What defines integrity?

Imagine a world with people who have full integrity, and fully lack in integrity. Hopefully, someone
will see that its unbalanced and most likely lead to some sort of destruction. Through learning about different
acts of integrity, people can learn that there are variations, and integrity only improves society. By learning
that, there is not really a single definition to fully define integrity because the right way to go may be different
based on the situation. Integrity may be something hard to display when situations are stiff, but someone has
enough courage to actually possess some sort of integrity, humanity will be saved.
Integrity is shown through acts of honesty and moral principles. Many people through history have
influenced society due to their acts of integrity and an example is Eleanor Roosevelt. Roosevelt was a timid
soul when she was younger, but destined to do great things because of her passion of helping others. When
her husband, Theodore Roosevelt is elected president in 1932, she had to rise to the occasion by helping out
charities to help provide a better lifestyle for children, the poor, the homeless, and the needy. Roosevelt took
action by visiting hospitals and after being astonished by what she saw, she put effort in putting congressional
funding to improve conditions. It paid off. In addition to helping the sickly, Roosevelt was a wartime
volunteer worker, as she focused her energy on the war effort by working with the American Cross located in
Washingtons union station. Eleanor Roosevelt also made education a priority and felt that it is crucial for
future children, so she began teaching a private academy for schools located in Manhattan. Another example
is in 1922, where she joined the Womens trade Union League. This liberal organization supported better
working conditions for women and promoted womens labor union. This means that she fought for equality
for women. She did her best to fight for their voice. Eleanor Roosevelt had to put others needs and wants
before hers; resulting in many sacrifices had to be made, but definitely worth it. Roosevelt displayed integrity
mainly in the way that she had to finally be the voice for herself and the rest of the country. There are many
different ways to describe integrity, but Eleanor Roosevelt displays integrity by having the whole countrys
eyes on her watching her every move as the first lady, but still doing what her gut tells her is to be principled,
Nicole Ebreo
Bblock:B1
not societys version of the right way. A justification that proves that Eleanor Roosevelt is a character of
integrity is this quote she said, Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. The
choice with integrity many times may be the scary choice. For example, admitting the truth may have
temporary consequences or may not act in your favor. Whatever the outcome of the truth may be, it takes a
whole lot of courage just to say it.
Having integrity makes society stronger, but the lack of integrity has consequences. Many short
stories provide characters with actions that fail to be honest and have moral principles. The first example of
that is A Rose for Emily. Emily lacks moral principles because, she sleeps to a dead body for years who
she killed, and the body eventually decays on the sheets. This is messed up because a dead body is supposed
to be buried into the ground where God can find them, not sleeping next to a living person. Just by human
nature, people should know not to do that. Another short story is The Lottery, which is a story where the
townspeople believe that hosting a yearly drawing to see who gets killed with stones will save their crops.
They all believe in it, and love doing it. Morals teach people not to induce pain or harm upon others, so the
point of this story was expressing how their way to help everyone was to kill someone. That is not the answer.
A person with integrity would stand up to this, but in the story, people actually do this, its pretty disgusting.
The third short story is The Scarlet Ibis. In this short theres a character that does possess integrity, Doodle.
The principles that Doodle had shown integrity. He tries to please people and he lived in an honest way. On
the other hand, Doodles brother showed pride can get in the way. Doodles brother lacks integrity because a
person with integrity will put others lives before their pride.
Through personal experience, integrity is something mostly taught. What I mean by that is the
necessity of acts of integrity from people is big because the people today are the influences of future
generations. For example, one of my main influences is my sister, and I think Im lucky because if someone
does not have a positive other to impact their decisions, its harder to learn. Something that she simply
exemplified through her action, and teaches me is to never judge others, and always try to walk in their shoes
a little. Just by doing this, Im always wondering how my decision will affect the other person. If I lie to them
or steal from them, will that make anything better? Also, she teaches me that I have to believe in my values
and morals, and that usually steers me into the right choice. Another person that I have learned about recently
from the news is Nelson Mandala. Since Mandela had passed away, much light is being shown on the
sacrifices he made to fight for what was unjust. The life of Mandela make people want to get up and actually
make something of them and inspires people because it teaches us that bad things will stay unjust until
someone shows approaches it head on. Many people say that integrity is doing what is right even when no
one is watching, but imagine how much harder when everyone is against that person. It makes it that much
harder. He fought against fighting against racism, poverty, inequality from that harm that was happening in
South Africa, and he was a leader in fighting against the apartheid, which was had violence that no one can
even put into words. Nelson Mandela didnt stop until what he believed in was brought to justice. That
defines integrity.
Integrity cannot be defined in a person, but rather in action. In cases, a mix of integrity in a person
can help build character. First, a person shouldnt be someone only unprincipled, but someone of both can
sometimes benefit. The implications of unprincipled actions can force people to realize the importance, and
necessity of integrity. For example, if a person is part of a mafia, and they want them to beat up a person who
made fun of the mafia, that person needs to put their own values and beliefs in their decision. They will have
to find some sort of way to convince their fellow peers that its not worth it. If someones beliefs are being in
use, then they should know that beating up people is wrong, and following the crowd is wrong as well. Even
though, the mafia may be convinced that the way of integrity is following their groups orders, there are more
rational options. Also, sometimes having experience of the consequences of a crime is the only way on how
to figure out the importance of integrity. If someone decides to go cheat or steal, someone will catch them,
and consequences will enforced. Even though they will have to learn the tough way, theyll learn. Even
though integrity will help humanity, there are exceptions.
Integrity is a necessity in todays society, no matter how hard the situation, people must find a way to
express integrity in everyday life. When a person lacks integrity it leads to intolerance, and harmful
consequences. Integrity taught and passed on by influences, and its our own choice to make them positive or
negative. Integrity needs to become a part of peoples lives in order for the society to improve and the next
generation to have hope for a better world. Overall as a person, evaluating integrity can be simple; some
people have integrity, some people dont.