Lies In To Kill A Mockingbird

INTRODUCTION

Like the noted English poet, John Dryden, had once spoken, “I never saw any good that came of telling the truth.” Dryden briefly states something that may as well be a lie. Throughout everyday life, the average person will get lied to over and over again. The truth has become something very distant, so lies lay close to us. No one can or will keep track of the amount of lies in a day they tell because it would ultimately be too hard to count. Keeping the truth hidden becomes a major theme in the book of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Many lies in the novel don’t affect everyone or anyone, though lies range from serious to superficial in every corner of the book. Atticus, a formal lawyer yet a laid-back father doesn’t like

In the first chapter, Atticus already introduces that he doesn’t want the kids to know about Boo Radley and his family’s life. Atticus constantly does not let his children come near the truth when they wonder. Atticus’s only answer to Jem is, “Mind your own business and let the Radleys mind theirs” (13). Wherever you go, there will be people who do not want to be in the limelight, or some that want to stay hidden. Unfortunately, gossip, another form of lying, is a big part of Maycomb. Some figure that people talking falsely is better than them knowing and speaking the truth. Boo Radley’s life is being protected from the children in this specific scene, and Boo is protected as well. Though this avoidance is minor and ordinary, Atticus regularly keeps Boo’s personal life from others because of Boo’s desire to stay offstage. Jem and Scout’s father has been around a lot longer than the two kids and is especially wise about the different types of people in our

One could shine light on the part of the novel when the kids run into Mr. Dolphus Raymond and he expresses that things are never as they seem by giving Dill a taste of the Coca-Cola. The man explains, “...folks can say Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey-- that’s why he won’t change his ways” (268). By hiding what he’s actually drinking, Mr. Raymond is a walking lie without his community knowing it. The people of Maycomb won’t question why he is always with the African Americans because they assume his mind is messy from alcohol. Even though it’s valid that Dolphus’s ways are pretty ill-mannered, his life is exactly how he wants it with this lie. No one tells him that being with a black woman is horrendous or that he’s a terrible man because what they assume in their minds save him. Maycomb’s opinion on Mr. Raymond is disapproving though civilians won’t say a word. Therefore, withholding the truth is justified in Raymond’s situation because he’s gets to live with the people who make him the