To Kill A Mockingbird - Character Quotes Flashcards
Scout - Education (hypocritical formal education and moral education)
“I mumbled I was sorry and retired, meditating upon my crime”
“Keep your mouth shut or talk their language”
Scout - Innocence
“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”
“Hey Mr Cunningham. How’s your entailment getting’ along?… I go to school with Walter… and he does right well. He’s a good boy”.
Scout - Maturity
“Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough”
“I carefully picked up the tray and watched myself walk toward Mrs. Merriweather. With my best company manners, I asked her if she would have some. After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could”.
“I drew a bead on him, remembered what Atticus had said, then dropped my fists and walked away. “Scouts a coward!”
Jem - Contrast to Scout
“He was difficult to live with, inconsistent, moody.”
“Jem got his wish. I departed.”
“It was then, I suppose, that Jem and I began to part company.”
Jem - innocence
“It’s like bein’ a caterpillar in a cocoon”
“his shoulders jerked as if each ‘guilty’ was a separate stab between them”
Jem - Message
“I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all the time… it’s because he wants to stay inside”
“they oughta do away with juries.”
Atticus - Courage
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.”
“when you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway”
“an’ it looked like the gun was part of him… an’ he did it so quick”
Atticus - Racial Prejudice
Scout: “You aren’t really a n*****-lover, then, are you?” Atticus: “I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody…”.
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… that is why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird”.
Atticus - Message
“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.”
“before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself.”
“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
Calpurnia - The First Purchase Church
“I thought her voice strange: she was talking like the rest of them.”
“when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.”
Calpurnia - Courage
“She went up to the front steps and banged on the door. She got no answer so she shouted.”
“Stop right there, n**.”
Calpurnia - Message
“Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side”
“it don’t count for nothin’ the way you’re disgracin’ ‘em”
Dill - Innocence
“his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duckfluff.”
“Dill had started crying and couldn’t stop.”
“Dill was sound asleep, his head on Jem’s shoulder.”
“Dill Harris could tell the biggest ones I ever heard.”
Dill - Victim of Selfishness
“was spending the summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel, and would be spending every summer in Maycomb from now on.”
“I can read.”
Boo Radley - Condemnation
“When people’s azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them.”
“There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.”
“Boo bit it off one night when he couldn’t find any cats and squirrels to eat”
Boo Radley - Alienation
“The Radleys…kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb.”
“The shutters and doors of the Radley house were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb’s ways.”
Boo Radley - Goodness
“Two Indian-head pennies, chewing-gum, soap dolls, a rusty medal, a broken watch and chain.”
“Someday, maybe, Scout can thank him for covering her up.”
Tom Robinson - Condemnation
“That n***** yonder took advantage of me.”
“He stood up and pointed his finger at Tom Robinson.”
“You know what we want…Get aside from the door Mr Finch.”
Tom Robinson - Goodness
“Tom Robinson’s manners were as good as Atticus’s.”
“I felt right sorry for her.”
“a quiet, respectable, humble N**.”
“he likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds.”
Tom Robinson - Racism
“She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man.”
“I guess Tom was tired of white men’s chances and preferred to take his own.”
Mayella Ewell - Condemnation
“The witness frowned as if puzzled. ‘Friends?’”
“Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a N** cabin.”
Mayella Ewell - Goodness
“Mayella looked as if she tried to keep clean.”
“brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie.”
“Took me a slap year to save seb’m nickels.”
Mayella Ewell - Every Character Has Flaws
“That n***** yonder took advantage of me.” (to proud to make educated decisions).
Dolphus Raymond - Condemnation
“Lives by himself way down near the county line.”
“They don’t belong anywhere.”
“this sinful man who had mixed children.”
Dolphus Raymond - Goodness
“I liked his smell: it was of leather, horses, cottonseed.” (Lexical field of nature, shows the purity and honest of Dolphus’ character)
“They could never, never understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to live.”
“the hell white people give coloured folks, without stopping to think that they’re people too.”
Mrs Dubose - Condemnation
“Jem and I hated her.”
“It was rumoured that she kept a CSA pistol hidden under her numerous wraps”
“Occasionally it would say, ‘Pt,’ like some vicious substance coming to a boil.”
Mrs Dubose - Goodness + Courage
“leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody.”
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.”
Bob Ewell - Cowardice
“He was running, running towards us with no child’s steps’”
“stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face”
“out of her way to avoid the Ewells”
Bob Ewell - Trash
“Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin.”
“when a white man does that to a black man…that white man is trash”
Bob Ewell - Prejudice
“that black n***** yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella” (dehumanising)
Aunt Alexandra - Prejudice
“the longer a family had been squatting on a patch of land the finer it was”
“fitted into the world of Maycomb like a hand into a glove”
“Everybody in Maycomb, it seemed, had a Streak”
Aunt Alexandra - Uncompromising
“analogous to Mount Everest.” (comparison to mountain - she is foreign to lives of Jem and Scout).
“What Is Best For The Family” (CAPITALS OF DOOM, depicts the harsh, strong tone that Aunt Alexandra uses when she speaks // challenges Atticus’ role as head of house).
Aunt Alexandra - Family
“in her distraction, Aunty brought me my overalls. ‘Put these on, darling,” (affection to Scout).
Miss Maudie - Understanding
“one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard”
“They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
“fair play is not marked White Only” (directly challenging racism)
Miss Maudie - Uncompromising
“Something had made her deeply angry and her grey eyes were as cold as her voice.”
“the shadow of her old grin crossed her face. ‘Always wanted a smaller house”
