Answer: To show how poor his family was.
Explanation:
The purpose of comparing the children to pigs is to show others how poor people were at that time, his family particularly. The food that they were eating was called mush and it was made of coarse corn (usually something that the pigs are eating).
Their lunch wasn't on the table, it was on the ground.
He said that ''The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons.''
