# What scene from literature brings you to tears? (Open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134 "2018-02-19T18:23:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zyanthia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Zyanthia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyanthia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/1 "2018-02-19T18:23:10Z")
I was re-reading the Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, and I knew what was coming, and I still cried at the choosing of Vanyel. I was curious, if any of y’all have a scene in a book that gets to you every time you read it, no matter how many times you read it? Mine is the aforementioned choosing of Vanyel with the deaths of Old Dan and Little Ann being a close second. I think the third would be the at the end of Divided Allegiance (Book 2 - Deed of Paksenarrion), when Paksenarrion, stripped of her powers, finds the ability to care about others more than herself and we learn about it from the Marshals’ letters. I figure since I’m asking for scenes from literature that move you, I better label the thread as open spoilers. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/2 "2018-02-19T18:30:06Z")
Still trying not to spoil anything, I’ll say when Hazel goes with his visitor at the end of Watership Down. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/3 "2018-02-19T18:35:21Z")
Oh! And from [Code Name Verity](https://www.amazon.com/Verity-Edgar-Allen-Awards-Awards/dp/1423152190/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=), “kiss me quick!” Actually, I cried a lot during that one. It’s a wonderful book but I don’t know when I’ll be ready to read it again. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/4 "2018-02-19T18:48:31Z")
Robert Heinlein’s short story “The Man Who Traveled in Elephants” has a scene that always makes me cry a little. The storie’s protagonist is watching a huge parade, an assembly of all the best local traditions from around the US. At one point there is a group of elderly military veterans passing. Some must ride because _“merciful Heaven forgive us, they could not walk.”_ I suppose you have to read the whole story to get the mood, but I always cry a little there. At the end of the story, when the protagonist sees what awaits him in the parade, I always have a happy tear or two. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/5 "2018-02-19T18:58:35Z")
Travis has to shoot Old Yeller. My teacher read this one out loud to us. No warning. Jesus. Beth dies in Little Women. I’m fifty-freaking-six and I break down like a three year old. Red Sky at Morning when Arnold comes home and his mother has received the telegram from the war office. Actually, making me cry is pretty easy. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/6 "2018-02-19T19:19:03Z")
I’ll admit I got a little teary-eyed at the end of Octavia Butler’s _Wild Seed_, though those were tears of joy. ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/7 "2018-02-19T19:20:13Z")
That specific excerpt from Carl Sagan’s [Pale Blue Dot.](http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/earth/pale-blue-dot.html) This paragraph sets me up… _“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”_ … and the next paragraph has me teary. Part of it is in celebration of Sagan’s introspective look at mankind. But more meaningful is the sadness in it all. I weep for the tragedy that envelops humanity. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/8 "2018-02-19T19:23:31Z")
In The Stand when Glenn arranges a makeshift Christmas for Tom Cullen. M-O-O-N that spells touching. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/9 "2018-02-19T22:01:54Z")
“He expressed himself as well as a man violently in love can be expected to.” ::tears of swoon ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/10 "2018-02-19T22:05:00Z")
The last paragraph of The Star (Arthur C Clarke). ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/11 "2018-02-19T22:06:05Z")
_The Man in the Iron Mask_, by Alexandre Dumas, when D’Artagnan has to choose between the real king and the imposter. It is not as easy a choice as the movies make it. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/12 "2018-02-19T22:26:57Z")
_In This House of Brede_, by Rumer Godden–when Dame Philippa tells how her son died. _The Warrior’s Apprentice_, by Lois McMaster Bujold–when Miles tells his father why he became a mercenary. _Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon_, by Spider Robinson–when Jake says he used to have a wife and daughter. Then he fixed his own brakes. “I saved thirty dollars, easy.” ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/13 "2018-02-19T22:28:21Z")
_The Golden Compass_, and the death of Hester and Lee Scoresby. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/14 "2018-02-19T22:36:12Z")
If you can get through the final chapters of Robert R McCammon’s _ **Gone South** _ without tearing up, there really is something wrong with you. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/15 "2018-02-19T22:56:57Z")
In the collection _Nine Tomorrows_, Isaac Asimov included the short story “The Ugly Little Boy”. The entire last page, which ends with the sentence “And statis was punctured, and the room was empty”. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/16 "2018-02-19T23:01:18Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > _In This House of Brede_, by Rumer Godden–when Dame Philippa tells how her son died. > > _Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon_, by Spider Robinson–when Jake says he used to have a wife and daughter. Then he fixed his own brakes. “I saved thirty dollars, easy.” Oh I know these two! I don’t cry, but I do get very sad. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/17 "2018-02-19T23:07:49Z")
When Harry Potter learns the truth about his scar and the fact that he must die to fully defeat Voldemort. His decision to go to Volemort anyway is powerful. Combine that with the fact he sees and talks to his parents on the way and… I have something in my eye. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/18 "2018-02-19T23:36:29Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Still trying not to spoil anything, I’ll say when Hazel goes with his visitor at the end of Watership Down. Almost as good, from the same novel, “My Chief told me to defend this run.” And from Animal Farm “Boxer has fallen!” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/19 "2018-02-19T23:44:16Z")
**Charlotte’s Web.** “No one was with her when she died.” ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/20 "2018-02-19T23:47:41Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Oh! And from [Code Name Verity](https://www.amazon.com/Verity-Edgar-Allen-Awards-Awards/dp/1423152190/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=), “kiss me quick!” Actually, I cried a lot during that one. It’s a wonderful book but I don’t know when I’ll be ready to read it again. > [@Satchmo](#): > > And from Animal Farm “Boxer has fallen!” Those are two books I will NEVER reread because they affect me too deeply. My first thought was the ending of James Joyce’s “The Dead.” The last paragraph is probably my favorite piece of prose. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134.md?page=2)