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To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

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Student Question

What page contains this quote in To Kill A Mockingbird?

“Cry about the simple hell people give other people—without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people, too.”

Quick answer:

The quote "Things haven’t caught up with that one’s instinct yet. Let him get older and he won’t get sick and cry. Maybe things’ll strike him as being—not quite right, say, but he won’t cry, not when he gets a few years on him," is found on page 269 in Chapter 20 of To Kill A Mockingbird. This is spoken by Dolphus Raymond to Dill during Tom Robinson's trial. He acknowledges Dill's distress about racial prejudice, predicting Dill will grow to understand but not necessarily accept the world's unfairness. Note: Page numbers may vary in different editions.

Expert Answers

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Dolphus Raymond tells Dill this during the trial of Tom Robinson.

During the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, Dill gets very upset at the way the prosecutor Mr. Gilmer is treating Robinson.  He is very disrespectful.  Jem makes Scout take Dill from the courtroom when he begins crying uncontrollably, and then Dill vomits.  The racial prejudice makes him physically sick. 

Scout doesn’t really understand why Dill is so upset.  She tries to explain to Dill that Mr. Gilmer’s treatment of Robinson is normal. White men often treat black men like that, belittling and patronizing them. 

“Well, Dill, after all he’s just a Negro.”

“I don’t care one speck. It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em that way.

Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin’ like that—it just makes me sick.” (Ch. 19, p. 266) 

The children meet up with...

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Dolphus Raymond, a man who is unusual for Maycomb.  He has a black wife and therefore his children are half black.  He pretends he is drunk to explain away his behavior, but the children learn that he is actually just drinking soda.  Mr. Raymond is ahead of his time, and he is trying to save Maycomb the trouble of understanding him. 

Mr. Raymond understands Dill’s sentiment, but he also realizes that Dill has some tough lessons about the world left to learn. 

“Things haven’t caught up with that one’s instinct yet.  Let him get a little older and he won’t get sick and cry. Maybe things’ll strike him as being—not quite right, say, but he won’t cry, not when he gets a few years on him.” (Ch. 20, p. 269) 

He tells him that people are racist without even thinking (this is the same page).  Mr. Raymond knows that when Dill gets older he will understand the way the world works, but he will not necessarily accept it.  He is not a racist like the rest of Maycomb.

Note: Page numbers vary, but these are from the mass market edition.

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