# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/41 "2018-02-20T14:11:35Z")
I’ve always been touched by one part of A Scanner Darkly: “But the actual touch of her lingered, inside his heart. That remained. In all the years of his life ahead, the long years without her, with never seeing her or hearing from her or knowing anything about her, if she was alive or happy or dead or what, that touch stayed locked within him, sealed in himself, and never went away. That one touch of her hand.” ---
**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:** [February 20, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/42 "2018-02-20T14:21:07Z")
The scene in To Kill A Mockingbird, after Scout walks Boo Radley home and she’s standing on his porch, imagining his thoughts as he watches the neighborhood from his window. She goes from “the children,” to “his children” when they run to meet their father. And then the corker: Summer, and he watched his children’s heart break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him. ---
**Author:** ![chaika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chaika/32/405_2.png) [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/43 "2018-02-20T14:23:21Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Unfortunately, I don’t have my copy of the book with me, but the scene where he’s watching her just sit quietly in the living room and says he feels as though he’s in the presence of “a small ghost”—I found that one pretty moving as well. It’s even worse (i.e., more devastating) than that. Humbert says he feels as though he is sitting “with the small ghost of somebody I had just killed.” Humbert is such a monster precisely because he knows exactly how much damage he is doing to Lolita but continues his abuse of her anyway. As he says, “You see, she had absolutely nowhere else to go.” Another brilliant, devastating line. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/44 "2018-02-20T15:34:30Z")
The scene in _A Wrinkle In Time_ when Meg realizes she’s the only one who can rescue Charles Wallace. There’s a haze between me and the monitor right now, just from thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/45 "2018-02-20T15:37:37Z")
> [@Satchmo](#): > > Almost as good, from the same novel, “My Chief told me to defend this run.” Nitpick: “Chief _Rabbit_,” but yeah, that one always chokes me up too. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/46 "2018-02-20T16:06:01Z")
The Young Lions, when Whitacre carries Ackerman’s body back and refuses to let anyone else help him. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/47 "2018-02-20T16:36:41Z")
I’m not an overly sentimental man, God knows, but I do have some weak spots. All the Weyrs of Pern. Essentially the end of McCaffrey’s Dragon books - at the time, anyway - and the death of Robinton slammed me in the heartstrings. He’d done everything he could, he’d accomplished what could be accomplished and it was slowly killing him. The use of Ecclesisastes 3 - To everything there is a season - was brutal there. ---
**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 20, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/48 "2018-02-20T16:44:56Z")
Another one is when Jane Sharp lets Alyce into her cottage at the very end of Karen Cushman’s _The Midwife’s Apprentice_. But these tears are happy. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/49 "2018-02-20T16:59:32Z")
The ending of _Of Mice and Men_ ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/50 "2018-02-20T17:00:08Z")
I’m a huge softy, apparently. Many of these and many more. On **Charlotte’s Web** : I omitted that single sentence when I read the book aloud to the Torqueling. It seemed to me enough to know that she died, which was heavily belabored for the whole chapter, without just rubbing it in at the end that she was alone too. That’s just needlessly cruel. One that hasn’t been mentioned yet, a relatively recent one: > [@](#): > > “We’ll go back to the cave,” he said. “You’re not going to die, Ygritte. You’re not.” > > “Oh.” Ygritte cupped his cheek with her hand. “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” she sighed, dying. And from the moment the repetition of “you know nothing” started in the text, I _knew_ it would be coming, but it still got me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/51 "2018-02-20T18:12:22Z")
Not one many would know, but the short SF story “I am Nothing” by Eric Frank Russell will get you. He sets you up for it and it still will get you. Well, me at least… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/52 "2018-02-20T19:17:11Z")
In THUD!, when it’s time for Vimes to read the nightly tale. For some reason it gets me every single time. Last couple times I made sure I had hankies handy before grabbing the book, because I hate having to go to the bathroom to get some when I already have problems seeing. ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/53 "2018-02-21T20:58:19Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > 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. ☹ In the same vein, there are multiple instances in McCammon’s _Boy’s Life_ which do it for me, both sad and happy. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/54 "2018-02-21T22:00:51Z")
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” ---
**Author:** ![CurrlyD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@CurrlyD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurrlyD)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/55 "2018-02-21T23:57:51Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > The ending of _Of Mice and Men_ You beat me to it. \ ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/56 "2018-02-22T00:32:35Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > In THUD!, when it’s time for Vimes to read the nightly tale. For some reason it gets me every single time. Last couple times I made sure I had hankies handy before grabbing the book, because I hate having to go to the bathroom to get some when I already have problems seeing. That was going to be mine. Getting kind of misted up just thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/57 "2018-02-22T01:20:24Z")
“I will take the Ring", he said, "though I do not know the way.” (JRR Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring) ---
**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 22, 2018, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/58 "2018-02-22T02:04:28Z")
I can’t believe I forgot one of the biggest ones for me. “I put Algernon’s body in a cheese box and buried him in the backyard.” Gah. I can hardly type that. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/59 "2018-02-22T07:50:49Z")
The fates of Tony and of Cheryl Taggart in ATLAS SHRUGGED. Except for the fact that he is found by Dagny in my head-canon, I’d add Eddie Willers also. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134/60 "2018-02-22T08:50:43Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Mine is also a Bujold. “Aftermaths” at the end of Shards of Honour, where they’re gathering the bodies from the battle. The bit with the wedding dress… Might as well jump on the Bujold train and mention the scene early in\* The Curse of Chalion\*, when Caz tells his story to the Provincara. I guess it’s still my favorite book of all time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scene-from-literature-brings-you-to-tears-open-spoilers/809134.md?page=4)