Essay, Research Paper: 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.