Loyalty Essay

FINAL DRAFT

Austin
English 8
Mr. Salsich
1/19/10

Loyalty:
The Key to Maintaining Friendship

The characters in To Kill a Mockingbird all have loyalty for one another, but the loyalty and companionship between Dill and Scout is the greatest. When Scout and Dill first met, Scout didn’t know what to make of Dill. Little did Scout know, a deep and strong bond would form between these two companions, making them loyal to each other as long as their ligature remained. During Mr. Gilmer’s cross examination of Mr. Tom Robinson, Dill was sick to his stomach listening to the verbal assaults Mr. Gilmer launched at Tom. Even though Jem, Scout’s brother, made Scout take Dill out of the courtroom to recover from the atrocities committed by Mr. Gilmer, Scout didn’t verbally retaliate. She is a strong headed young girl, so for her to be easily persuaded to take care of Dill and miss some of the cross-examination says how loyal she is to Dill. She wants to make sure he is content before they go back, and so she offers ideas like, “Come on out under the trees, heat got you, I expect” (Lee, 265) that might help him feel better. Scout and Dill have a fathomless connection of loyalty that will continue to amplify as they mature and their love for one another grows more powerful.

Loyalty greatly impacts my life as it does in To Kill a Mockingbird: with family and friends. When it comes to my immediate family, loyalty coincides with respect. Typically, if my parents ask me to do something, I am loyal and respect their request. It is an essential part of my life to be loyal and respectful to my parents since they are my superiors who provide for me, who take care of me, and who love me unconditionally. Being trustworthy to my parents plays a major role in my life, and being reliable for my friends plays an almost equally vital role. Most of my friends are close to me, and when I’m considerably fickle, my conscience is in ruin because I feel like I’ve betrayed them. The feeling of betrayal is the feeling earned from disloyalty, so when you feel disloyal, your friends will feel betrayed. It’s hard to revive a friendship after infidelity, which is why being loyal to my friends makes my life so much better. Without loyalty in my life, there would be chaos, which makes faithfulness so significant in my relationships with family and friends.