How would you characterize Burris Ewell based on his descriptions and behavior?

Burris Ewell is a product of his environment.  He is one of the many Ewell children.  They have no mother, and their father is not a very good person.  This means that he is sexist, crude, and probably racist at a very young age.  We can tell all of this from the way he behaves when he goes to school on the first day of first grade.  

The Ewells go to the first day of...

Burris Ewell is a product of his environment.  He is one of the many Ewell children.  They have no mother, and their father is not a very good person.  This means that he is sexist, crude, and probably racist at a very young age.  We can tell all of this from the way he behaves when he goes to school on the first day of first grade.  

The Ewells go to the first day of school to satisfy the requirements.  Burris is such an oaf that he doesn’t even make it through the first day.  He looks down on the teacher because she is a woman, and little Burris has such a bloated ego that he thinks he is better than her and doesn’t want to be told what to do.  It is the posturing of a young boy mimicking his father. 

Burris is illiterate, because he only goes to that first day each year.  He does not know how to spell his name.  In fact, he doesn’t even seem to understand the question when asked how he spells it. 

Miss Caroline inspected her roll-book. “I have a Ewell here, but I don’t have a first name… would you spell your first name for me?”

“Don’t know how. They call me Burris’t home.” (Ch. 3)

When the teacher tries to show him how to wash his hair to remove the infestation of “cooties,” or head lice, Burris reactions with anger at being told what to do.  He says that she can’t tell him to go home because he was going home already.  When she threatens to call the principal, he gets angry and doesn't leave until she starts to cry. 

Safely out of range, he turned and shouted: “Report and be damned to ye! Ain’t no snot-nosed slut of a schoolteacher ever born c’n make me do nothin‘! You ain’t makin’ me go nowhere, missus. You just remember that, you ain’t makin‘ me go nowhere!” (Ch. 3)

The other children soothe their teacher.  Burris Ewell may have only been at the school for a few hours, but he certainly made an impression.  Like his father, he is brutal and his ego is easily bruised.