Cunningham Pride Essay

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Musavir Ali Honors English 11/21/14 Cunningham Pride How does pride shape our interaction? In the story "To Kill a Mockingbird" pride shapes the life of Walter Cunningham. In the story there are two known families that share a connection; the Finch family and the Cunningham family. Both of these families are known throughout the town in very different ways, the Finch family is considered middle class while the Cunningham family is considered extremely poor. Even though the Cunningham family is poor they have their pride. So far, Walter is faced with a problem. Miss fisher his first grade teacher tells all of the students to take out their lunches, little Walter had nothing to take to out. Out of pity Miss Fisher offered Walter 25¢ to go downtown and buy himself a lunch. When Miss Fisher offered little Walter a quarter he had to deny it. The young man's pride would not let him speak, it ended up limiting Walter's interaction because of the shame he would have felt taking something he cold not pay back. "Did you forget your lunch this morning?" asked Miss Caroline/ Walter looked straight ahead. I saw a muscle jump in his skinny jaw. / "Did you forget it this morning?" asked Miss Caroline. Walter's jaw twitched again"(page 19 paragraph 6) this direct quote from the text is evident that Walter could not speak because his pride was limiting his interaction. Even though the money he was offered money he did not accept it because he knew he could not pay it back. Little Walter Cunningham was faced with a problem that he could have handled a million different ways. When it was his turn to speak back to his teacher he froze and couldn't speak. Instead of freezing up he could have told her his financial situation, he could have simply said no, but he allowed Scout to speak for him. Miss Fisher saw this as Scout being disrespectful toward her. She

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