The Not-So-Honest Man in The Fifty-Dollar Bill :: Fifty-Dollar Bill Essays

The Not-So-Honest Man in The Fifty-Dollar Bill  Ã‚        Ã‚   The main character in Donald Hall’s "The Fifty-Dollar Bill" has spent most of his life trying to live up to his honest reputation. When he is accused of trying to bribe a person at the Judge Advocate General’s office, he tries to convince himself and everyone else that it was just an "unfortunate coincidence" (Hall 958). However, the evidence shows that it was more than just a coincidence and that his actions were intentional. The narrator goes out of his way to prove to us that he is a honest man. He contrasts himself with other lawyers who "live on intimate terms with dishonesty" (Hall 957). While he prides himself on being honest, the narrator has a deep obsession with his honesty; it seems he will do anything to live up to his reputation. In the first paragraph, he says "I call myself an honest man," not I am an honest man. By his choice of words he demonstrates a lack of confidence in his honesty. You don’t have to be truly honest, in order to call yourself honest. The narrator begins defending his actions long before we know that he did anything wrong. In the second paragraph, he claims "I had no intention of avoiding service to my country and I expected . . . to go into the office of the judge advocate general in June, 1942" (Hall 957). By telling us this early on he gets us on his side. We now are more likely to believe that he would never try to bribe his way out of being drafted. He also makes sure that we know he was in a hurry when he mailed the letter, which makes a mix-up seem more possible. By setting up his defense so early he shows that he has a real need to be defended. Once we know what he did wrong, his defense begins to look like Swiss cheese; it has a lot of holes in it. He and his wife used the $500.00, that they received as a wedding present, during the summer of 1941. They stopped using the money "When school started in the fall," probably close to the beginning of September (Hall 958). It’s hard to believe that in four months a man who had been in college and law school for six years, would actually forget about an envelope that he had used at least nine times over the previous summer—much less an envelope that had money in it.