Atticus had said it was the polite thing to talk to people about what they were interested in, not about what you were interested in.
– Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 15. Scout uses this tactic to distract and calm the angry mob confronting Atticus, determined to take “justice” into their own hands by breaking Tom Robinson out of jail and lynching him. She calls out to mob leader Walter Cunningham, a former client of Atticus, and talks about Mr. Cunningham’s legal entailments problem and his nice son who is a classmate of hers. Cunningham then ends the confrontation. Scout shows a special kind of courage here.