Unmasking the Mr. Cunningham in Citizens of Maycomb

"I thought [he] was a friend of ours." (Lee 157) The words of Scout Finch in that quote put a worthy question to her father, Atticus. The events that occurred in the second third of the book gave way to many questions of the personalities and beliefs of the people in the little town Maycomb. Their actions seemed to open to changes or prejudices in themselves that caught Scout off-guard. Scout, a young girl of eight …

…citizens of Maycomb did indeed think twice about accusing Atticus. When blatantly accusing someone who wasn't widely ridiculed, one made him/herself stand out from the crowd of thoughts. This would be too similar to what Atticus himself was doing, and the people could not allow themselves to be placed with Atticus. Mr. Cunningham, however, showed himself not to be completely set against Atticus, because of the man he was and the citizen he was.