Pt. 2, ch. 22
“
"I think I'll be a clown when I get grown," said Dill. "Yes, sir, a clown.... There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off."
"You got it backwards, Dill," said Jem. "Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them."
"Well, I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks."
— Harper Lee
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets " "I think I'll be a clown when I get grown," said Dill. "Yes, sir, a clown.... There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off."
"You got it backwards, Dill," said Jem. "Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them."
"Well, I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks."" in the context of "Pt. 2, ch. 22" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Harper Lee" (Quotes, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962))
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
About Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926 – February 19, 2016) was an American novelist and author of the classic 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
About Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926 – February 19, 2016) was an American novelist and author of the classic 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
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