quotes


 * 1) ** **Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first**
 * knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass **
 * grew on sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it **
 * was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules **
 * hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the **
 * live oaks on the square. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the **
 * morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, **
 * and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and **
 * sweet talcum.—Scout (11) **

**2)** **//"What I meant was, if Atticus Finch drank until he was drunk he//**
 * // wouldn't be as hard as some men are at their best. There are just //**
 * // some kind of men who—who're so busy worrying about the next world //**
 * // they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the //**
 * // street and see the results." –Miss Maudie (52) //**

**3)** **When he gave us our air-rifles Atticus wouldn't teach us to**
 * shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments thereof; he said **
 * Atticus wasn't interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem, "I'd rather **
 * you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after **
 * birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but **
 * remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I **
 * ever hear Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss **
 * Maudie about it. "You're father's right," she said. "Mockingbirds **
 * don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat **
 * up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one **
 * thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to **
 * kill a mocking bird." (98) **

**4)** **//"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled//**
 * // to full respect for their opinions," said Atticus, "but before I can //**
 * // live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing //**
 * // that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." //**
 * // –Atticus (114) //**

**5)** "**The witnesses for the state…have presented themselves to you** (217)
 * gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their **
 * testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would **
 * go along with them on the assumption—the evil assumption—that all **
 * Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all **
 * Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one **
 * associates with minds of their caliber. Which, gentlemen, we know **
 * is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson's skin, a lie I do not **
 * have to point out to you. You know the truth, the truth is this: **
 * some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men cannot be **
 * trusted around women, black or white. But this is a truth that **
 * applies to the human race and to no particular race of men…"—Atticus **

**6)** "**//I don't know [how they could convict Tom Robinson], but they did//**
 * // it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do //**
 * // it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep…"—Atticus //**
 * // talking to Jem (225) //**

**7)** **"…As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every**
 * day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget **
 * it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he **
 * is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white **
 * man is trash."—Atticus (233) **

**8)** **//"…If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along//**
 * // with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their //**
 * // way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to //**
 * // understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo //**
 * // Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time…it's because he //**
 * // wants to stay inside."—Jem (240) //**

**9)** **"I'm not a very good man, sir, but I am sheriff of Maycomb**
 * County. Lived in this town all my life an' I'm goin' on forty-three **
 * years old. Know everything that's happened here since before I was **
 * born. There's a black boy dead for no reason, and the man **
 * responsible for it's dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time, **
 * Mr. Finch. Let the dead bury the dead."—Sheriff Tate (290) **

**10)** **//"Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and//**
 * // little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two //**
 * // soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, //**
 * // and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back //**
 * // into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and //**
 * // it made me sad."—Scout (293 //**

⌐ 1999 English Resources, all rights reserved
=// TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD //= ** KEY QUOTES ** ** PART ONE (CHAPTERS 1-11) **

__ ATTICUS FINCH __
“Jem and I were accustomed to our father’s last-will-and-testament diction, and we were free to interrupt Atticus for a translation when it was beyond our understanding.” (chap.3, p.35)

“Atticus don’t ever do anything to Jem and me in the house that he don’t do in the yard.” (chap.5, p.51)

“Atticus ain’t ever whipped me since I can remember.” (chap.6, p.62)

“…all I can say is, when you and Jem are grown, maybe you’ll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn’t let you down.” (chap.11, p.116)

“…before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself.” (chap.11, p.116)

“You aren’t really a nigger-lover, then, are you?” “I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody…” (chap.11, p.120)

“Every night Atticus would read us the sports pages of the newspaper.” (chap.11, p.122)

__ JEM FINCH __
“In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare.” (chap.1, p.14)

“Jem was a born hero.” (chap.4, p.44)

“Jem was not one to dwell on past defeats…” (chap.6, p.57)

__ AUNT ALEXANDRA __
“Aunt Alexandra was Atticus’ sister… I decided that she had been swapped at birth.” (chap.9, p.86)

“… the only time I ever heard Atticus speak sharply to anyone was when I once heard him say, ‘Sister, I don the best I can with them!” (chap.9, p.90)

THE RADLEY FAMILY
“A Negro would not pass the Radley place at night.” (chap.1, p.9)

“The Radley’s, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves.” (chap.1, p.10)

“Mr Radley and his wife had lived there with their two sons as long as anybody could remember.” (chap.1, p.10)

“The shutters and doors of the Radley house were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb’s ways: closed doors meant illness and cold weather only.” (chap.1, p.10)

__ BOO (ARTHUR) RADLEY __
“Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom”. (chap.1, p.9)

“If the judge released Arthur, Mr. Radley would see to it that Arthur gave no further trouble.” (chap.1, p.11)

“Mr Radley’s boy was not seen again for fifteen years.” (chap.1, p.11)

“… there were other ways of making people into ghosts.” (chap.1, p.12)

“I remember Arthur Radley when he was a boy. He always spoke nicely to me, no matter what folks said he did.” (chap.5, p.51)

__ MR RADLEY __
“Mr Radley walked down to town at eleven thirty every morning and came back promptly at twelve.” (chap.1, p.10) ** THE EWELL FAMILY ** “They were people but they lived like animals.” (chap.3, p.34)

“They come first day every year and then leave.” (chap.3, p.30)

__ BURRIS EWELL __
“He was the filthiest human I had ever seen.” (chap.3, p.29)

“You ain’t sendin’ me home, missus. I was on the verge of leavin’ – I done my time for this year.” (chap.3, p.30)

“He’s a mean one, a hard-down mean one.” (chap.3, p.30)

“Ain’t no snot-nosed slut of a school-teacher ever born c’n make me do nothin’!” (chap.3, p.31)

__ BOB EWELL __
“A man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains.” (chap.3, p.34)

** THE CUNNINGHAM FAMILY ** “The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back – no church baskets, no scrip stamps. They get along on what they have.” (chap.3, p.22)

“The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them hardest.” (chap.3, p.23)

“As the Cunninghams had no money to pay a lawyer they simply paid us with what they had.” (chap.3, p.23)

__ WALTER CUNNINGHAM __
“Walter Cunningham’s face told everybody in the first grade he had hookworms.” (chap.3, p.21)

“He had never seen three quarters together at the same time in his life.” (chap.3, p.22) ** OTHER CHARACTERS **

__ CALPURNIA __
“She was all angles and bones, nearsighted, squinted, her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard.” (chap.1, p.6)

“Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side.” (chap.1, p.6)

“… when she was furious Calpunia’s grammar became erratic. When in tranquillity, her grammar was as good as anybody’s in Maycomb. Atticus said Calpurnia had more education than most coloured folks.” (chap.3, p.27)

“We couldn’t operate a single day without Cal, have you ever thought of that?” (chap.3, p.28)

__ MRS DUBOSE __

“…neighbourhood opinion was unanimous that Mrs. Dubose was the meanest old woman who ever lived.” (chap.4, p.39)

“Don’t you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs Dubose!” (chap.11, p.110)

“what are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!” (chap.11, p.112)

“Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!” (chap.11, p.113)

“I wanted you to see something about her – I wanted you to see what real courage is… she was the bravest person I ever knew.” (chap.11, p.

__ MISS MAUDIE __ “Miss Maudie hated her house: time spent indoors was time wasted.” (chap.5, p.47)“Jem and I had considerable faith in Miss Maudie… She was our friend.” (chap.5, p.49)

// “Miss Maudie puzzled me. With most of her possessions gone and her beloved yard a shambles, she still took a lively and cordial interest in Jem’s and my affairs.” // (chap.8, p.81) ** GROWING UP ** // “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” // (chap.3, p.33)

// “I tried to climb into Jen’s skin and walk around in it.” // (chap.7, p.64)

// “I was far too old and too big for such childish things, and the sooner I learned to hold in, the better off everybody would be.” // (chap.9, p.82)

// “It was the first time I ever walked away from a fight.” // (chap.9, p.85)

// “Don’t say nigger, Scout. That’s common.” // (chap.9, p.83)

// “Do all lawyers defend n-Negroes, Atticus?” // (chap.9, p.83)

LESSONS THE CHILDREN LEARN
** PREJUDICE ** __ RACIAL PREJUDICE __
 * From Calpurnia – that politeness and respect should be shown to all people, even if they are not like you.
 * From Atticus – not to fight, to appreciate different types of courage, to learn tolerance and be able to turn the other cheek.
 * From Aunt Alexandra – the virtues of being a lady.

// “Mr Radley shot a Negro in his collard patch.” // (chap.6, p.60)

// “Don’t say nigger, Scout. That’s common.” // (chap.9, p.83)

// “Grandma says it’s bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now he’s turned out a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again.” // (chap.9, p.92)

// “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” // (chap.10, p.100)

// “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for.” // (chap.11, p.113)

__ GENDER PREJUDICE __
// “Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.” // (chap.4, p.45)

// “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches…” // (chap.9, p.90)

// “Boys don’t cook.” // (chap.9, p.91)

// “…what are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!” // (chap.11, p.112)