In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee introduces two families that reside on the outskirts of Maycomb County. The Ewells and the Cunninghams, two of the poorest families in Maycomb, despite their physical similarities are two very differently viewed families. The Ewells are despised because of their physical and behavioral filth while the Cunninghams are respected by the inhabitants of Maycomb County. They are both part of the lower class but they portray themselves differently, this is because they have different moral codes. The Ewells for many generations have lived off of the County Welfare; they take anything they can get without paying back the community unlike the Cunninghams whose moral code is not to take anything without being able to pay it back. The Ewells see themselves as victims of the community but instead the Cunninghams see themselves as a part of the community that they want to contribute too. The Cunninghams "are country folks, farmers, the crash hit them hardest" (Lee 27). They live very poorly but in Atticus' opinion "professional people were poor because the farmers were poor." (Lee 27) and they were considered as professional people. The Cunninghams were poor due to the great depression but still felt the need to give to the community because they felt that they were a part of it. Walter Cunningham who was a part of Scout's first grade class did not have much, in fact his "face told everybody in the first grade he had hookworms. His absence of shoes told us how he got them." (Lee 25). Also even though the Cunninghams were poor they still exhibited some form of class because Walter "did have on a clean shirt and neatly mended overalls." (Lee 25), when he attended school. The Cunninghams "don't have... ... middle of paper ... ...esults in the disrespectful, rude, abusive, and impolite behavior that possess them. Although the Cunninghams and Ewells are both poor families who struggle to feed their children their moral codes differ thus making them have many differences. The Cunninghams believe in reciprocity and do not take interest in what they gain from helping others, while the Ewells believe they are victims of Maycomb County. Their living situations make their behavior more evident. The Cunninghams living on a farm naturally work hard for their goods, but because of their poverty they only take what they can give back. The Ewells take advantage of the people in Maycomb; Bob Ewell uses his relief checks for alcohol. The principle that the Cunninghams respect is the same principle the Ewells ignore. Works Cited Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Grand Central, 1960. Print.
Scout learned a number of things in the book, but most of them all refer back to a statement that Atticus and Calpurnia said, which goes, “It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird because all they do is sing their hearts our for us.” (Lee, pg. 90). Scout learned that about people, too. She learned that some people don’t do anything to you, so it would be a sin to do something mean in return. Over the course of the story Scout becomes more mature and learns the most important facts of life. She was living through a very difficult time and most of that helped her get through.
One of the principal aims of To Kill a Mockingbird is to subject the narrator to a series of
In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main characters: Atticus, Scout and Jem were faced with many losing battles such as Tom Robinson's case, the "mad dog incident" and Mrs. Dubose's addiction to morphine. This builds on the theme of there are things in life that won't go your way. The book takes place in the 1930's or 1940's in a small town in Alabama called Maycomb. The novel takes us through the life and perils that the main characters undergo and teach us about growing up and being mature.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee seems like a complete replica of the lives of people living in a small Southern U.S. town. The themes expressed in this novel are as relevant today as when this novel was written, and also the most significant literary devices used by Lee. The novel brings forward many important themes, such as the importance of education, recognition of inner courage, and the misfortunes of prejudice. This novel was written in the 1930s. This was the period of the “Great Depression” when it was very common to see people without jobs, homes and food. In those days, the rivalry between the whites and the blacks deepened even more due to the competition for the few available jobs. A very famous court case at that time was the Scottsboro trials. These trials were based on the accusation against nine black men for raping two white women. These trials began on March 25, 1931. The Scottsboro trials were very similar to Tom Robinson’s trial. The similarities include the time factor and also the fact that in both cases, white women accused black men.
Childhood is a continuous time of learning, and of seeing mistakes and using them to change your perspectives. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee illustrates how two children learn from people and their actions to respect everyone no matter what they might look like on the outside. To Kill A Mockingbird tells a story about two young kids named Scout and her older brother Jem Finch growing up in their small, racist town of Maycomb, Alabama. As the years go by they learn how their town and a lot of the people in it aren’t as perfect as they may have seemed before. When Jem and Scout’s father Atticus defends a black man in court, the town’s imperfections begin to show. A sour, little man named Bob Ewell even tries to kill Jem and Scout all because of the help Atticus gave to the black man named Tom Robinson. Throughout the novel, Harper Lee illustrates the central theme that it is wrong to judge someone by their appearance on the outside, or belittle someone because they are different.
Racial discrimination, although not the main focus of To Kill a Mockingbird, plays a large role throughout the novel. Many characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are affected by racial discrimination, whether they are the cause or not. Throughout the novel, three characters stand out as being affected by racial discrimination the most. These characters are Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, Atticus Finch, and Tom Robinson.
Cunningham was a poor farmer and part of the mob that seeks to lynch Tom Robinson at the jail. They have their kids go to school, but they don’t have a bunch. His son, Walter Cunningham was a classmate of Scout’s but he has not passed first grade yet because he skips school every spring to help his father on the farm chop wood. Mr. Cunningham was really poor, but he worked firmly to keep his farm which was right outside of Maycomb. Like most farmers during the Great Depression, he owed oodles of money and paid it off by bringing any crops or plants he could spare from his farm and giving it to Atticus. One night the Finches invited Walter to dinner and he devoured it all and he drenched his food in syrup that was on the table. This shows how the Cunningham family is not always able to access their food. The kids will always be wondering where their next meal will be and when they will have it. The kids don’t always have their lunch with them, too. Instead of paying people back by the money they do it by giving materials they
The theme of these two chapters is that Dill, and Jem wanted to go to the Radely house to get a peep at Boo Radely through the blinds. Scout feels uneasy about it but despite Jem’s wishes refuses to go home. He gets shot at with a gun while trying to escape. He lost his pants while escaping and when he went back to get them they where laid out on the fence like they where expecting Jem to come back. The next day every body was talking about it, they all thought Mr. Radely shot at a black man but missed. It seemed like Mr. Radely knew it was Jem though. Jem and Nathan Radley each said hi and Mr. Radely was talking about filling his tree with cement even though it was perfectly healthy. Jem found this strange.
Other than the obvious theme of racism, the movie also touches on the prejudices between social classes and education are seen throughout the movie as well. The behavior and manners of the Cunningham family is what definitely sets them apart from the Ewell family. Although both households are penniless, the Cunningham’s tries to have a neat outward appearance, while the Ewell’s are absolutely untidy. This contrast is noticeable on Scout’s first day of school. Walter Cunningham is wearing a tidy clean shirt and restored overalls; Burris Ewell has dirty neck and face, black fingernails, with bugs in his hair. Both Cunningham’s and Ewell’s are uneducated and they sometime don’t attend school for different reasons.
Hypocrisy is as much a part of Maycomb’s society as church and community spirit. For example, Mrs. Merriweather talks about saving the poor Mruans from Africa, but she thinks black people in her community are a disgrace (p.234). The hypocrisy of this teaching is shown as soon as she mentions the word ‘persecution’. This is due to the fact that she herself is persecuting the black people of Maycomb by not raising an eyebrow at the killing of innocent black men. Furthermore, it is obvious Bob Ewell is abusive to his daughter, Mayella, and that he is the one who violated her, not Tom Robinson (p.178). Since there is such hypocrisy in Maycomb, there are excuses made for whites. The jury probably thinks that if they pronounce Tom innocent the citizens will mock them as they do to Atticus. Harper Lee uses hypocrisy to show how the people of Maycomb are so engulfed in a variety of elements that they unknowingly complete acts of unjustified discrimination.
Mood helps in creating an atmosphere in a literary work by means of setting, theme, diction and tone. Throughout the book To kill a mockingbird the author wanted the mood to be sorrowful or vexed or just fret about how the people are acting because seeing how things were being treated or how people acted would be enough to make you feel angry or sad or worried for the people who were in the book. You always wanted to know what was going to come next or how something would end. Vex was a very prominent mood in this story and is definitely the most relevant.
In the opening chapters of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Harper Lee introduces several subtle instances of racism. However, when Jem and Scout are welcomed into Cal’s Church in chapter 12, the reader really gets to travel behind the false disguise of Maycomb County’s white society to see the harsh realities of the injustices suffered by the blacks. The black community is completely separate from the whites -- in fact, Cal lives in a totally different part of town!
To begin with, the Cunninghams are a family that exemplifies how money and class can be a near impossible boundary to overcome. While they are a family with commendable values, such as never accepting something they cannot pay back, they can never be as good as some of the other townspeople. This is simply because the Cunninghams have less money than most. Additionally, a family that finds it hard to overcome the boundary of class is the Ewell family. While Bob Ewell has dragged his family into the situation of poverty and recklessness they are in, the children are now trapped in a class that is looked down upon by everyone but African Americans. Nobody in Maycomb County will associate themselves with the children, which becomes apparent in the trial when Mayella is questioned about having friends her own age and responds with “You makin’ fun o’me agin, Mr. Finch?” (208). By Mayella’s hostile and defensive reaction, it can be deemed that she doesn’t have friends. This all shows that the Ewell children have a barrier around them that unjustly isolates them from all the other white people of Maycomb based on their poverty and father. Lastly, boundaries of class are maintained by the women of Maycomb County, particularly Aunt Alexandria. The most important thing to Aunt Alexandria is heritage, which creates an unjust way of judging people based on the actions of those who have come before them. She shows how important silly things can be to those who need another reason to feel they are better than others, therefore perpetuating the social class system of Maycomb. As it has been clearly demonstrated, class is a boundary in Maycomb
Without a doubt, Atticus is one of the few people that lives in Maycomb, that is usually very accepting and understanding about the outcasts of Maycomb basically, tolerable. However, he makes many comments about the Ewells throughout the book, surprisingly. For example, after Scout’s first day of school she notices that the Ewells are treated very differently from the rest of Maycomb. She decides to speak to Atticus about it and ask about the Ewells. And later, Scout explains, “Atticus said that Ewells had been a disgrace to Maycomb for three generations. None of them had done an honest day of work in his recollection… they were people but they lived like animals…” (40) The Ewells get separated from the rest of society and are seen as outsiders. Atticus explains, “they lived like animals”. Basically, this comment demeans them and where they stand in society. Also the comment shows that they are even looked like animals instead of people. In addition, the Ewells live right next to the town’s dump, and they are very rarely seen, in fact, the Ewell’s usually only go to school for the first day. Apparently, the Ewells were even given “privileges” or “special treatment” by the government. An example of this is that, for the Ewells, it isn’t mandatory to participate in school, and they are allowed to hunt regardless of the law that forbids it. As I have said, these actions are what cause people to look at them as “others” and just another group of outcasts. To sum this up, the Ewells aren’t included in society hence, making them “others” and Atticus even proves how they are viewed in the society of
The Cunninghams are very poor people, but very honest as well. The Cunninghams have no money at all, as Scout was describing them, "[they] have probably never seen three quarters together at the same time in [their] life"(23). It is certain that the Cunninghams live a poor life, but that does not stop them from being honest. The Cunninghams do not take anything from anyone if they do not have a way to repay them. In the class when Ms.Caroline was giving Walter a coin, Walter did not take it because he knew that it was impossible to reimburse her. I judged that it is really mature for a child to act that way. I also admired how the Cunninghams were able to endure by giving crops to people as a form of payment. When Atticus helps Sr.Walter with his entailment, Walter does not pay him back with money, but with crops.