These three boys in Scout's first grade classroom come
from among the poorest families in Maycomb. Little Chuck Little and Walter Cunningham
come from similar family backgrounds, while Burris Ewell's situation is slightly
different. According to Scout, Walter obviously has
hookworms.
His
absence of shoes told us how he got
them.
Walter apparently owned
no shoes, and his "skinny jaw" revealed that he was usually hungry.
He
... looked
as if he had been raised on fish food: his eyes... were red-rimmed and watery. There was
no color in his
face...
However, unlike
Burris, he was cleanly scrubbed and he "had on a clean shirt and newly-mended
overalls."
Chuck Little, like Walter, "didn't know where
his next meal was coming from, but he was a born gentleman." However, he does own a
knife, which he nearly pulls on Burris when the Ewell boy insults the teacher, Miss
Caroline.
Burris comes from Maycomb's worst family. He is
dirty--"the filthiest human I'd ever seen"--lice-infested, confrontational and
foul-mouthed. His father, Bob, drinks up the family welfare check, leaving his children
hungry. Burris only comes to school on the first day each year--it's his third year in
the first grade--hoping he'll eventually be promoted to the second
grade.
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