To Kill a Mockingbird

Atticus: Good afternoon, Miss Dubose... My, you look like a picture this afternoon. Scout: [hiding behind Atticus whispering to Jem and Dill] He don't say a picture of what.

To Kill a Mockingbird (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Atticus: Do you know what a compromise is? Scout: Bendin' the law? Atticus: Uh, no. It's an agreement reached by mutual consent. Now, here's the way it works. You concede the necessity of goin' to school, we'll keep right on readin' the same every night, just as we always have. Is that a bargain?

To Kill a Mockingbird (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Atticus: I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house, and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted, if I could hit 'em, but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. Jem: Why? Atticus: Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncribs. They don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us.

To Kill a Mockingbird (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Scout: Atticus, do you defend niggers? Atticus: Don't say "nigger," Scout. Scout: I didn't say it... Cecil Jacobs did. That's why I had to fight him. Atticus: Scout, I don't want you fightin'! Scout: I had to, Atticus, he kills chickens Atticus: I don't care what the reasons are. I forbid you to fight. There are some things that you're not old enough to understand just yet. There's been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man. Scout: If you shouldn't be defending him, then why are you doing it? Atticus: For a number of reasons. The main one is that if I didn't, I couldn't hold my head up in town. I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do somethin' again. You're gonna hear some ugly talk about this in school. But I want you to promise me one thing... that you won't get into fights over it, no matter what they say to you.

To Kill a Mockingbird (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Atticus: I must be losing my memory. I can't remember whether Jem is twelve or thirteen. Anyway, it'll have to come before the county court. Of course, it's a clear-cut case of self defense. I'll, uh... well, I'll run down to the office-- Sheriff Heck Tate: Mr. Finch, do you think Jem killed Bob Ewell? Is that what you think? Your boy never stabbed anyone. Sheriff Heck Tate: Bob Ewell fell on his knife. He killed himself. There's a black man dead for no reason; now the man responsible for it is dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time, Mr. Finch. I never heard tell it was against the law for any citizen to do his utmost to prevent a crime from being committed, which is exactly what he did. But maybe you'll tell me it's my duty to tell the town all about it and not to hush it up? Well, you know what'll happen then? All the ladies in Maycomb, including my wife, will be knocking on his door bringing angel food cakes. To my way of thinking, taking the one man who's done you and this town

To Kill a Mockingbird (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Scout: Mr. Tate was right. Atticus Finch: What do you mean? Scout: Well, it would be sort of like shooting a mockingbird, wouldn't it?

To Kill a Mockingbird (film), CC BY-SA 4.0