In the widely known novel To Kill A Mockingbird there are two families that are very diverse and are text book examples of complete opposites on the moral ladder of success. The Cunninghams and the Ewells have two very distinct and opposite reputations. The Cunninghams which are very respected while the Ewells very much despised.
The Ewells are given the privilege to hunt out of season, so that the residents of the small town of Maycomb would not have to tolerate their continuous begging twenty-four hours a day for seven days a week. These two families show the respectability of hard workers or, in the Ewells case, can fill their peers with sorrow. The Cunninghams have pride, as for the Ewells, they have a natural like anarchist nature that will eventually haunt them and hurt others because of their lurid like attitude. The Cunningham’s are very respected by the citizen’s of Maycomb county.
The Cunninghams took nothing, unless they could pay it back. Walter the youngest in the Cunningham clan was in the same class at school as Scout Finch the daughter of Atticus Finch. While in school, a fresh young new school teacher known as Miss Caroline did not know the reputations of the predecessors of these two children. In what looked like a good day for the rookie teacher quickly turned into complete disarray and a total adversity trip for the teacher.
Walter Cunningham being raised in a very hard working environment was taught not to take what he could not pay back. The teacher obviously did not know about his background in the most minute way and embarrassed him extensively by almost demanding him to take some lunch money. Knowing that he could not pay Miss Caroline back in the way that she had in mind he knew that he could take the money which he wanted to take so bad. Walter eventually ended up eating with the Finch’s.
While eating at the Finch’s he did not know what to do with all of the food that they have offered to him. For example he drowned his waffles in a lake of syrup. Bob Ewell’s son, Burris was also faced in the same way but in an total opposite direction and purpose. The same day as the Walter Cunningham incident there was another incident concerning the Ewells.
Burris had “cooties.” A “cootie” came frantically flying out of the assumed Afro of Burris’s hair, and scared the overseer of the class, Miss Caroline. Miss Caroline quickly demanded that Burris go home and wash and scrub his hair with Kerosine. Burris coming from what seemed like a broken home and he had no pride so, he told the teacher off, made her cry, threatened her, and then left.
The Cunninghams are given special privileges. Cunninghams paid Atticus for some legal work that Atticus did with their farm, they paid him with food, and other services. The population of Maycomb county excepted this because they know that the family is very loyal, truthful and extremely hard working. The Cunningham’s would never take anything that they couldn’t payback equally or greater of value.
Then their are your slacking, lying, cootie infested, mooching Ewells. Bob Ewell is a total drunk, he takes what money he may have earned or stole and drinks it away. Mr. Ewell very rarely or if ever has bought or cooked his family a hot and total nutritious meal in his life.
The kids would basically shrivel up in the little shack that they live in and starve, if they did not have the privilege to hunt and eat the food that they kill. The Cunninghams were a family of truthfulness, loyalty and able to carry on great responsibilities. They did not want to hurt anyone, they were grateful for the people that had helped them on their journey of life. When the Cunninghams were wrong they admitted it, when they were right they didn’t show it.
They had great respect for anyone who walked on the face of the earth. But as usual the Ewells were just the opposite, they did not tell the truth on a consistent basis, and it wasted a human life. After the trial of Tom Robinson versus Mayella Ewell, the Ewells were ashamed because Mayella may have like a black negro, Bob Ewell caught them in the bedroom kissing and suspected the worse. He claimed that Tom raped his daughter and then beat her.
All of the bruises were on the right side of Mayella’s body, Tom had no left arm. It was Obvious that Tom did not do it. But the Ewells which were ashamed to admit it, costing Tom Robinson his life. He was very upset and was disgusted how long it took for the jury to deliberate.
He fought retribution against Atticus’s kids and hurt them coming back from a Halloween party. Bob Ewell could not stand that his word was barely good enough to overcome a black African American. The Cunninghams were very much respected by others because they kept their word, they would do anything to pay you back, they would help you, and never worry about what was in it for them. The Cunninghams renewed their resources by doing this, people were glad to help them.
As for the Ewells used up their resources, they scrounged around taking, taking, and taking from others and used up their resources. People were disgusted when they helped the Ewells. Both Cunninghams and Ewells had special privileges Cunninghams were able to pay people back with other things than just the American currency, while the Ewells were given privileges because people were ashamed of them. Cunninghams also never had to worry about getting themselves into trouble they never lied and were very hard workers, the Ewells were liars, and were too ashamed to stop the slandering of Tom Robinson before it came uncontrollable, costing Tom his life.
This story shows that Hard work is difficult and tough to maintain, but it will pay off, it maybe easier to beg and mooch like the Ewells but sooner or later the beggars and moochers have no where to turn, so they lie and cheat and quickly their life become corrupt, much like the Ewell’s.
