

Philip Malloy is a track-obsessed 9th grader at Harrison High School in New Hampshire. After receiving a poor grade on an English test, thus preventing him from trying out for track, he retaliates by humming along to "The Star-Spangled Banner" when it plays every morning. What started as a simple way to get back at his teacher snowballs into an international sensation, not helped by the fact that almost everyone involved seems to have an agenda of some kind.

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This novel provides examples of the following tropes:

• Accidental Misnaming: Mr. Malloy mishears Ms. Narwin's name as "Marwin" when Philip tells his parents about his confrontation with her, and when Ms. Stewart interviews the family for the local paper, he spells "Narwin" for her as "M-A-R-W-I-N". Crosses into Malicious Misnaming when the puzzled Ms. Stewart asks if the name is Marwin or Narwin; Philip answers "Right," as he is uninterested in correcting the mistake, leading to her name being misspelled as "Marwin" in the resulting press coverage.
• Adults Are Useless: Zigzagged in general, but definitely present with Philip's parents, who seem to have no idea what kind of person their son truly is.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Philip becomes a social pariah after his actions get Ms. Narwin fired and deny the school some much-needed money.
• Ambiguous Ending: Considering the story was stretched that Philip was singing the National Anthem in the morning and not humming along with it, it's unclear if Philip gets busted in his new school when he must admit he doesn't really know the words.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Philip is seen as a patriotic hero, but he's actually a petty delinquent with a bad case of Never My Fault.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Ms. Narwin is practically a Schoolmarm in her appearance and approach to teaching, albeit one who works in a semi-modern education system. She herself is aware of this, admitting she feels out of touch with contemporary teaching and wishes to be more attuned to that; unfortunately, when she applies for funding from the school to attend a seminar that might help her achieve this, she is turned down in an early sign of the school's financial difficulties.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: If he applies himself or is working on a subject he's interested, Philip's very smart and diligent. Not only is he a stellar prospective track athlete, he also earns generally good grades in the classes he likes such as math and science. When it comes to classes he doesn't like such as English and history, he doesn't bother nor care to put in any effort. One of his other teachers even catches him trying to finish a past day's homework on the day it's due, which he weakly tries passing off as studying for an exam. Ms. Narwin comments how he shows keen intelligence yet no desire to learn or strive for better. The "lazy" part comes back to bite him in the rear.
• Class Clown: Philip is notorious at his school as one of these, often cracking irreverent comments in class that make students and teachers laugh. The naturally stern Ms. Narwin doesn't find his remarks amusing, so he takes it as a sign that she hates him when she laments how he forgoes making progress as a student in favor of jokes.
• Completely Off-Topic Report: Downplayed. Philip derails his essay about The Call of the Wild to ramble about how cats are far better than dogs. Ms. Narwin gives him a failing grade, which prevents him from joining the track team and spurs his vendetta.
• Cool Teacher: Despite appearing outwardly stern, Ms. Narwin adores teaching kids the importance of literature and is highly regarded by most of the student body besides Philip. They rally behind her when the media subjects her to a smear campaign, and a group of students start a petition to make Philip recant his statements.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Philip's crush rejects him after he gets her favorite teacher fired.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Ms. Narwin has a reasonable response to Philip humming during the National Anthem; asking him to stop because it's distracting the other students. When he refuses, she sends him to the principal's office the second time. Philip responds by protesting his First Amendment rights, and starting a smear campaign against her.
• Downer Ending: Ms. Narwin resigns from her job and leaves town, while Harrison High fails to get a much-needed budget extension due to the scandal. Philip is also forced to transfer schools after becoming a social pariah and is later humiliated in his new class because they expect him to sing the anthem, thus forcing him to admit he doesn't actually know the words.
• Eating Lunch Alone: Philip, upon his first day back at school after his suspension for his disruption in Ms. Narwin's class, is reduced to eating alone in the cafeteria when he becomes a social pariah.
• Evil Is Petty: Philip annoys Ms. Narwin, helps destroy her reputation, and indirectly causes her to lose her job all because his bad grades in her class made him ineligible to compete on the school's track team.
• Freudian Excuse: A good deal of Philip's behavior is shaped by his father pushing his own love for track and its importance at the expense of everything else onto his son, which motivates him to take extreme actions to claim his spot on the team.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Ms. Narwin is just trying to reign in a particularly troublesome student, but the media paints her as an anti-patriotic Sadist Teacher.
• Ignored Epiphany: Near the end, Philip finally decides to just ask Ms. Narwin if he can do some extra credit work so his academic standing is good enough for track. Upon finding out he's been moved to a different English class (unbeknownst to him, at the behest of the principal, who wants to avoid more bad publicity), he immediately twists it as her not "letting" him have the chance to make it up.
• Irony: Philip initiates his plot against Ms. Narwin out of anger that his poor grades in her class prevent him from joining the track team, and hopes that telling "the truth" about her will make her feel bad enough to give him some leniency so he can run. After alienating everyone at his school, he transfers to one that doesn't have a track team.
• It's All About Me: Philip's first and foremost priority is himself. Upon being told his English grades aren't good enough for him to join the track team, he gripes about how unreasonable Ms. Narwin is. After he's suspended for humming the National Anthem, he paints himself as a victim of anti-patriotism and falsely protests how he's being persecuted for his displays of loyalty. When he becomes ostracized at his school following Ms. Narwin's dismissal, he whines about how nobody there, not even his crush, actually paid any attention to how horribly she treated him, callously disregarding how he ruined her reputation as nothing compared to her stern attitude in class.
• Jerkass: Philip is initially considered just an obnoxious Class Clown, but his one-sided vendetta against Ms. Narwin reveals he's a really vindictive and nasty piece of work.
• Karma Houdini: Subverted. Philip appears to face no real punishment for his actions, becoming an admired patriotic hero to the nation. However, his personal life is in shambles. At school, he becomes a social pariah and his crush rejects him. The pressures of his celebrity overwhelm him so much that he has to transfer schools, with his parents' marriage on the rocks because they clash on how to handle the problem. Then finally, he later has to admit he doesn't know the words to the National Anthem.
• Kent Brockman News: A recurring bit throughout the book is The Jake Barlow Show, a radio program whose host quickly latches onto Philip's story as a means to promote his own patriotic slant and invites guests to either praise Philip or vilify Ms. Narwin. When one guest notes the perspective's clearly biased in Philip's favor and how nobody has bothered to get Ms. Narwin's side of the story, Jake harshly condemns him as anti-American and rudely hangs up on him before he can clarify his viewpoint further.
• Malicious Slander: Ms. Stewart's heavily slanted article on the incident leads to everyone praising Philip as a patriotic hero and condemning Ms. Narwin (and the school as a whole) for trying to "stymie" him.
• Never My Fault: Philip blames his poor grades solely on Ms. Narwin, driving the events of the plot. He fails to learn his lesson and ends up blaming everybody except himself for his status as a social pariah at school.
• Parents as People: Philip's parents do care for him, but they just take everything he says at face value and don't question his side of the story regarding him and Ms. Narwin. They never bother inquiring to other faculty (or even Ms. Narwin herself) for further details to get a clearer picture of events. They're implied to be struggling financially, and do a poor job separating work from home by making Philip privy to their fiscal woes. They bicker often enough in front of their son to make Philip outright question the two if they're going to get divorced. His father, in particular, lets his resentment at not becoming a college track star (maybe even Olympic-worthy) influence Philip's ambitions, placing more value on whether or not his son made the track team over his grades. It also is hinted that Mr. Malloy knows fully well that Philip's crusade against Ms. Narwin has something to do with him not making the track team, but doesn't care to probe further because he blames her for destroying his son's chance at becoming a track star that he himself lost.
• Politically Motivated Teacher: Inverted, actually. Ms. Narwin is one of the few characters in the story who doesn't have any political agenda.
• Poor Communication Kills: Much conflict could've been avoided if Philip was simply upfront about requiring a passing grade in English to join the track team and/or Ms. Narwin explained how her stern attitude towards him wasn't rooted in personal dislike (she even describes him as "a boy I like" in a letter to her sister early in the book, as she sees real potential in him). However, their inability to relay this information leads to their downfalls.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Philip successfully destroys Ms. Narwin's career and becomes a national hero, but has to switch schools because his own school hates him. He isn't even happy with his newfound celebrity status.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Philip's crush gives him one after he gets Ms. Narwin fired, saying that it was utterly selfish and she thought he was a better person than that. He still doesn't get it, instead blowing up at and shunning her for not taking his side.
• Sadist Teacher: Philip (and, eventually, everyone else who hears about the incident) sees Ms. Narwin as a stiff-backed disciplinarian. She's actually well-liked by the other students.
• Saving the Orphanage: In a sense; a side plot focuses on attempts to ensure that Harrison High's budget doesn't get cut further than it already has, as that could be disastrous. Thanks to Philip, this ends up doomed to failure.
• Shamed by a Mob: Philip doesn't realize he made a big mistake by spearheading a campaign against Ms. Narwin, but almost everyone in the school hates him for his selfishness after she's fired.
• Skewed Priorities: Ms. Narwin accuses the school of misplacing their priorities by funding "bread and circuses" activities like marching band over academics. This is partially why the academically apathetic track star Philip aggrieves her, with the problem implied to only get much worse in the end.
• Slave to PR: Ms. Narwin's superiors initially stand by her side in the face of Philip's smear campaign against her, but when they learn that Harrison High School will be denied much-needed funding to keep the school running so long as she stays, they're quick to throw her under the bus.
• The Sociopath: Philip is a disturbingly clear-cut example of a sociopath despite his age, fulfilling all of the medical criteria that defines one. He shows no remorse for how his actions are ruining his teacher's life; seamlessly lies to his parents and the press while twisting the truth so he could look better; has no interest in any activities beyond what he enjoys (i.e. track); barely expresses any fondness for his family and peers while expecting them to give their utmost affection to him; exhibits shallow charm that sways many of the adults he vents to about his issues with Ms. Narwin; and is so assured of his own greatness that he cannot understand why anyone would disagree with or dislike him like his classmates, nor does he reflect on what he's done to alienate them.
• Sports Dad: Philip's father is a former track star who had to leave college to take care of his family after his father got sick, something he's quite resentful about. He thus pushes Philip so hard to become a runner so his son could seize the glory he never attained.
• Teens Are Monsters: Philip tanks Ms. Narwin's career for incredibly petty reasons and shows little regret over this. However, many of his fellow teenagers, including his own crush, are much more sympathetic.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Philip defaming Ms. Narwin places Harrison High in a bad light just before elections to determine its annual budget and is a key factor why the school loses its funding, possibly leading to its closure. Being a kid, he has no idea about any of this.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Philip is seen as a patriotic hero by the press. In reality, he's a petty delinquent.
• Villainous Breakdown: Philip suffers one of these after becoming a social pariah in his school, whining about how nobody believes he's right and Ms. Narwin's wrong there. It worsens at his new school in the end, when he breaks down in tears after admitting he doesn't know the words to the National Anthem.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Philip's relationship with his father is practically centered on Mr. Malloy pushing his dream of becoming a famous track star onto his son. Part of the reason Philip lies about Ms. Narwin having it out for him due to his seeming displays of patriotism is because he's afraid how angry his father will get, if told his son's poor grades make him unable to join the track team.

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