To Kill A Mockingbird Ewell Family Essay

Economic classes can have a big impact on what a family is like. For example, there’s the Ewell family, a family who are described as “dirty faced ones” (Lee 228), who live in an old cabin behind the dump. However, there’s also the Cunningham family, who’s also poor, but much nicer than the Ewells. The Finch family is doing financially better than both other families. In the book, the Ewell family’s hygiene is described, “no public health officer could free them from congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to filthy surroundings,” (Lee 227). From this and various other information we can infer that the Ewell family isn’t the richest in town. When Burris Ewell is introduced in the third chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird we get the impression that his father isn’t around much, and that there was no one to teach him manners. Back in the 1930s when the novel takes place women were treated very respectfully, so when Burris calls Ms. Caroline a slut Ms. Caroline is surprised-and rightfully so. Stereotypically, mothers teach their children manners, so when we

When he doesn't accept the quarter Ms. Caroline offers him, Scout jumps in, saying, “The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back,” (Lee 26). While the Ewell family doesn’t get any help because people don’t offer because of their attitudes, the Cunningham’s don’t get any help because they simply don’t want something that they can’t pay back, but when they do pay something back, they pay back in services. For example, the Cunninghams paid Atticus back in stovewood, hickory nuts, and turnip greens, just to name a few, for an entailment. Now although the Cunninghams are poor like the Ewells, they don’t have the same attitude and level of politeness. Their surrounding when growing up may have something to do with that. While the Ewells grew up behind a dump, while the Cunninghams live on a