In Harper Lee's To Kill a
Mockingbird, Scout catches Dill lying about his father having a
beard.
Dill is talking about how Boo must have a very long
beard having been inside the house for so long. Scout mentions Dill's father's beard,
and Dill replies that he doesn't have a beard. Scout reminds him of
his story of his father with a beard, and though Dill makes excuses, Scout knows he
telling "tall tales" (lies). She expects that the mounted police uniform he has spoken
of will never show up either.
Dill Harris could tell the biggest ones I ever
heard.
Scout then lists some
of Dill's other lies. Dill says he's flown in a mail plane seventeen times, had traveled
to Nova Scotia, had seen an elephant, and that his father was Brigadier General Joe
Wheeler, who allegedly left Dill a sword. Dill doesn't have the home life that Scout and
Jem do, and this may simply be his way of feeling more important rather than an outsider
at home. Scout realizes that Dill tells stories, but doesn't seem to resent him for
it.
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