Journal #1: Perspective of Walter Cunningham: Chapters 1-3

Chapters 1-3:
Perspective of Walter Cunningham.

I was working on our farm in Maycomb, Alabama going barefoot through barns and hog wallows taking and cleaning after our animals. Almost everyday working on our farm I was thinking about school and how it was coming up so fast. I didn't want to go to school what so ever and was the last thing on my mind. Going to school is going to be a bit eccentric then my daily schedule just working on my farm.

3 days later school had began worrying about my hookworms that I have gotten from walking through our filthy barns. Hopefully no one will notice even though I thought it looked pretty bad. I arrive at school and I see all the boys and girls in my class with some of them with their lunches beside their desk. I see my teacher Miss. Caroline with her red and white striped dress and high heeled shoes. Miss. Caroline soon begins to teach by starting to write her name on the board and introducing herself to the class. She starts to read a book about cats and I am not liking it one bit. Just sitting at a table was so boring for me. Not doing anything. No talking, no getting up out of your seat. Just writing and listening to her talk. Ms. Caroline was starting to irk me because she was making class so boring. I couldn't handle it. After she was done reading the book she started talking about the alphabet. I was getting really bored and was starting to get a headache. She asked us if anyone knew what these letters were. A tom boy in my class raised her hand and read the alphabet out loud. Ms. Caroline started to get a little frustrated at her and told her to make sure her dad didn't teach her anymore because she knew the alphabet pretty well. Miss. Caroline was pretty malevolent to Scout.It started to get a little more exciting in class I thought because they started arguing for about 5 minutes straight. Almost everyday Ms. Caroline caught her doing something bad. Either writing a letter to someone instead of printing or butting in other peoples conversations like she did to me. One day Ms. Caroline came up to me and asked me if I had a lunch. I turned around and I was nervous that people were going to notice that I had hookworms. I replied, "No Miss. Caroline I don't have a lunch." She was considerate enough to open her purse and give me a quarter, but I refused because I had no way of paying her back. My family got hit pretty hard by the Great Depression. We can barely pay off anything right now. Miss. Caroline asked me why I didn't take it and then the tom boy, Scout blurted out that I was poor and that I don't take anything that I cant pay back. Miss. Caroline got mad at Scout and punished her by whipping her with her ruler.

The next day around lunch time I was walking in the school yard. All the sudden Scout comes up behind me and takes me down wondering why the heck she is beating me up. She started to intimidate me and started rubbing my nose into dirt. It was very unpleasant but I was use to the smell. I smell dirt 24/7 when I was working on the farm. I was pretty indigenous to dirt. Her brother Jem stopped the fight and asked her why she did that to me. Scout replied that, that is what he deserves for getting me in trouble. Jem started going on that Scout was older then me and a lot taller then me. At around dinner time we went to the Finch house for my dad to discuss about farming issues. While having dinner I start to put syrup all over my food. When my food was covered Scout yells at me saying that was so gross. An African - American lady called Scout's name into the kitchen. Probably for yelling at me when I am just a guess.

The next day after having dinner at the Finch house I had to go back to school. School was such a pain I thought it was terrible and boring. A couple minutes into class Miss. Caroline starts to freak out randomly. Class was starting to get exciting again. Miss. Caroline says that there was a bug in this boy's hair. The boy was named Burris Ewell. I have noticed that he doesn't come to school a lot and that he is poorer then my family. Anyways Burris digged through his hair trying to find the bug in his hair. He takes the bug out of his hair and smashes it with his index finger and thumb right in front of Miss. Caroline. I thought it was pretty gross. Burris Ewell was not the nicest kid in my school. He was pretty mean half the time. Miss. Caroline began to teach again and started to bore the class and it felt like another day at school again.