Examples Of Lies In To Kill A Mockingbird

Lies of Protection

“One must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can’t do anything about them,” Harper Lee wrote in her book. This passage epitomizes the message of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird; lying is necessary and pardonable when one is caught in a situation that could be dangerous or hurtful for oneself or others. Harper Lee provides satisfying evidence to prove this assertion, and there are countless examples of this theme in To Kill A Mockingbird. Most notably, when Heck Tate decides to lie about how Boo Radley killed Bob Ewell. Another example is when Scout hides the impudent remarks her cousin made about Atticus. Lastly, though not as clean-cut of an example: Mayella Ewell’s testimony also Lee’s assertion.

One could also easily consider her to be an evil person, who deserved to live a squalid life, but that perception is truly an oversight of the facts. Mayella lied on the stand to protect herself, for Mayella had no one in her life that would protect her because no one quite accepted her. “Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty five years… white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white,” (256). Mayella was completely stuck in the world, just like Boo and Atticus were: Boo Radley is stuck in his house and Atticus is stuck in a town that does not and refuses to understand the way he feels about racism. She had no choice but to lie because she needed to protect herself. Mayella did cause harm to Tom Robinson with her lie, which made her appear to be corrupt and villainous. In reality, lying was the only way she could protect herself. Mayella’s lie is justifiable because life threw every possible adversity at her, this lie was just one of the ways she survived; growing up with a father who abused and molested her, Mayella learned to survive anyway she could. This lie satisfied her father, which could mean one less beating for Mayella. Her lie was justifiable because she was saving herself from pain and hardship than what was