What is something Dill cries about, understands, hears, and hopes in To Kill a Mockingbird?it has to be things that are of importance in the book.

One particular incident in Chapter 19 shows something very important that Dill hears and understands, and it reduces him to sobs. After listening to Mr. Gilmer question Tom Robinson at the trial, Dill is sickened by the cruelty of Gilmer's treatment of Tom. The prosecutor bullies Tom on the stand, and Tom is powerless to defend himself by standing up to Gilmer. When Tom answers one specific question honestly, daring to disagree with Gilmer, the prosecutor slaps him down, demeaning him: "Are you being impudent to me, boy?" Tom immediately replies humbly, "No suh, I didn't go to be."

It is at this point that Jem makes Scout take Dill outside:

For some reason Dill had started crying and couldn't stop; quietly at first, then his sobs were heard by several people in the balcony.

Once outside, Dill tries to pull himself together, then explains to Scout and Dolphus Raymond nearby why he had become so upset: "That old Mr. Gilmer doin' him thataway, talking so hateful to him--" When Scout tries to explain that Gilmer was doing his job, like Atticus, Dill explains further:

Well, Mr. Finch didn't act that way to Mayella and old man Ewell when he cross-examined them. The way that man called him "boy" all the time an' sneered at him, an' looked around at the jury every time he answered-- . . . . "I don't care one speck [that Tom is a Negro]. It ain't right, somehow it ain't right to do 'em that way. Hasn't anybody got any business talkin' like that--it just makes me sick.

In the courtroom, Dill had heard the ugly voice of racism and understood it for the evil it is. The injustice and cruelty of it made him cry and made him sick. He understood Tom's fear and powerlessness, and he understood Gilmer's arrogance and persecution.

One incident that shows Dill's hopes occurs when he runs away from his parents' house and travels many miles back to Maycomb, showing up late at night, tired, dirty, and hungry. Dill comes back to Atticus's house because it is the only place he thinks of as home, the place where he as found acceptance, affection, and respect. He hopes desperately that he will be allowed to stay.