What the correct answer now

In ralph ellison’s “the black ball” the narrator of the story stretches the truth or lies several times what do you think it is his motivation for being so untruthful

“heartwork each day is born with a sunrise and ends in a sunset, the same way we open our eyes to see the light, and close them to hear the dark. you have no control over how your story begins or ends. but by now, you should know that all things have an ending. every spark returns to darkness. every sound returns to silence. and every flower returns to sleep with the earth. the journey of the sun and moon is predictable. but yours, is your ultimate art.” ― suzy kassem what does this quote mean to you? and why? i'm not looking for anything in particular, i just wanted to know. : )

He leaned his head against the wall; his eyes were shut, his hands clasped in each other, and his body seemed to be sustained in an upright position merely by the cellar-door against which he rested his left shoulder. the lethargy into which he was sunk seemed scarcely interrupted by my feeling his hand and his forehead. his throbbing temples and burning skin indicated a fever . . there was only one circumstance that hindered me from forming an immediate determination in what manner this person should be treated. my family consisted of my wife and a young child. our servant-maid had been seized, three days before, by the reigning malady, and, at her own request, had been conveyed to the hospital. we ourselves enjoyed good health, and were hopeful of escaping with our lives. our measures for this end had been cautiously taken and carefully adhered to. they did not consist in avoiding the receptacles of infection, for my office required me to go daily into the midst of them; nor in filling the house with the exhalations of gunpowder, vinegar, or tar. they consisted in cleanliness, reasonable exercise, and wholesome diet. who is the story’s first-person narrator