The main character description for Walter Cunningham is in chapter two and the description for Burris Ewell is in chapter three. These chapters portray Scout's first day of first grade and center around two boys who represent two major families in Maycomb county. First, Walter Cunningham comes from a very honorable family of farmers, but they are very poor, so their children go to school hungry. Burris Ewell is also poor and hungry but he comes from a dishonorable family whose father drinks away their money while the kids scavenge for food in the county dump. Both boys don't attend school as much as they should; however, Walter misses school to work on the farm while Burris misses simply because his father won't make him go.
Another similarity between the boys is that they are both prone to diseases because they don't take baths, nor do they have the clothing they need to keep away disease, such as shoes. For example, Walter doesn't have the money for a pair of shoes; as a result, he shows up to school with hookworms:
"Walter Cunningham's face told everybody in the first grade he had hookworms. His absence of shoes told us how he got them. People caught hookworms going barefooted in barnyards and hog wallows. If Walter had owned any shoes he would have worn them the first day of school and then discarded them until mid-winter. He did have on a clean shirt and neatly mended overalls" (19).
Burris also comes to school with an issue due to the lack of washing--cooties, or lice.
"The cootie's host showed not the faintest interest in the furor he had wrought. He searched the scalp above his forehead, located his guest and pinched it between his thumb and forefinger" (26).
Burris Ewell is then asked to go home to wash when he disrespectfully yells at his teacher, Miss Caroline, "I done done my time for this year" (27). Miss Caroline then attempts to keep Burris in school when Chuck Little explains Burris further as follows:
"Let him go, ma'am. . . He's a mean one, a hard-down mean one. He's liable to start somethin', and there's some little folks here" (27).
This short testimonial shows how disrespectful, mean, and dishonorable the Ewells can get. It also shows how the community just lets them go on their way to avoid a conflict. Walter Cunningham, on the other hand, is a respectful boy who wouldn't backtalk a teacher for anything in the world. He has been taught respect and honor, even if he is hungry. He doesn't say it for himself, but Scout explains as follows:
"The Cunninghams never took anything they can't pay back--no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have. They don't have much, but they get along on it" (20).
Therefore, the Cunninghams have a sense of honor even though they have a difficult time feeding themselves; but the Ewells aren't taught to be respectful or honorable. It all comes down to how a child is taught to behave at home. Both boys are poor and hungry, but one is taught respect while the other is allowed to run wild.
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