The Ewells In To Kill A Mockingbird

In the novel, The Ewell family can best be characterized as abnormal and have a lack of decency. There were several instances in the novel that displayed how abnormal the Ewells were. This is first evident, in how Burris is so disrespectful to Miss Caroline. On Burris’s first and only day of school this year, he used some unimaginably foul language toward Miss Caroline. He called Miss Caroline names that only the devil himself would use on someone. Not many students would ever dare call their teacher those names, even more on the first day. The words Burris shared with Miss Caroline infuriated her so much that she even began to cry. Another abnormal trait about the Ewells is how they were always trying to start fights. Everyone in the town knew …show more content…
Another piece of evidence that supports the Ewell’s being abnormal is how they have not worked an honest day in their lives. As Atticus said in the novel, “Ewells were members of an exclusive society”(Lee 40). People judiciously allowed them certain privileges like hunting and trapping out of season, which is where they illegally acquired their money and food from. It is very abnormal of someone to willingly know that they are cheating through life and do nothing about it. Furthermore, the Ewell family also has a lack of decency. They are very dirty and pay little to no attention to their hygiene. The Ewell children show up to school with no shoes, covered in dirt and rust, with maybe a baseball sized clean space on their entire body. Not to mention they have not bathed in weeks, and Burris had lice completely covering his head. All of these sights and smells became a bothersome to many of the students, and definitely the teacher seeming she felt the need to send Burris home early for how filthy he was. This lack of decency is also evident in the way the Ewell children only show up to the first day of school. This is extremely shocking, seeming most families believe school is the most important