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Dishonesty In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

1971 Words8 Pages

Most children have been raised with the moral that being honest and telling the truth is an important part of life. Honesty and dishonesty is the decision between right and wrong. Dishonesty has many consequences from shattering relationships, to mental health problems, to life behind bars. Dishonesty has been linked to ultimately destroying a person’s life because people often only realize the consequences of their actions after they have been caught for their lie. Americans lie approximately 11 times in a week (Jayson, Sharon). Despite the fact that most people are raised to value honesty, most people still lie knowing that there are negative consequences. The best way to uphold the values instilled in a child and to overcome the negative …show more content…

A quote by Harper Lee written in her famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird is “...Real courage is, …when you know you 're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” (Lee, 121) The significance of this quote is to show that if a person did not ponder over the consequences before they lied and when the truth is publicly known then the liar has to deal with the consequences no matter what happens. True courage is not backing down even though a person might lose so much. Many people have grown up with the principle that “honesty is the best policy” and this is what they try to enforce in their daily …show more content…

Telling the truth very early on will prevent a person from facing very severe consequences. In September 2009, three men illegally started trading stocks with insider information making a profit of $37 million dollars. Kenneth Robinson the man who planned this scheme with Garrett Bauer a professional stock trader and Matthew Kluger a lawyer that had valuable information about major mergers broke the law to benefit themselves. Kenneth Robinson eventually got caught and he agreed to get evidence on Kluger and Bauer by recording phone calls and saving emails leading to the other two men getting caught. Bauer got sentenced to nine years in prison, Kluger was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Robinson received 27 months of prison time. Although Robinson initiated this scheme, however he served the least amount of time in jail because he decided to tell the truth and cooperate with the FBI by providing information on the other two men. (The Confession of an Inside Trader) Ultimately, telling the truth might not take away the consequences, but it will lessen the severity of them.
Honesty is a valuable trait to possess as a human being because it leads to a greater personality. Choosing to tell the truth promotes courage and integrity. Honesty is a path where a person has to decide between right and wrong. Overall, telling the truth when there is no witness is the most important thing as this

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“Courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. ”(Lee,149) This quote meanings is, courage is not winning the battle or even participating in it, it means knowing you going to lose the battle, but fighting anyways and dealing with the embarrassment because you know you're in the right,so standing up for the right thing even if society is against it. This teaches to always fight for what you believe is right of fair.

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In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus tells Scout that courage is “when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” Atticus has shown a lot of courage to his kids. Atticus showed courage by accepting the Tom Robinson case, by standing his ground at the jailhouse, and by standing up to Aunt Alexandra about Calpurnia. He even tries to get his kids to follow in his footsteps.     What Atticus meant when he told Scout what courage was, was that even if you know that you're going to lose something it doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

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This is also such an important and relevant theme because it is so commonly seen during The Crucible. One major action already brought up would be when Proctor put his life at risk by telling the truth in hopes to save his wife. Another major act of honesty would be when Abigail told Reverend Hale what they had been doing in the woods. She knew that they shouldn't have been doing that because it was connected with the devil and they could get in serious trouble so they had initially lied. It wasn't until later they the girls had finally come clean about what they were actually doing in the woods with

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Can dishonesty be valuable if it was used to achieve desirable outcomes? Is lying considered justified if it was involved in a dangerous situation? It is not always bad to lie. As children, we were continuously taught to be honest. We have grown to be implanted with the fact that lying is unacceptable but admissible.

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I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.(Lee 112)

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(Guest 29-30). This is describing that even when tears are falling down ones face, or is smiling, one still has to have courage and be strong, every moment of the day. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead

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Lying is the most committed sin. Everyday people lie whether small or big. Every human knows that lying should not be exercised, but sometimes, in certain situations, lying is necessary due to the consequences of telling the truth. In the Bible, James 3:8, quoted is “But no human being can tame the tongue, it is a relentless evil, full of deadly poison.”

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For an example still, in the United States it is very common to lie about food being tasteful or a present bringing you joy. The social norm prohibits telling them otherwise, or you would be perceived as being rude. The older children get

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In To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the themes is the true meaning of courage. The true meaning of courage is overcoming your biggest fears or when you’re “licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”

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Harper Lee once wrote that “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what”. Moral courage means doing the right thing despite the risk of any consequences. Anyone can have moral courage, no matter who you are. Many authors often use different literary elements to develop themes in their writings. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the literary elements mood and imagery to teach her audience about doing the right thing or moral courage.

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To Kill a Mockingbird - Courage "Courage is when you know you 're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what" According to Atticus Finch, an honest lawyer in Harper Lee 's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. "Real courage" is when you fight for what is right regardless of whether you win or lose. Atticus fits into this definition of what "real courage" is and demonstrates it several times throughout the novel. "The only thing we 've got is a black man 's word against the Ewells '.

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He was a black man in a white man’s world, but he didn’t give up. Tom endured the case, knowing that white men would never find him innocent in any crime against a white person in that time period. He expressed his true feelings during the case. He also stood up for himself, as to not let the false case kill his spirit. Tom Robinson, when he was given the chance, did the right thing for himself when he tried to escape from prison.

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Stephanie Ericsson begins her explorative essay, “The Ways We Lie,” with a personal anecdote of all the lies she fabricated in one day. She told her bank that a deposit was in the mail when it was not, told a client that the traffic had been bad when she was late for other reasons, told her partner that her day was fine when it was really exhausting, and told her friend she was too busy for lunch when she just was not hungry, all in the course of a day. She shifts from talking about herself to talking about everyone, claiming that all people lie, exaggerate, minimize, keep secrets, and tell other lies. But, like herself, most still consider themselves honest people. She describes a week in which she tried to never tell a lie; it was debilitating, she claims.

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Stephanie Ericsson justifies the habits of lying in “The Ways We Lie” using firsthand experiences and solid metaphors. Essentially, Take into consideration before you lie, because it could be at someone else's

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