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- Essay: To Kill A Mockingbird
-
- 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.
-
-
- This was Written solely by Brock P. Beal, of Toledo High School Toledo
- Washington. Thank you for using this. You have all the permission in
- the world. Thank you.
-