A Forgery in The Fifty Dollar BillIn "The Fifty Dollar Bill" written by Donald Hall, the narrator of the story appears to be an honest man, but is he really? I think in most cases he is very honest, except when he didn't want to be drafted and so he bribed his deputy. He had several reasons for wanting to be exempt from the draft. He was always honest, until he realized he had something important that could be lost. The beginning of the story begins with the narrator talking to us (the readers) about how honest he is. He talks about how he is held in high esteem both in his profession and in the community where respect "is not easily granted" (room 957). He's saying that, being a lawyer, respect is hard to earn. He tells us all the things he never did: "I never asked the judge who is my best friend to settle a ticket for my liquor dealer's son. I never promised a detective a favor to hide unfavorable evidence "to my client" (957). He is forcing himself to believe that he is honest. When he talks about the other lawyers, he says that they "live in intimate relationships with dishonesty" (957). or that at least he doesn't "live on intimate terms" with dishonesty. However, the final statement of the first paragraph, "I call myself an honest man," doesn't really sound like what he's saying, "I call myself an honest man," not “I am an honest man.” If the narrator was so concerned about being honest, what reasons could he have had for trying to bribe the congressman? He had a lot to deal with when the rumors about the draft came in. The narrator was a law student from third year. He only had one more year to complete before earning his degree. His wife was pregnant and about to have their first child. Those two things were very important to him and he couldn't risk losing them. Not only that, but he feared his own death. He had a "repeated sequence in his mind" in which he kept seeing his own death. The dream not only took place while he was sleeping, but he also saw his death while he was awake.