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Walter Cunningham Character Analysis

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Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, takes place in the 1930’s, segregated Alabama. The novel is about the main character, Scout’s, experiences and learning about her community and world around her. Scout lives in a town where prejudice is very prominent and there are a lot of differing clashing opinions. The town is also going through the Depression, which affects different families throughout the story. In the novel, an African American man, Tom Robinson, is accused of taking advantage of a white woman. Throughout the novel, Scout learns about different people and how they act in certain situations. A theme in the novel is the coexistence of good and bad in a person gives them depth and complex motives that may be hard to understand.…show more content…
In the beginning, Walter Cunningham is described as a dependable and trustworthy person and someone who really cared about his reputation and example. This is shown when when Scout has a conversation with Atticus, “I asked Atticus if Mr. Cunningham would ever pay us. ‘Not in money,’ Atticus said, ‘but before the years out I’ll have been paid.’” (Lee 27). Cunningham pays Atticus back in anyway he could, stovewood, hickory nuts, smilax and holly, and turnip greens. Scout also says to Miss Caroline, “‘The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back--’” (Lee 26). Later in the book, Cunningham is shown to be apart of the mob trying to kill Tom Robinson. To which Atticus says, “‘Mr. Cunningham’s basically a good man’... ‘he just has blind spots like the rest of us.’” (Lee 210). Atticus also says that a mob is always just made out of people no matter what. The way Cunningham acted in society with Atticus and the way he was associated it's the mob shows that Walter Cunningham has more depth to his character than Scout thought.

Another character who has coexistence of good and evil is Arthur “Boo” Radley. Boo Radley had always been a mystery to the neighborhood. The main things they heard of him were mostly rumors that may or may not be true. Scout and Jem start to have strange occurrences with Boo
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