Young Walter Cunningham Character Analysis

While the Cunninghams are poor and prideful, the Ewells are completely shameless. Young Walter Cunningham is very poor but tries his best to get dressed and look nice in school. He really wants to finish school and tries to keep up with the schoolwork. However, his family is very poor and needs lots of hands on the farm. He has to skip school to help out on the farm sometimes. This is shown is shown here, “Reason I can’t pass the first grade, Mr. Finch, is I’ve had to stay out ever’ spring an’ help Papa with the chopping’,” (Lee 32). This really shows how much the Cunninghams are actually trying to become part of the normal community again. They are working hard to get money and sending their kids to school. They don’t want other people to see them as very poor people who aren’t capable of leading a normal life. Young Walter Cunningham’s father is also trying to get back on track; Mr. Cunningham needed legal advice and he asked Atticus for help. Mr. Cunningham doesn’t have any money so Scout asked how he would pay Atticus back, “I asked Atticus if Mr. Cunningham would ever pay us,” (Lee 27).

This is an Ewell tradition. Their family is known in the town for dirty work and very unfair business. Ewell doesn’t want to finish school and only comes because the sheriff forces him to. “They come the first say every year and then leave. The truant lady gets ‘em here ‘cause she threatens ‘em with the sheriff,” (Lee 36). This seems to be a common problem since it says that they come “every year”. It isn’t only their children that aren’t trying to recover from the crash. Their father, Mr. Ewell isn’t doing well either, “... when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains,” (Lee 41). He isn’t trying either to get back on the rails of normal life. He is being given money yet he refuses to spend it in any meaningful