Cassandra Clare, a bestselling author once said, “Not everything that’s true needs to be said.” She is trying to express that sometimes you need to exclude parts of what you are saying in order to protect the other person's dignity or save face. Although one could argue that withholding the truth is not justified because it gives people false impressions or understandings of others, Harper Lee suggests in To Kill a Mockingbird that hiding the truth is justified when saving face. Harper Lee has many examples of lying to save face in To Kill a Mockingbird, two examples of this are when Dill lies about having a father in the beginning of the book and when Sheriff Heck Tate lies about Bob Ewell falling on his own knife at the end of the book.
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People who argue this point might like to point out the time where Calpernia is taking Scout and Jem to church and Lula comes up to them. Calpernia comments, “What you want, Lula?” she asked, in tones I had never heard her use. She spoke quietly, contemptuously. “I wants to know why you bringin‘ white chillun to [n-word’s] church.” “They’s my comp’ny,” (158). Calpernia is trying to trick Lula and other members of the African American community that she is someone who she is not, an uneducated woman. This could be seen as unjustified acts just because Calpernia is misleading Lula and other members of the African American community. Even though Calpernia is misleading Lula and other members of the African American community, Calpernia knows that she can’t change them. She also knows if she talks normally she would just make everyone else not like her because nobody like to be corrected by someone that is smarter than them. Therefore, lying would still to save face would be the best course of action because Calpernia knows that if she doesn’t withhold the truth her community would ostracize