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The Ewell Family

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In many circumstances, we tend to prematurely decide, for ourselves, the details of people’s lives. As found in this excerpt from the story, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout makes the journey to decipher her mislead beliefs about the Ewell family with the help of her father, Atticus. He helps her understand: why they don’t go to school, hunt out of season, and overall are excused by the township. Scout first questions the necessity of her going to school while the Ewells only come for as long as they wish. Sighting Scout’s disdain for a perceived injustice, Atticus decides to illustrate exactly who the Ewells are: “They were people, but they lived like animals.” Atticus expands by reminding her of the annual Christmas trip, which takes her right past their residence. Therefore, this informs the reader that the Ewells are not some “privileged dynasty” of Maycomb, but rather are in such a state that they are simply “cut some slack” by the rest of the town. As Atticus quaintly puts it: “Sometimes it’s better to bend the law a little in special cases.” Afterall, it seems that they were already punished enough since “the Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three …show more content…

In response Atticus explains: “It’s against the law, all right, and it’s certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains.” Following such a statement the reader might ask himself/herself why the township still persists to allow him to hunt illegally on their lands. Well, Atticus has an answer: “I don’t know of any landowner around here who begrudges these children of any game their father can hit.” In other words, the Ewells are a unique case of needed special privileges. A case to the extent of that which is imperceptible from the young, inexperienced point of view

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