How does Jem resolve Scout's issue with Walter Cunningham in chapter 3 of To Kill a Mockingbird?
In chapter 2, Scout tried to help her teacher Miss Caroline understand how the Cunninghams function in Maycomb society. She wasn't received well because she also had another strike against her--she already knew how to read. As a result, Miss Caroline struck Scout's knuckles and the class laughed at her. To pay Walter back for the humiliation, she decided to rough him up a bit at lunch time. Jem walked up and complained that Scout beating up on Walter wasn't fair because she was bigger than he was. Scout claimed that didn't matter because Walter was older than she. In an effort to save Walter from his sister's wrath, Jem invites him home for lunch. He first asks if Walter's father is from Old Sarum. Walter stood there a little bewildered with what was going on until Jem did the following:
"Jem suddenly grinned at him. 'Come on home...
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to dinner with us, Walter,' he said. 'We'd be glad to have you.' Walter's face brightened, then darkened. Jem said, 'Our daddy's a friend of your daddy's. Scout here, she's crazy--she won't fight you any more" (23).
Fortunately, Scout follows her brother's lead and promises not to beat up Walter. She even asks him if she likes butter beans. For a very stubborn, but hungry Cunningham, that sounded good enough. He waited until Scout and Jem got to the Radley's house before he decided to join them. Therefore, Jem solves the problem between Scout and Walter by being a good example for his sister, and doing a kind deed by asking Walter over for dinner.
In Chapter 2 of Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the story's young narrator, Scout, discusses a particularly poor classmate named Walter Cunningham. The children's new teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, is the quintessential rookie elementary school educator, both arrogant and ignorant, and the precocious six-year old Scout is thrust into an awkward position relative to this figure of authority. While the children of Maycomb exist on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, they have matured a little beyond their years out of necessity. As Scout puts it early in this chapter, "My classmates and I were very mature in a way because, even though they are young, they have had to chop cotton and feed hogs since they were very little."
Even among this group of school children, Walter Cunningham stands out for his display of poverty. Noticing that Walter is lacking money for lunch, Miss Caroline attempts to help the young boy, prompting Scout to intervene. Scout is already on tenuous ground with her teacher because of her facility in reading. Normally considered a meritorious development, the fact that Scout has learned to read from her father and from Calpurnia, the Finch family's housekeeper, rather than through formal instruction, is a disappointment to the newly-ordained teacher:
"Miss Caroline Fisher found out that I could already read, and this upset her. She wanted to teach me to read herself, I guess, and I think it disappointed her that I already knew how. So she got made at me!! How ridiculous! She told me that my father, Atticus, should not teach me anymore because he would do it all wrong."
With this background in mind, Scout's decision to speak up on behalf of Walter leads to even more tension between her and Miss Caroline, and, as Chapter 3 begins, Scout is now angry at Walter for her conflict with the teacher. As soon as the children are released for their lunch break, Scout begins to beat Walter. Seeing this, her older brother Jem hurries over and makes her release her hold on the hapless Walter Cunningham. Older and more emotionally mature, Jem seeks to diffuse the situation by inviting Walter home for lunch, which allows for an opportunity for the children to be diverted onto other topics, namely, the Radley house.
Walter Cunningham is a minor figure in Lee's novel. He does, however, play an outsized role in representing the poor but decent category of Maycomb citizens--a stark contrast with the Ewell's, the patriarch of whom is the town's most virulent racist, and whose daughter accuses the Tom Robinson, an equally poor African American, of rape.
How does Scout resolve her issue with Walter Cunningham Jr. in chapter 3 of To Kill a Mockingbird?
Scout's first day of school is portrayed in chapter two. She is very excited for it, but it doesn't turn out the way she had hoped. First, her teacher is disappointed that Scout is a fluent reader. She is told not to let her dad teach her to read anymore, which puts a cramp in her bonding time with her father in the evenings when they read the newspaper together.
If that wasn't bad enough, Scout next tries to help her teacher understand why Walter Cunningham Jr. won't accept her quarter for lunch. Miss Caroline says that Scout is starting out on the wrong foot by telling her about the Cunninghams. Scout is rewarded with some slaps on the hand and is then sent to the corner.
In an effort to get back at little Walter Cunningham for not explaining himself to the teacher, thereby making Scout do it, she decides to solve her problem by rubbing his nose in the dirt. She explains as follows:
"Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop" (22).
For Scout, this is the perfect way to solve her problem—attack the source. Fortunately, Jem steps in and invites Walter over for lunch in an effort to make peace. If Jem had not stepped in, there's no telling how much of a lesson Scout would have taught poor Walter Cunningham Jr.