Dolphus Raymond Quotes

“Scout,” breathed Jem. “Scout, look! Reverend, he’s crippled!”
Reverend Sykes leaned across me and whispered to Jem. “He got it caught in a cotton gin, caught it in Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s cotton gin when he was a boy…like to bled to death…tore all the muscles loose from his bones – “

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 18. When Atticus asks Tom Robinson to stand up so his accuser Mayella Ewell can get a good look at him, we discover there is no way Tom is guilty. His left arm is twelve inches shorter than his right, it hangs dead at his side and ends in a small shriveled hand. And Mayella had two hand prints around her neck and was beaten by a strong, left-handed man. This suggests the Mayella Ewell is lying.

“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.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 20. Dolphus Raymond is predicting that Dill won’t cry about these things when he gets older. Once Scout and Dill get accustomed to the world as it is, they will no longer be shocked by the prejudices and injustices they witness. To Dolphus, it seems children have more moral outrage than adults.
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