To Kill A Mockingbird II Essay, Research Paper

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.