To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice And Men, almost most of the characters lie about something. People lie even if they’re innocent because they want to protect themselves from being an outcast. Calpurnia lies about being able to read, Dolphus Raymond lies about being an alcoholic, and even worse, Mayella lies about Tom Robinson raping her. All of these false accusations lead to consequences and the only reason these people did this is because they’re too worried about their social standing in their community and they don’t want to be looked at any differently than anybody else.

People lie to fit in with their society so they won’t be seen as an outcast. When Calpurnia took the kids to church with her one day she acted like she couldn’t

Mayella lied about Tom Robinson raping her because she was scared and embarrassed to tell the truth. Tom Robinson felt sorry for her and throughout this trial, Scout came to the conclusion that “Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world”(256). Mayella was a lonely, miserable character who made a bad decision that costed someone’s life. Mayella is afraid of her father and she doesn’t tell the truth at the trial for fear that her father will beat her again. Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewell are too worried about their social standing in their community to tell the truth and this just goes to show that they hunger for acceptance in Maycomb. The book To Kill A Mockingbird also shares connections with the book Of Mice And Men. In both of these novels, the main characters don’t tell the truth in order for themselves to not get in trouble. When George and Lennie are about to start their new job, their boss asks George what his relationship with Lennie is. George then lies and tells his boss that Lennie "[is his]. . . cousin. He got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid" (25). George lies to the boss about Lennie because if he notices that Lennie’s mental defect is a threat they won’t be able to get the job. George didn’t want to attract special attention to them since Lennie had this problem, he wanted them to just fit in and sometimes he has to

When was Curley was running after Lennie to get revenge for crushing his hand, George got Carlson’s Luger and beat him to it. Curley then approaches while Lennie is lying dead on the ground and asked George if he had his gun and George said yes, that’s how he died (107). He doesn’t tell the truth about the gun because he doesn’t want anyone to know that he even had the intention of shooting Lennie. He wanted to make it sound like he had no other choice. Or else, he could get in trouble. First and foremost, he could possibly get charged with murder. As well as, Curley might be mad at George because he deprived him the chance to get revenge on Lennie. The last untruthful thing that George told in this book was when he told Lennie that they were going to have their own farm. George always said to Lennie that “when [they] get the coupla acres [he] can let [Lennie] tend the rabbits"(27). George knows that they most likely will never get to buy some land and make this dream a reality but since Lennie has the mind of a child, this was a way to soothe him. Since Lennie has a mental deficiency, he doesn’t realize that this will never be able to happen. Over many years, George has found ways to deal with Lennie. Using this example to focus him makes them both happy, even if it is just a dream. This books shows people being untruthful to protect themselves just as much as To Kill A