Doing the Right Thing

Jasper Jones contains a number of key moral conflicts based around keeping secrets and making promises concerning the death of Laura Wishart. The story begins as Charlie Bucktin is approached by Jasper Jones, the town trouble-maker, who claims to have found his girlfriend, Laura, dead. Jasper believes that he will be blamed for Laura's death and asks Charlie to promise him not to tell anyone what happened and to help him hide the body until he (Jasper) can find out who committed the murder. Charlie agrees, though he immediately feels guilty as he wants to tell the police. In one case, Charlie is terrified that the police already know of his involvement.

However, Charlie regrets his promise for two overarching two reasons.

The first reason is that Charlie has to plead ignorance when the townspeople begin to search for Laura. In a variety of circumstances...