The Three Families in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Essay

The Cunninghams can never took anything they cannot pay back. “I asked Atticus if Mr. Cunningham would ever pay us. ‘Not in money’ Atticus said. One morning Jem and I found a load of stove wood in the backyard. Later, a sack of hickory nuts appeared on the back steps. With Christmas came a crate of smilax and holly” (Lee,20). Even if Mr. Cunningham could not pay back Atticus, he is still a nice, respectful man that was willing to pay Atticus back in any way he could because he could not afford to pay in money. Therefore, Bob Ewell is a drunk and does not take care of his kids while Mr. Cunningham is a kind honorable man that is willing to pay Atticus in any way he could for his

It’s interesting to see the ways different authors depict how a character matures. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird we can easily see how she chose to do it. The novel is set in Alabama in the 1930’s, while black vs. white racism was a big issue and problem for many. Atticus is the father of Scout and Jem, young children who witness the discrimination first hand when their father, a white man, defends a black man in court. Lee does a great job developing the characters; especially the narrator, Jean Louise Finch (Scout). Scout’s thoughts, conversations, and actions, illustrate that she’s emotionally maturing from the innocent child that she was.

From this quote, one can deduce that Burris has little respect for neither his teacher nor school regulations, which is crude and vulgar, along with being plainly impolite. The last reason Burris can be considered vulgar is due to his swearing and name-calling. An example of this can be found after Burris challenges Miss Caroline’s authority and she threatens to report him. As a response, he calls her terrible names, yelling “report and be damned to ye! Ain’t no snot-nosed slut of a schoolteacher ever born e’n make me do nothin’!” (Lee 37). This reply clearly displays Burris swearing, name-calling, and being unneedlessly cruel to Miss Caroline, an act of vulgarity in its purest form. Along with Burris being vulgar, the entirety of the Ewell family has shown evidence of being poor. The first piece of evidence is the Ewell’s apparent lack of education. It is shown that Burris himself does not know how to spell his own name, and Ewells only come to school on the first day. This supports the assumption that the Ewells are poor, as a lack of education is one of the foremost signs of

Although deemed by most to be a good parent, Atticus’ lack of supervision affects his children Scout and Jem and even exposes them to danger. Atticus is not a perfect father. He has a full time job that restricts him from being around his kids for most of the day and also puts them in a dangerous position. When Atticus agreed to take on the ‘Tom Robinson case’ he knew full well that he was going to have a lot of tension with people, and even though he did the the right thing by defending an innocent man despite his colour, some may argue that he puts his beliefs before the welfare of his children. This puts the kids in danger because Atticus while losing the case still makes Bob Ewell embarrassed by being shown up like the way he was. This causes a hatred that provokes Bob to hurt Atticus in the deepest possible way, by attacking his children. It was Atticus’ call to decide that he would send Jem to the pageant instead of himself, and that was what ultimately gave Mr. Ewell his chance to get back at Atticus. This shows that Atticus is not the perfect father, if there is such a thing, but proves that even Atticus has flaws or faults to foresee

The book "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a story of life in an Alabama town in the 30's. The narrator, Jean Louise Finch, or Scout, is writing of a time when she was young, and the book is in part the record of a childhood, believed to be Harper Lee’s, the author of the book..

They are, and have been, the rudest and most disrespectful family in Maycomb for three generations. An example of this would be Burris Ewell. When attending class on the first day, he frightens the teacher with his state of uncleanliness. Scout even states that he, “was the filthiest human I had ever seen…His neck was dark gray… his fingernails were black” (Lee 29). When the teacher tries to send him home to clean up, Burris meanly tells her that this is the one and only day that he is ever going to come to school, leaving her distraught and in tears. In addition to talking back, Burris and his family resist going to school. They only go on the first day because the truant lady threatens to report them to the police. The whole family seems to follow their own set of rules instead of society. Their dad, Bob Ewell, hunts in the winter, which is against the law, and gets away with it because his kids would starve otherwise. In addition, the Ewell family doesn’t have a mother to set them right, which is mostly why Burris and all of his siblings only show up for the first day of school, the rest of the year is spent “Living like animals” (Lee 33). I must say that I agree with Atticus when he says, “the Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations” (Lee 33). The family has been judged poorly by society for reasons such as disrespectfulness, and discourtesy to

What it Means to Kill a Mocking Bird: an in depth analysis of the morals in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

As children grow up, they open their eyes to the harsh truths in the world around them that they once did not understand or question. This is experienced by the main characters of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The story is of a girl called Scout and her older brother, Jem, who go through the trials of growing up in the fictional small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Racism is rampant in the mindset of the townspeople, shown when the children’s lawyer father, Atticus, takes the case of an obviously innocent African-American man and they convict him in their hearts before the trial even starts. Through this all, we can see the theme of loss of innocence in the children. Lee uses characterization to portray

Burris Ewell, however, "was the filthiest human being [Scout] had ever seen". He "laughed rudely" and "slouched leisurely" away from the classroom. This apathetic, lackadaisical and disrespectful attitude is typical of the Ewell family, and contrasts with Walter's strong sense of dignity, showing the vast difference between them.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is about two children, Jem and Scout, and their relationships with their father, Atticus. The children raise themselves growing up, many people would say they were irresponsible, but they are both appear to be intelligent individuals. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird the novel demonstrates a rigid class structure and social stratification in the County of Maycomb. People should not be judged by their social class, they should be judged on their personality.

classes or the races in the town and hates to judge people. He is a

Harper Lee has a number of characters that contribute to the novel and violent scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird, some that have meaning and some that do not. Some characters that appear often and some that have a minimal role in being seen in the novel, but the characters that do not appear often seem to have the biggest impact on the novel. There are three characters that are looked down on by society around them, one because of race and two because of their morals. Society disregarded these people simply because they were afraid that they could be like them and the unknown. Lee uses violence and alienation to help depict the things that are wrong within the small society.

Family, a commodity everyone has to some extent. Family can be good; family can be bad. However, life is very different for all people, and this statement holds true within Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Several families compromise Macomb County, and there were two main families in the story. The Finches and the Ewells were two families who have a myriad of similarities, as well as differences.

To kill a mockingbird written by Harper Lee. Themes are the subject of a talk, a piece of writing or a person's thoughts. There are many themes present in this great American classic such as courage, racism, prejudice, morality and of course coming of age. Lee communicates these themes with characters, events that unfold and the scenarios that Jem and Scout have to face.

In recent literary history, perhaps the strongest contender for the one character that has had the greatest influence on a generation is Atticus Finch, father of the protagonist in “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Both as a father, and a lawyer, he has served, and still today serves as a pillar of righteousness and morality. The ability for his morality to translate to all people, across ages, races, and cultures, is a feat preformed by Harper Lee in her masterpiece, “To Kill A Mockingbird”. She establishes Atticus Finch as the moral center of the novel by juxtaposing his actions and the relationships with those of the majority of Maycomb. In doing so, she has made him a cultural, and oftentimes personal icon.