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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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