To Kill a Mockingbird Group

Question:

bhscutie15
bhscutie15
Student
High School - 9th Grade

What does Atticus mean when he says that professional people are poor because the farmers are poor?

Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"

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Posted by bhscutie15 on Tuesday November 3, 2009 at 4:20 PM and tagged with atticus, characters, setting, to kill a mockingbird.

Answers:

  1. mwestwood
    mwestwood Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    In Chapter 2 of "To Kill a Mockingbird," set during the Depression, Atticus answers Scout's question of "Are we poor, Atticus?" with the affirmative "We are indeed."  Atticus says that doctors and dentists and lawyers like him are poor because the farmers, who require services, cannot pay in money.  Instead they pay for professional services in the only way that they can, by giving the professional food.  Alluding to Dr. Reynolds, Atticus tell the children

    He charges some folks a bushel of potatoes for delivery of a baby. 

    A question has come to Scout's mind about Mr. Cunningham's having paid Atticus in stovewood, hickory nuts,smilax and holly and, later, turnip greens.  Mr. Cunningham pays in the only way he can because, as Atticus tells the chidren, "the crash hit [him] the hardest." 

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird/chapter-2-sum...

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    Posted by mwestwood on Tuesday November 3, 2009 at 4:27 PM