"You're tearing me apart!"
Jim screams these words after listening to his parents and grandmother bicker in circles in front of the policeman. One of the film's most famous moments, the line is a literal cry for help, and an anguished exclamation that emphasizes Jim's fragmented sense of self. The line signals an abrupt break from Jim's earlier behavior in the scene, in which he is mostly jocular, gentle, and soft-spoken.
"You, you say one thing, he says another, and everybody changes back again!"
This line reveals how Jim's parents are more interested in scoring points in petty, inter-familial arguments than they are in genuinely helping Jim with his problems. As a result, their advice has no consistency, and merely functions as a way to air their own grievances with each other.
"She’ll outgrow it, dear. It’s just the age . . .It’s the age when nothing fits."
Judy's mother utters this line, which reveals that she understands, at least in part, the awkwardness of adolescence—the way that young adults are poised precariously between childhood and maturity. Her belief that Judy will "outgrow" her problems echoes Jim's father's line that Jim's problems will seem petty in ten years.
“A girl wants a man who is gentle and sweet who doesn’t run away.”
Judy's line suggests that she (and perhaps American women more broadly) were beginning to desire a new type of man that was directly at odds with the conventional notions of American masculinity. The rise of actors like James Dean, Marlon Brando and, especially, Montgomery Clift, who were as sensitive as they were strong, presented a clear alternative to the John Wayne-esque model of masculinity that characterizes Judy's father.
“I want answers now. I’m not interested in what I’ll understand ten years from now.”
Jim's line emphasizes the visceral, immediate quality of his problems, which his father refuses to acknowledge. Whereas Ray recognizes the extremity of Jim's emotional state by counseling him to punch and kick his table, Jim's father is unable to grasp the sort of outlet that Jim needs.
“You shouldn’t believe what I say when I'm with the rest of the kids.”
Judy is admitting here that her behavior is often insincere, and that she affects a cold, cynical demeanor in order to fit in with her peer group. Judy’s choices of words is also telling, in that she calls the gang "kids," emphasizing their immature, rowdy qualities in relation to Jim's more evolved maturity.
“They make mush out of him. Just mush. One thing I know is I never want to be like him.”
Jim actively wonders how one can be gentle and kind without sacrificing power and authority, which is what he feels has happened to his father. This is one of the prime questions driving Jim's attempts to forge a model of masculinity with which he feels comfortable.
“Someone oughta put poison in her Epsom salts.”
The “her” is Jim's grandmother. Her haughty and domineering manner created the mush that is Jim’s own father; Jim’s mother merely follows the template handed her. Within this quote there is a poisonous anger about the way that men are treated, but also about the expectations that are placed upon men. The real poison here is the way that Grandmother’s devotion to control has upset the balance and understanding of gender roles in the Stark household.
"Are you going to stop me from going?”
A desperate plea for boundaries is rejected by Jim’s father, whose response is merely the rhetorical response of “When did I ever stop you from doing anything.” Here is the epicenter of the lack of communication. Jim wants to be denied the right to do as he pleases, but his dad fails to understand the power of no.
"Drown them like puppies."
Jim Stark recites this line in a Mr. Magoo voice, an impression James Dean learned from Jim Backus, the actor who plays Frank Stark. The line comes after Judy asks Jim what to do about troublesome children. The line, which is delivered as a joke, also reflects one of the film's most significant themes—namely, the inability of adults to understand children, and their propensity to dismiss or trivialize their concerns.
