To Kill a Mockingbird Morality and Ethics Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
| Quote #1 "There's some folks who don't eat like us," she whispered fiercely, "but you ain't called on to contradict 'em at the table when they don't. That boy's yo' comp'ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear?" |
Cal’s moral lesson here is to respect people’s differences, even if you think you’re better than them. And acting like you’re better than other people is the surest way to show that you’re not. This interaction is an early blow against the stereotype that white people have morals but African-Americans don’t.
| Quote #2 "There are just some kind of men who – who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results." (5.44) |
Miss Maudie’s talking about Nathan Radley here, but also about his fellow foot-washing Baptists who think she’s going to hell for making her garden pretty. Not a party girl herself, Miss Maudie still strikes out at those who think that all pleasure is bad, except for the pleasure they obviously take in judging their neighbors as sinners.
| Quote #3 "If you shouldn't be defendin' him, then why are you doin' it?" |
For Atticus, his own self-respect is bound up with his good morals – if he did something he knew was wrong, even if it was justified, he would lose all moral authority over others. It’s interesting that the judgment he faces is solely his own – he’s not worried about other people’s criticism, or that they would vote him out of the legislature, or that Scout and Jem wouldn’t respect him – he just wouldn’t feel able to do any of those things if he didn’t do right by Tom Robinson.
