# Ever cry at a passage in a novel or short story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262 "2008-11-24T16:26:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/61 "2008-11-26T16:06:04Z")
Great - now I’m getting misty-eyed just reading this thread. All the time. The one I used to go back to as a teen when I needed an outlet was _Little Women_ - Beth’s death scene, of course. More recently, various passages in various _Discworld_ books can reliably tear me up. The Grey Havens in _ROTK_ gets me every time as well. Smokey’s fate at the end of _Little, Big_ is a huge tearjerker for me. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/62 "2008-11-28T16:37:55Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I have read the entire _Chronicles of Narnia_ series multiple times- as a child myself and to three children, over the years. > > At the end of the last book, _The Last Battle_, even before we discover the truth about the children I start weeping and can barely read the final paragraphs. My kids were always confused because they didn’t realize anything was amiss. > > (Intentionally vague for anyone who hasn’t read it yet…) What makes me weep in the Chronicles is in Book IV, when King Caspian dies. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/63 "2008-11-28T16:58:12Z")
_To Kill a Mockingbird_–When Scout is standing on the Radley porch after walking Boo home. She is imaging how the street and people looked from Boo’s point of view. She starts with describing herself and brother Jem as “the children,” then as Atticus’s children (A man walked up the street and his children ran to meet him). It ends with “Summer, and he watched his children’s hearts break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him.” ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/64 "2008-11-28T17:01:57Z")
I’m a man, godammit: men don’t cry. But I might have misted over ever so slightly at the end of Brideshead Revisited, where Julia tells Charles she can never love him. After all they’ve been through, they deserved some happiness. It’s a truly, exquisitely deep well of sadness. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/65 "2008-11-28T17:28:42Z")
I’ve only cried once when reading a book. It was a novel by Geoff Ryman called _Was_; there are lots of different plots running through it but the theme that connects them all is _The Wizard of Oz_. The bit that actually made me cry was: When Dorothy, who has been neglected by her Aunt Em and molested by Uncle Henry so often that she doesn’t even care any more, is being spoken to by Aunt Em. She sits with her whilst Dorothy is lying in the barn where she sleeps, staring at nothing out of sheer lack of will, and strokes her face in a lone moment of empathy and says “What did we do to you, Dorothy?” I cried to hard that my father and step mother who I was staying with at the time were really worried about me until I stopped sobbing enough to explain it was because of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/66 "2008-11-28T17:55:03Z")
The entire wrapup of Lloyd Alexander’s _The Chronicles of Prydain._ ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/67 "2008-11-28T18:34:29Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > has anyone not gotten misty reading little women? Every time and I’ve been reading that book about once a year for 55 years. And Matthew’s death in Anne of Green Gables. And a million other books and stories. The last bit of John O’Hara’s short story “Mrs. Stratton of Oak Knoll”, that gets me every time. Every time. As Gandalf says: “Not all tears are an evil”. “Tears are the very wine of blessedness” Tolkien says, and that makes me cry, too. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/68 "2008-11-28T19:49:14Z")
Oh lord yes. After the September 11th attacks, I worked so hard at holding it together when the kids were watching that even if I had some time to myself I couldn’t cry. Finally I realized I was not doing myself any favors and got _Kristin Lavransdatter_ down off the shelf. I read the section where first little Erlend, then Erlend sr, then little Munan all die, one after another…and bawled for half an hour. I think it did me a lot of good. Sniff. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/69 "2008-11-28T19:56:22Z")
He made her play and she had almost forgotten how. Life had been so hard and so bitter.–Gone With The Wind ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/70 "2008-11-28T20:09:49Z")
_The Two Towers_ Boromir opened his eyes and strove to speak. At last slow words came. “I tried to take the ring from Frodo,” he said. “I am sorry. I have paid.” … He paused and his eyes closed wearily. After a moment he spoke again. “Farewell, Aragorn! Go to Minas Tirith and save my people! I have failed.” “No!” said Aragorn, taking his hand and kissing his brow. “You have conquered. Few have gained such a victory. Be at peace! Minas Tirith shall not fall!” Boromir smiled. “Which way did they go? Was Frodo there?” said Aragorn. But Boromir did not speak again. and . . . Of course, it is likely enough, my friends, that we are going to our doom: the last march of the Ents. But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later. That thought has long been growing in our hearts; and that is why we are marching now. It was not a hasty resolve. Now at least the last march of the Ents may be worth a song. Aye, we may help the other peoples before we pass away. Still, I should have liked to see the songs come true about the Entwives. I should dearly have liked to see Fimbrethil again. But there, my friends, songs like trees bear fruit only in their own time and their own way: and sometimes they are withered untimely. There are actually a lot of spots in _Lord of the Rings_, but not all get me consistantly; these do. ---
**Author:** ![lucky\_henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lucky\_henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucky_henry)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/71 "2008-11-28T20:41:13Z")
I read “Reader’s Digest” every month and there never fails to be at least one article or story that makes me tear up. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/72 "2008-11-28T21:42:30Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > I’ve never made it through “The Scarlet Ibis,” without turning into a puddle. For about the third time in history, **Hazle** , GET OUTTA MY HEAD. I can still quote the opening lines and I still tear up with the picture they paint – of the story and of the time in my life when I first read them. > [@](#): > > Summer was dead, but autumn had not yet been born when the ibis came to the bleeding tree. It’s strange that all this is so clear to me, now that time has had its way. But sometimes (like right now) I sit in the cool green parlor, and I remember Doodle. Junot Diaz’s book of short stories, _Drown_, is a peculiar book in this way. Filled with humor, there are passages during which, in the middle of chuckling, I get misty eyed. For some reason this happened to me during the story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl or Halfie,” which I recommend to anybody. Another quite poignant tale was the title story. which tells up two friends growing up and growing apart. The main character, in the midst of losing something he values, attempts to hang on to it the best way he can – ensuring he’ll lose it anyway. The absolute pathos conveyed in Diaz’s spare and econcomical writing is pure poetry and the rendering of this time period puts the _ache_ in _heartache_ and I shed a tear – or three – for things that are lost to my youth and moving on. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/73 "2008-11-28T21:42:55Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > _To Kill a Mockingbird_–When Scout is standing on the Radley porch after walking Boo home. She is imaging how the street and people looked from Boo’s point of view. She starts with describing herself and brother Jem as “the children,” then as Atticus’s children (A man walked up the street and his children ran to meet him). It ends with “Summer, and he watched his children’s hearts break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him.” **Annie** , you’re just a bit stouter hearted than I: I got all weepy-eyed at the simple line when Atticus introduces the kids’ to their mysterious neighbor; Scout just says “Hi, Boo.” My favorite line in one of my favorite books. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/74 "2008-11-28T22:31:19Z")
The two that make me cry without fail clearly have that effect on other Dopers too. _A Prayer for Owen Meaney_ by John Irving- everything has been foreshadowed, and we know it is coming- but _damn_ that is sad. _The Time Traveller’s Wife-_ the last 25% of that book makes me cry every time I read it. The pregnancies, the up-coming death, the birth, everything. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/75 "2008-11-28T22:43:04Z")
I cry a lot during movies and in real life, but have only ever cried twice while reading. The first was during Stephen King’s _Misery_ (the part where she does that really bad thing to him as punishment) and the second was a children’s book that I read to all my kids as babies, called “I’ll Love You Forever”, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Claptree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Claptree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claptree)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/76 "2008-11-28T23:19:10Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > On reflection, the climax of _The Grey King_ from the _Dark is Rising_ series came close. Both of these involve dogs, oddly enough. This. So very this. I keep going back to **Memories of Ice** by Stephen Erikson. Itkovian, sworn to take the pain and suffering of mortal souls and pass them on to a god that has been ousted, has to bear the 300’000 years of suffering of the T’lan Imass. “I am not yet done.” Hmm, that makes very little sense. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/77 "2008-11-28T23:37:27Z")
> [@Enterprise](#): > > **Annie** , you’re just a bit stouter hearted than I: I got all weepy-eyed at the simple line when Atticus introduces the kids’ to their mysterious neighbor; Scout just says “Hi, Boo.” My favorite line in one of my favorite books. One of my favorites, too. Small nitpick: She says, “Hey, Boo.” Like a proper southern girl! 🙂 I cry at everything. I haven’t read most of what is here, but just because _y’all_ are teary-eyed, I am too! Sometimes I think I’m too empathetic. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/78 "2008-11-28T23:42:21Z")
> [@FaerieBeth](#): > > Oh God, yes. > In _Outlander_, I cried when Claire had to leave Jaime in the dungeon…and then later in the book, when he cried while telling her what happened afterward and that she must leave him and go back. > In _The Fiery Cross_, I cried when they found Roger at the wrong end of a new rope, and in _A Breath of Snow and Ashes_, I cried when they rescued Claire from her kidnapping, and when Brianna, in the rowboat, paid her final visit to Stephen Bonnet . I also cried at the very end, when they pry open the wooden box, Brianna smells the homemade paper with the dried flowers and says “Mama…” > Diana Gabaldon has a habit of leaving me in a tear stained puddle. The next book is called _An Echo in the Bone_, she’s apparently finished it, and it’s at the publisher’s now. > **[DianaGabaldon.com](http://www.dianagabaldon.com/)** > > Season 8 Began on March 6! Stream Outlander and Blood of My Blood on Starz starting at $6.99 a month in the U.S. Links to Season 8 Premiere Images and Official Trailer Monday, March 30, 2026 Somewhat belated, but finally stumbled across a photo with... ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/79 "2008-11-28T23:46:27Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Last time I got all misty over fiction was while reading John Ringo’s _A Hymn before Battle_ when Mike improvises an anti-matter satchel charge to take out the Posleen Battle Dec but doesn’t have time to make a timer so he has to set it off by hand. > Heroic sacrifice gets me every time. Not me , I usually concider those scenes to be derigeur for the hero. What did get me was the scene in Gust Front when Fredricksburg is the projected landing spot for the posleen and he zooms in on a family that has decided that its time to go away. So they engage the self destruct device and go back to reading peter rabbit to their child. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/80 "2008-11-29T01:54:10Z")
There are a few passages in this, my favorite novel, that move me to tears. One in particular involves a description of the young artist using nothing but cigarette ashes to create shadow and depth in a drawing. Being held in the grasp of a gift beyond one’s ability to fully control it is quite compelling. That story just wrecks me. What else? Cried like a baby at the end of “The Notebook”. 🙂 E.T.A. Time Traveller’s Wife? Yeah. Sniffly in the end. For sure. Cartooniverse [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262.md?page=5)