I think that Harper Lee includes the two impoverished families to illustrate that while one might be impoverished or part of a society's lower class, he does not have to be classless. Bob Ewell is obviously classless and raises his children to have the same lack of work ethic and ethos. Mayella carefully plots to entice a married man and then frames him to save herself. Similarly, her little brother Burris is truant and thinks nothing of insulting an authority figure.
In contrast, the Cunninghams--while also being members of Maycomb's poor, struggling class--demonstrate class (for the most part). Mr. Cunningham cannot pay Atticus with money for his legal assistance, but he is careful to pay in whatever manner he can (food goods, etc.). Walter, Mr. Cunningham's son, has obviously been raised with the same sense of diligence. At the dinner table, he converses with Atticus about his hard work in the fields with his father, and Walter possesses such a sense of personal dignity that he is unable to explain to Miss Caroline why he does not have a lunch.
Thus, while both families suffer from the same physical effects of the Depression, they are completely different in not only their sense of decorum and decency but also in how fathers influence their children negatively or positively.
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