Quote Analysis

Identify the context, the speakers, and explain the significance of each quotation.
If you wish, you can copy and paste the text of quotations into a word document.

Chapter 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 the 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."

Chapter 2
"'Your father does not know how to teach. You can have a seat now.'
I mumbled that I was sorry and retired meditating upon my crime."

Chapter 3
"'First of all,' he said, 'If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-'
'Sir?'
'-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.'"

Chapter 4
"Two live oaks stood at the end of the Radley lot; their roots reached into the side-road and made it bumpy. Something about one of the trees attracted my attention. Some tin foil was sticking out of a knot- hole just above my eye level, winking at me in the afternoon sun. I stood on my tiptoe, hastily looked around once more, reached into the hole, and withdrew two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappers."

Chapter 5
"'So that's what you were doing, wasn't it?'
'Makin' fun of him?'
'No," said Atticus, "Putting his life's history on display for the edification of the neighbourhood.'
Jem seemed to swell a little. 'I didn't say we were doin' that, I didn't say it!'
Atticus grinned dryly. 'You just told me,' he said. 'You stop this nonsense right now, every one of you.'"

Chapter 6
"Then I saw the shadow. It was the shadow of a man with a hat on. At first I thought it was a tree, but there was no wind blowing, and tree trunks never walked. The back porch was bathed in moonlight, And the shadow, crisp and toast, moved across the porch towards Jem.
Dill saw it next. He put his hands to his face.
When it crossed Jem, Jem saw it. He put his arms over his head and went ridged."

Chapter 7
"As Atticus once advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jem's skin and walk around in it: if I had gone alone to the Radley Place at two in the morning, my funeral would have been held the next afternoon. So I left Jem alone and tried not to bother him."

Chapter 8
"'Thank who?' I asked.
'Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when he put the blanket around you.'
My stomach turned to water and I nearly threw up when Jem held out the blanket and crept toward me. 'He sneaked out of the house-turn 'round-sneaked up, an' went like this!'"

Chapter 9
"Atticus said, 'You've a lot to learn, Jack.'
'I know. Your daughter gave me my first lessons this afternoon. She said I didn't understand children much and told me why. She was quite right. Atticus, she told me how I should have treated her-oh dear, I'm so sorry I romped on her.' "

Chapter 10
"Atticus said to Jem one day, 'I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
'Your father's right,' she said. 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up peoples 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.'"

Chapter 11
"'A lady?' Jem raised his head. His face was scarlet. 'After all those things she said about you, a lady?'
'She was. She had her own views about things, a lot different from mine, maybe ...son, I told you that if you hadn't lost your head I'd have made you go read to her. I wanted you to see something about her.- 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. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.'"

Chapter 12
"'It's not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike -in the second place, folks don't like to have someone around knowin' more than they do. It aggravates 'em. You're not gonna change any of them by talkin' right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.'"

Chapter 13
"I never understood her preoccupation with heredity. Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was."

Chapter 14
"'That's because you can't hold something in your mind but a little while,' said Jem. 'It's different with grown folks, we -'
His maddening superiority was unbearable these days. He did not want to do anything but read and go off by himself."

Chapter 15
"'What's the matter?' I asked.
Atticus said nothing. I looked up at Mr. Cunningham, whose face was equally impassive. Then he did a peculiar thing. He squatted down and took me by both shoulders.
'I'll tell him you said hey, little lady,' he said.
Then he straightened up and waved a big paw. 'Let's clear out,' he called. 'Let's get going, boys.'"

Chapter 16
"This was news, news that put a different light on things: Atticus had to, whether he wanted to or not. I thought it odd that he hadn't said anything about it-we could have used it many times defending him and ourselves. He had to, that is why he was doing it, equalled fewer fights and less fussing."

Chapter 18
"'It's not an easy question Miss Mayella, so I'll try again. Do you remember him beating you about the face?' Atticus's voice had lost its comfortableness; he was speaking in his arid, detached professional voice. 'Do you remember him beating you about the face?'
'I don't recollect if he hit me. I mean yes I do, he hit me.'"

Chapter 19
"Mr. Gilmer smiled grimly at the jury. 'You're a mighty good fellow, it seems - did all this for not one penny?'
'Yes suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more'n the rest of 'em -'
'You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?' Mr. Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling."

Chapter 20
"'The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two whiteness whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. The defendant ids not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is.' "

Chapter 21
"'Miss Jean Louise?'
I looked around. They were all standing. All around us, and in the balcony on the opposite wall, the Negroes were getting to their feet. Reverend Sykes's voice was as distant as Judge Taylor's:
'Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'.' "

Chapter 22
"Indoors, when Miss Maudie wanted to say something lengthy she settled her fingers on her knees and settled her bridgework. This she did, and we waited.
'I simply wanted to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them.' "

Chapter 23
"'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.'"

Chapter 24
"'Tom's dead.'
Aunt Alexandra put her hands to her mouth.
'They shot him,' said Atticus. 'He was running. It was during their exercise period. They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over. Right in front of them' "

Chapter 25
"'Why couldn't I mash him?' I asked.
'Because they don't bother you,' Jem answered in the darkness. He had turned out his reading light."

Chapter 26
"So many things had happened to us, Boo Radley was the least of our fears. Atticus said he didn't see how anything else could happen, that things had a way of settling down, and after enough time had passed people would forget that Tom Robinson's existence was ever brought to their attention."

Chapter 27
"'I don't like it Atticus, I don't like it at all,' was Aunt Alexandra's assessment of these events. 'That man seems to have a running grudge against everyone connected with the case. I know how that kind are about paying off grudges, but I don't understand why he should harbour one-he had his way in court, didn't he?'"

Chapter 28
"Shuffle foot had not stopped with us this time. His trousers swished softly and steadily. Then they stopped. He was running, running toward us with no child's steps.
'Run, Scout! Run! Run!' Jem screamed.
I took one giant step and found myself reeling: my arms useless, in the dark, I could not keep my balance.
'Jem, Jem, help me, Jem!'"

Chapter 29
"When I pointed to him his palms slipped slightly, leaving greasy sweat steaks on the wall, and he hooked his thumbs in his belt. A strange small spasm shook him, as if he heard fingernails scrape slate, but as I gazed at him in wonder the tension slowly drained from his face. His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbour's image blurred with my sudden tears.
'Hey, Boo,' I said."

Chapter 30
"Atticus looked like he needed cheering up. I ran to him and hugged him and kissed him with all my might. 'Yes sir, I understand,' I reassured him. 'Mr. Tate was right.'
Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. 'What do you mean?'
'Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?'"

Chapter 31
"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."