Maggie+2nd+Draft

Why do people always lose the courage to tell the truth but choose to hide? Actually, everyone was taught to be honest and no one wants to be a liar because the unwritten conventions of our society. However, people lies.

Consider the book __Atonement__ by Ian McEwan. The girl, Briony Tallis, a successful English girl with a talent for writing and also imagination, accuses her sister's lover Robbie who is innocent, and identifies him to the police as the rapist who raped her cousin. After realizing what she has done, she felt guilty but fear to tell the truth to get her involved to this trouble. This decision directly leads to a tragedy to Robbie and Cecilia and since then they eternally missed each other until they both died in World War ||. In this context, Briony just used her arbitrary imagination to think but not had empathy on Robbie, so she lied to police and family.
 * WHY? **

It is undeniable that a lie will easily hurt people. The negative effect of those things will widen the gap between friends and families, and what's more, sometimes a crazy lie will destroy one’s life or even murder him/her.
 * WHY? (What the bad influence of lies?) **

‘Empathy’ is helpful to consider standing on other people’s aspect, because the more empathies you have, the more you can understand what the other person's thought. However, if a person do not try to stand on other’s aspect to consider, him/her may not know what will happen if him/her lied by understanding how does a lie influence one’s life. Realizing how the empathy can help us knowing each other, we can stop ourselves from hurting other people by lying.
 * WHY? **


 * 2nd Draft: **

Why do people always lose the courage to tell the truth but choose to hide? Actually, everyone was taught to be honest and no one wants to be a liar because the unwritten conventions of our society. However, people lies. Consider the book Atonement by Ian McEwan. The girl, Briony Tallis, a successful English girl with a talent for writing and also imagination, accuses her sister's lover Robbie who is innocent, and identifies him to the police as the rapist who raped her cousin. After realizing what she has done, she felt guilty but fear to tell the truth to get her involved to this trouble. This decision directly leads to a tragedy to Robbie and Cecilia and since then they eternally missed each other until they both died in World War ||. In this context, Briony just used her arbitrary imagination to think but not had empathy on Robbie, so she lied to police and family.It is undeniable that a lie will easily hurt people. The negative effect of those things will widen the gap between friends and families, and what's more, sometimes a crazy lie will destroy one’s life or even murder him/her. ‘Empathy’ is helpful to consider standing on other people’s aspect, because the more empathies you have, the more you can understand what the other person's thought. However, if a person do not try to stand on other’s aspect to consider, him/her may not know what will happen if him/her lied by understanding how does a lie influence one’s life. Realizing how the empathy can help us knowing each other, we can stop ourselves from hurting other people by lying.

First of all, Atticus Finch, the lawyer in the book __To Kill a Mockingbird__ by Harper Lee, shows his empathies on everyone. Like what he said to his daughter, “If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”(Lee, 39). That was the first time he talked about this little ‘trick’ and also what he did all the time. Usually, most of child are a little bit egoistic and may lead to some conflicts with other people. Because they are too young to understand how to stand on other people’s point of view and never be taught to learn before. But Atticus hopes her daughter can learn how to get along better with people so he just teaches her what is empathy and how to have empathy on a person. For example, empathy helps him easier to forgive people. For instance, after Bob Ewell spat in his face, and even told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life, Atticus just said, “I wish Bob Ewell wouldn’t chew tobacco” (Lee, 291). Being spat by someone is definitely a shame for almost everyone, but Atticus just laughs at himself instead of punching Bob Ewell in his face. He just tried to consider things on Bob Ewell’s view, and realized that he was so poor that lived not that good. And he even had not received that much education so spiting in someone or fighting may be the only things he knew to threaten other people. Understanding those things about Bob Ewell, Atticus can stop his basic instinct of beating back but forgive this behavior. Moreover, in the case of Tom Robinson, he also presents his empathy on a colored man. “I’m simply defending a Negro —— his name’s Tom Robinson. He lives in that little settlement beyond the town dump. He’s a member of Calpurnia’s church, and Cal knows his family well. She says they’re clean-living folks”(Lee, 100). Atticus loves everyone because he has empathies not only on a write man but also a colored man. From Tom Robinson’s point of view, everyone was born equal. Atticus also holds the same opinion with him, so he could swallow all the insults for himself and his children and kept defending for Tom Robinson.