TKAM Character Quotes

"I could not remember not being able to read hymns" - "until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read.  One does not love breathing"

"Catching Walter Cunningham in the playground gave me some pleasure"

Returns to the oak by the Radley place because "something caught my eye"

"I licked it and waited for a while.  When I did not die I crammed it into my mouth"

"I admired my brother"

"Jem's question was an appeal.  I reassured him"

" ' but we never go by here in the summertime ' "

"Try fighting with your head for a change...it's a good one, even if it does resist learning"

"It was the first time I ever walked away from a fight"   "If i fought Cecil I would let Atticus down"   "Atticus so rarely asked Jem and me to do something for him, I could take being called a coward for him"

"I split my knuckle to the bone on his front teeth"

"You [Jack] ain't fair"   "You're real nice[...] but you don't understand children much"

"Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty"  "he got started late, which we felt reflected upon his abilities and manliness"     "our father didn't do anything"   "[...]ashamed of him"

"found Jem plugging away at a tin can, which seemed stupid with all the bluejays around"

"I thought mad dogs foamed at the mouth, galloped, leaped and lunged at throats"  "had Tim Johnson behave thus I would have been less frightened"

"we'd really have something to talk about on Monday"

" ' He ain't that old,' I said. 'All he needs is somebody to beat him up, and I ain't big enough ' "

"Calpurnia would do until Dill came."  "I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl"

"With him [Dill] life was routine; without him, life was unbearable"

" 'Cal,' I asked, ' why do you talk ni**er-talk to the - to your folks when you know it's not right? ' "

"We were still equals"

"Since things appeared to have worked out pretty well, Dill and I decided to be civil to Jem"

"[...] what I would do if Atticus did not feel the necessity of my presence, help and advice.  Why, he couldn't get along a day without me"  "They [Atticus and Calpurnia] needed me"

" 'Dill you ain't telling me right - your folks couldn't do without you' "

"I had leaped triumphantly into a ring of people I had never seen before"

" 'Don't you touch him!' I kicked the man swiftly"

" 'We brought him [Walter] home for dinner one time.  Maybe he told you about me, I beat him up once but he was real nice about it.  Tell him hey for me, won't you?' "

"so I tackled his entailment once more in a last-ditch effort to make him feel at home"

"I began to feel sweat gathering at the edges of my hair; I could stand anything but a bunch of people looking at me."

"The full meaning of the night's events hit me and I began crying."

"Well, Dill, after all he's just a *****"

"As Mr Dolphus Raymond was an evil man, I accepted his invitation reluctantly"

" ' It most certainly is not [too old for Scout], I know every word you're saying ' "

" 'Naw it was Walter - that boy's not trash, Jem.  He ain't like the Ewells.' "

" 'Naw Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks.  Folks.' "

"Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apparehenesion and a firm desire to be elsewhere"  "There was no doubt about it, I must soon enter this world" "I was more at home in my father's world" 

--> " ' Well you won't get very far until you start wearing dresses more often.' "

"If Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I."

" ' how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home - ' "

p. 260 " ' Boo doesn't mean anybody any harm, but I'm right glad you're along. ' "

" ' Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mocking-bird, wouldn't it?' "

"There wasn't much left for us to learn, except possibly algebra."

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