To Kill A Mockingbird Burris Ewell Character Analysis

In these first chapters of the book I have been reading “ To Kill A Mockingbird” I am introduced to a character named Burris Ewell. Him and his family have unique personalities. For example, the Ewells act like animals compared to the people Maycomb. When Scout was in class on her first day she met Burris Ewell. She said he was “filthiest human I had ever seen. His neck was dark gray, the backs of his hands were rusty, and his fingernails were black deep into the quick” (Lee 35). He was the source of “cooties” in the classroom. He even “searched the scalp above his forehead”(Lee 34) to find the rat that found company in his head. Mrs. Caroline herself told him “ you see, Burris the other children might catch them, and you wouldn’t want that,

Caroline asked Burris to spell his name he simply said “ Don't know how. They call me Burris’t home”(Lee 35). Its as they we're animals living in a civilized town. Even Burris said that he has “ been comin’ to the first day o’ the first grade for three years”(Lee 36). Since they only attend school for the “first day every year and then leave”, their education is tinted with a sense of failure. Another characterization of the Ewell family is that they are the poor and failures of Maycomb. On page 35 the Burris rudley says to Mrs. Caroline “you ain't sendin me home, missus” and later says to her “you try and make me, missus” (Lee 36) when she told him to sit down. They do not seem to have the capacity to be kindand have proper language. An example would be on page 37 when he told Caroline “Report and be damned to ye!” when she said he would be reported if he was not respectful. Furthermore, the whole Ewell family are disappointments and are the most irresponsible people in the town. Their father uses there his relief checks on whisky, and his kids are left to starve with hunger pains every day. It is nauseating and repulsive. Atticus told Scout that the Ewells have been a disgrace in Maycomb for three generations, and that none of them have had a honest job or day of day of work, that he can