How Harper Lee's life and childhood influenced her writing of "To Kill A Mockingbird"

Harper Lee is a famous author who wrote the award winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. She grew up in the heart of Alabama and tied in many aspects of her southern childhood into the novel. There are historical and biological influences in the book To Kill a Mockingbird that reflect Lee’s life and the society around her during the 1930s.

The intriguing novel, To Kill A Mockingbird is written by the prestigious author Harper Lee. Lee has utilised the lifestyle and attitudes towards ‘African-Americans" in the 1930's to create a novel which presents the reader with Lee's attitudes and values. The dominant reading of the novel is focused on the issues of racial prejudice, but there are also a number of other alternative and oppositional readings. Examples of this are the Marxist and feminist readings which can be applied to the text.

'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a novel that was written in the 1960s, but Harper Lee decided to set the novel in the Depression era of the 1930s in a small town in Alabama. Lee provided her readers with a historical background for the affairs of that time and in doing so she exposed the deeply entrenched history of the civil rights in South America. Like the main characters in this novel, Lee grew up in Alabama; this made it easier for her to relate to the characters in the novel as she would have understood what they would have experienced during the period when racism, discrimination and inequality was on the increase within the American society.

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a book of fiction, but we know that some major historical events like the Scottsboro case and the Jim Crow laws were reflected in this novel. The author Harper Lee could not have ignored the Jim Crow Laws and the Scottsboro trial as she was in her childhood when all of these injustices and racism happened. In her novel, Harper Lee reflects on the Scottsboro case by changing people who were involved in this case with fictional characters. The Jim Crow laws influenced Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird and she reflects about that by showing the whites racist attitude toward the black people and their injustices in court.

A writer, who’s famous for an award winning book that created a reaction throughout the nation. Harper Lee is famous for writing the book ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, which is now renowned for being a classic of modern American literature. Lee had grown up in Alabama to Frances Finch and Amasa Lee, along with her siblings Edwin, Alice, and Louise. As Lee grew up, she had been introduced at a young age to racial injustice through her father, who as a Southern lawyer, would have to either defend or oppose African Americans in different cases. Due to this, she tried to make social and political statements throughout her book, such as how whites were prejudice and bias towards African Americans and how anyone who either defends or likes a black is hated. Harper Lee tried to build connections between her childhood and her novel, while also connecting important events that were connected to The Civil Rights Movement.

Have you ever thought about what inspired Harper Lee to write her novel To Kill a Mockingbird? Lee was inspired by the real world events that happened around her. The scottsboro trials influenced her. The murder of Emmett Till made her thoughts pliant on her thoughts about the relationships should be between blacks and whites. The way Jim Crow laws were carried out created a different view of the way black people should be treated by whites.

Many people believe that Harper Lee had based the Tom Robinson trial, on the Scottsboro trial. In The Scottsboro trial 9 boys had allegedly raped 2 white woman on a train.(Johnson) The nine boys were found guilty and were sentenced to death, they had a retrial but

A main character, Atticus, is Scout's father, he is a mature man that prides himself on treating people with fairness regardless of race, he chose a career as a lawyer to help people in need in his own way.

Atticus Finch is a lawyer, a father, an outsider, and a self-spoken human being who was inspired by his kids to be the man that he is. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is the father of Jem Finch and Scout Finch (the main character of the story). In the story, Atticus is a lawyer that is not well liked, but has the respect of the citizens of Maycomb County, Alabama—one of the most segregated parts of the U.S. at the time. Atticus takes the racism of the County and carries it on his shoulders while the weight of pressure being put on him continues to grow. In the midst of this, the people of Maycomb sometimes seem grateful to Atticus for his willingness to carry that weight, whereas others seem unappreciative.

Atticus Finch is the Father figure to the main character Scout Finch and her brother Jem in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Atticus may not be liked by some of the characters in the book but the way he treats people makes him a likeable character in real life. In this novel Atticus and his family live in Maycomb Alabama. Atticus’ wife died when his children were little and he is left with the task of raising Jem and Scout by himself. Atticus is a lawyer who sticks up for what he believes is right. An example of this is when he makes the decision to defend Tom Robinson, an African American male against false rape charges. Atticus is a likeable character in life because he is wise, open minded and kind.

Tom Robinson case was similar because he was falsely accused of raping a poor white lady just as those 9 boys were falsely accused of raping 2 white women. Mob leaders threatened to break out the nine boys in Scottsboro, Alabama and take them if the sheriff refused to let them get them like Attics did with Tom. In Harper Lee's story, the Old Sarum Bunch threatens Atticus at the jailhouse because they want Tom Robinson handed over to them but Attics refuses. Tom Robinson was found guilty even though he was not guilty. Atticus proved that he was innocent, but since the county was prejudice the Judge put Tom on a jury death penalty. Atticus was trying so hard to defend Tom, but his county didn’t like Atticus taking up for tom which caused Bob Ewell to spit in his face. In the Scottsboro case the 9 boys was proved innocent but since the judge was prejudiced the kids were put into prison just like Tom Robinson in To Kill A Mockingbird. With the cases being alike with the men the women were alike to because they were actually raped by white men but tried to cover it up by blaming it on a black man because the women knew that the men and boys were going to be put into prison. Moreover it shows how people in the 1930’s acted towards white lawyers defending a black man.

To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, that offers a view of life through a young girl’s eyes. The novel is focused on two main themes which are racism and discrimination.

My understanding of what influenced Harper Lee to write this particular novel was developed after collaboratively discussing the fact that To Kill a Mockingbird mirrors her life, whereby her life matches the life of the novel's storyteller, Scout. For instance, both Lee's and Scout's fathers' were lawyers who represented African-Americans, who eventually died, convicted of murdering a European-American woman. Moreover, Scout's brother, Jem, was four years older than her, and similarly, Harper Lee had an older brother who was six years older than her. Both were raised in a small country town in Alabama - the only difference is that Scout

The sentimental and thought-provoking story begins by establishing the nucleus of the film, the Finch Family, lead by the father Atticus Finch, who is the quintessential father, strong, honest, intuitive, and spoke with wisdom; whose character was consistently imparted to his children through small teachings on life as it unfolds. One such example shows Atticus hugging Scout as they swing back and forth on the front porch, He tells her, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." In another scene after being teased at school for her father defending a Negro, Scout questions her father as to why he chose to take the case. He states that if he didn't he would be unable to "hold his head up high", or even tell his children what to do anymore. Given the standard of that day, Atticus was risking his reputation and even the safety of his children by defending a black man. These phenomenal displays of impeccable character are so rare that it causes the credibility of the role to come into question; Atticus, at times seems too stoic to be

Lee’s novel combines issues going on in the real world, while constructing a story that can relate to the readers. Lee’s first novel made people think about how racism affects the world, and she instantly became a credible author. Lee was born in 1926, which makes her a primary source for the information on the racial outburst in the 1950s. In Lee’s first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, she uses the quote, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view” (Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird). This quote is arguably the most famous line from the novel, and it tests the readers to fight against racism. As an author during this time, Lee had the ability to educate the audience about the truth of what life was like in the south during this time, while offering a lovable and relatable story.