In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" the events take place during the depression. America was suffering all over and jobs were few and far between. People lined up in long lines seeking food and assistance. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisors created the program called "The New Deal." Part of the program included the development of an administration Works Progress Administration (WPA). The goal was to develop jobs for Americans by building highways, increasing government construction, slum clearance, reforestation, and rehabilitation in rural areas. Many people resented the program because it was poorly managed, demonstrated political favoritism, and waste of resources.
An uneducated man like Cunningham probably identified the government run programs as a form of welfare. Scout expresses the Cuningham's stand on welfare programs when she says to her new teacher:
"The Cunninghams never took anything they can't pay back-no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of anybody; they get along on what they have. They don't have much, but they get along on it." (20)
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