Harper Lee's Life Experiences Shaped To Kill a Mockingbird

I finally came out of my house for once but it was only to help Jem and Scout because they looked
like they were getting chased. Let me rewind a little and tell all what happened that night in
Chapter 31. I was sitting in my rocking chair that was near the window like I usually do at night. I
like to watch and see what people are doing and who is hanging out with who at night. I was
watching out the window like I said and then I heard the children screaming but I couldn't see
where they were. Until I finally saw them and they were over yonder walking out of the woods.
But something didn't feel right it looked as though they were getting chased by someone and they
were running and screaming for help. So, I did what I would do for any of my
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Anmarie Deyl English 10 Honors 23 June 2014 Summer Journal Entry: To Kill a Mockingbird, by
Harper Lee Chapter 1– The foundation of Maycomb Proceeding to read and slowly unravel the
story within the text was something that clearly required focus to understand Harper Lee's
message, which was one that has yet to be understood in this point in time. However, as I found
myself analyzing the story, I begin to discover the foundation that Harper Lee's story builds from.
She chooses to tell this story through Scout's perspective, which often fluctuates from her
childish perspective into a more adult view as she appears to be reflecting on the story's events
some time after they have occurred. Thinking about the way Harper Lee chooses the perspective
the story will be told from, I've come to have some understanding in regards to how this may be
important after all. I found that Scout's childish perspective helps me, the reader, in a way where I
can have an understanding of these events unfolding, while Scout's adult perspective in recollecting
the events show her own growth throughout a period of time after these events. In addition, the
passage at times leads into her recollecting events that may have been significant for her. The
passage presents an instance where I could identify her shift into her adult perspective as it's clear
that it's a recollection of an event rather than the experience of a young girl. For instance, I believe
Scout saying that, "Maycomb was an old

Why Is Harper Lee's Significant To The 1930s
You might be wondering who Harper Lee is and why she's significant to the 1930s? Harper is a
novelist, who has a prize–winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird about life in the 1930s.Through her
literature, it's shown how intelligent and compassionate she was as a writer. Harper Lee has
additional accomplishments during her early life, life as a writer, and life after her novel To Kill a
Mockingbird. First off, Harper Lee was born in Alabama, Monroeville on April 28, 1926. When
Harper was a child she was a tomboy and talented reader. In 1944–1945, she joined an all–female
Huntingdon college around Montgomery. Then in 1945– 1950, Lee practice at the University of
Alabama for a degree in law. Moved to New York City employed as a reservation clerk for Eastern
Air Lines and British Overseas Airways Corporation. Eventually, beginning to write stories about the
people in her hometown of Monroeville. ("Harper Lee")....show more content...
The novel was about Harper Lee's life in the small southern town based in Monroeville. On the other
hand, the novel was awarded in 1961 the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. A year later the novel was turned
into a movie which was directed by Robert Mulligan from Universal Pictures. Horton Foote wrote
the script for the movie because Harper Lee discarded too, but frequently visited the movie set.
After the movie was over, it was nominated at the eight Academy Awards, winning four, and one
award presented to Gregory Peck for best screenplay as well as the best actor. As a result, Harper Lee
was becoming a very famous and well–known person. ("Harper Lee Biography").

Our past influences everything we do; from day to day life, to the creative projects we share with
the world. This certainly holds true for Harper Lee and Albert Camus, both of whom are authors
of award winning novels. These authors allowed their backgrounds to shine through in their
writing. Even though some points are more obvious than others, it is easy to find references to
the authors' lives in their stories. Harper Lee grew up in a small town in southern Alabama while
the Great Depression was at its worst. The fictional Maycomb County, the main setting of Lee's
only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, could easily have been modeled after her own hometown.
Many other details throughout the book can be compared with Lee's childhood. Ms. Lee was
reported as being "tougher than many of the boys" growing up as she defended her childhood
friend, Truman Capote, who was made fun of for being "sissy" ("Nelle Harper Lee"). In To Kill a
Mockingbird, Lee morphed into the main character of Scout, and Capote became Dill, a scrawny
boy who stays in Maycomb County during the summers. The parallel is evident in chapter nine,
when Scout punches her cousin for insulting Dill and her dad, Atticus, who is modeled after Lee's
...show more content...
Arguably one of the most memorable scenes of To Kill a Mockingbird is the case of Tom
Robinson, a Negro accused of raping a young white girl, and whom Atticus is charged with
defending. Ms. Lee's father was given the job of defending two black men prosecuted for the
apparent murder of a white storekeeper ("Amasa Coleman Lee..."). In the end, neither lawyer
succeed and the African Americans are hanged. Scout Finch receives grief throughout the novel for
having a "nigger–lover" as a father, and it is assumed Ms. Lee did, as well (Lee, 94). Many
experiences in Harper Lee's life influenced the story of Scout

Essay On Harper Lee's Writing Style
Introduction
The writers of the twentieth century used distinct writing styles contrary from the modern author
due to differing experiences faced in their era. Many of their writings show similar comparisons to
each other but are different due to different environments the authors lived in. Ernest Hemingway
and Harper Lee's writings are prolific examples of how experiences of an author's life are mirrored
in their works such as Old Man and the Sea and To Kill A Mockingbird. The twentieth century held
many events that caused authors to write about their experiences and how they believed these events
should be viewed.
Harper Lee
Harper Lees novel To Kill A Mockingbird is a reflection of her life and personal experiences. Harper
lee grew up...show more content...
The two writers both used their life experiences and what was going on in the world at the time of
writing to influence their books. They used a simple prose style of writing so that all classes of
people could understand what they were saying. "The ereader version stands to make Harper Lee's
classic story about a young girl coming to grips with the spoken and unspoken rules about race,
class, and gender in Depression–era rural Alabama accessible to a whole new generation of
readers"(Sigward 2014). Hemingway on the other hand shows how his stories can affect people who
has lost faith in society and loses their courage through the hard times of the war(Frenz, 1969).
"Hemingway – himself a great sportsman – liked to portray soldiers, hunters, bullfighters – tough, at
times primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of modern society,
and who in this confrontation lose hope and faith. His straightforward prose, his spare dialogue, and
his predilection for understatement are particularly effective in his short stories"(Frenz,

The Life of Harper Lee
Harper Lee was an inspiring author and had many influential friends.Her life was full of many
great and fulfilling opportunities. The events that occurred in Harper Lee's life led to the
publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, a book that many people consider to be one of the greatest
novels in American history.
Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She is the youngest was her family
with three other siblings. Her father was a lawyer and he owned part of the local newspaper. Her
next door neighbor, and best friend was Truman Capote, the inspiration for the neighbor, Dill, in her
novel.(Encyclopedia) She had been with Capote for all her life. Her friendship with him led to
unfamiliar and exciting opportunities....show more content...
Capote asked her to accompany him to Garden City, Kansas to help him with his article on the
murder of four members of the Clutter family (Encyclopedia).The people of the city were
welcomed by their likeable attitudes and personalities. They interviewed the murder suspects in
January, 1960. (Harper Lee Biography) They both returned to New York to work on their novels
(Harper Lee Biography). Lee gave Capote all her research so that he could write his novel, Cold
Blood. Lee was a major help in Capote's novel and he dedicated the book to her by writing "For
Jack Dunphy and Harper Lee, with my love and gratitude" (Harper Lee Biography). Her
contribution to Capote's research was a major help to her long time friend. She then continued to
work on her novel that would eventually become a

Who Is Harper Lee's Life In To Kill A Mockingbird
Maycomb county is a small town in Alabama. It's a place where everybody knows everybody. The
author Harper Lee got this story and setting from a small town she lived in when she was young.
All the characters are based on childhood friends she had personal experience with. Harper was
not a writer who wrote for other people she was a writer who wrote for herself. She was
persuaded to publish the childhood novel of her and her friends and all of the adventures they
have been through. Maycomb, some twenty miles east of Finch's landing (pg5). Maycomb county
was an old town, but it was an old town when i first knew it (pg6). The rainy roads turn to red
slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. somehow it was hotter than a
black dog suffered on a summer day (pg6)....show more content...
Maycomb was a slow poor town. Harper Lee made it seem like this was a town full of nothing,
people move slow and just mumbled around everywhere. At this time everyone was struggling
with the great depression and racism colored people were referred to as niggers because people
didn't know better they thought it was weird that they weren't the same as everyone else and i
think that scared them. Maycomb county had nothing to fear but itself (pg7). Kids didn't go to
school back then they had to stay home and help their families survive the long summer days on
the farm. Most kids went to school the first day so the sheriff wouldn't come to the front door of
their homes. But that is the setting of Maycomb county. My name is Dawson Creasey and im
currently reading To Kill A Mockingbird. I think it's a wonderful adventure book and you can learn
many things from

Harper Lee Essay
Williams 1
Harper Lee: Times and Life Research Paper
Harper Lee's Life Story Have you ever wondered who wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird" or who is the
author that wrote it? Well I'm here telling you who that author is. The author who made the book
is named Nelle Harper Lee but she is just called Harper Lee on the book. This paper is on Harper
Lee's life and times during the 1900's. She is known from her best–selling book, "To Kill a
Mockingbird". Even though the book may have some harsh descriptions about the time during which
...show more content...
She basically protected him because he would be teased at school from other boys. Years later
when Harper Lee was in high school, she grew an interest in English literature. She then graduated
college and went to an all–female college, Huntingdon College in Montgomery. Harper Lee didn't
follow the other girls and stuck to her studies and writing. She eventually went into studying law but
realized that writing was her calling. She then went to Oxford University as an exchange student to
study writing and came back the following year to law but dropped out of it in the first semester
and went to New York City. While there, she was reunited withTruman Capote and befriended
Michael Martin Brown and his wife. The Browns gave Harper Lee and amazing Christmas gift of
supporting her for her writings and getting her an agent to get started. He got the publishing firm
interested in her first novel first called "Go Set a Watchman", and then the title changed to
"Atticus" and then finally "To Kill a Mockingbird". She then finished her manuscript in 1959. "To
Kill a Mockingbird" won many awards including the Pulitzer Award. After her success in "To Kill
a Mockingbird", she was working on a second novel but it was never published. She then helped
Truman Capote on his novel "In Cold Blood" and when finished, a rift formed between Harper Lee
and Truman Capote. Harper Lee was hurt by his betrayal but remained his friend until he

Similarities Between Scout And Harper Lee
Have you ever noticed how similar Harper Lee is to the character, Scout? To start, they both grew
up in a small town in Alabama, both Harper Lee and Scout's fathers were Lawyers and they served
as state legislators. Scout and Harper Lee grew up watching two seperate cases where white
voices were deemed more valuable than the evidence and black voices given to say otherwise.
Scout and Lee both came into school as really good readers, and they knew how to read ever since
they could last remember. Finally Harper Lee and Scout both got read to by their father out of a
newspaper. The character, Scout, has several similarities to her author, Harper Lee.

"Not to be rude or anything, but what is wrong with you?" I wanted to say it was none of his
business but responded, "It's eczema, just a skin condition."
Moving every three years or so showed me a diverse–if limited–part of the world. I have never faced
serious adversity and social disorder, living in safe upper–class neighborhoods for most of my life.
Nevertheless, I have endured countless intruding and disrespectful questions about my skin.
However, reading from many sources changes one's view on the world extensively, and exploring
the story of the Finches in To Kill a Mockingbird is simply a reminder that my prior troubles were
the least to worry about. Reading allows me to immerse myself in someone else's environment, to

The theme of Racial Violence has been prevalent in The United States since the beginning of the
age of exploration. White Skin, dominating as the superior race has been a driving force in the
development of racist attitudes, which are eloquently portrayed in Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and
Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part–time Indian. To Kill a Mockingbird, is Harper Lee's
take on racial injustice in the United States, during the Great Depression, from the perspective of a
white family that is pro–equality. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part–time Indian, Sherman
Alexie explores the concept of identity crisis through separation from one's roots, as a result of
seeking racial justice, and the implications it has on the individual...show more content...
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Junior is discriminated against for leaving his own community and
betraying them by joining the Reardan Basketball Team to win for the whites instead of the
Reservation. At Reardan, Junior becomes a part–time–Indian. When he goes back to the reservation
to play basketball against his own community, he is in a dilemma not knowing which team to
support. In Fact, he faces identity crisis, since he is an Native playing for Reardan against the
Natives. Sherman Alexie makes the protagonist face internal conflict with the chant "Ar–nold sucks!
Ar–nold sucks! Ar–nold sucks!" (pg. 143) By using Sound devices like repetition, the image of
mounting hatred is created. Each chant is an expression of the people's hatred as they feel
betrayed. He doesn't know if he should be happy with Reardan, or go back to the reservation.
Ultimately, he is reunited with his community, in the form of patching up his friendship with
Rowdy, concluding the novel on a note of acceptance and integration. In contrast to this, Tom
Robinson in Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird does not experience such support, instead he is met with
death after attempting to escape his unlawful prison sentence. It is evident that there are vastly
differing attitudes, which are a product of the times both novels were set in respectively. In the
case of Tom Robinson, he was created and placed by Lee in the Great Depression, a time period in
which, racist attitudes were strong and highly unforgiving. On the other hand, Junior is constructed
in a far more forward thinking society in which he had the freedom to choose to school in an
all–white high school and was still able to be accepted (in the end) by his home community, in the
reservation. Therefore, the highly different time

Explore how Harper Lee creates tension In the book – To Kill A Mocking Bird–. Explore how
Harper Lee creates tension In the book "To Kill A Mocking Bird", Harper Lee creates tension in
many different ways. You can especially recognise this build up of tension in Chapter twenty–eight
onwards (pages 280–282 and 285–290). Harper Lee has also created tension in Chapter six (page
55), when Jem gets his trousers caught in the fence of the Radley place and in Chapter fifteen
(page 166) where the incident by the jail with Atticus, Tom Robinson and the gentlemen takes
place. The first example of when Harper Lee creates tension would be in Chapter six (page 55). In
this chapter we see how the build up of tension keeps the reader...show more content...
Also Scout addresses the shadow as "it". This again gives the reader the sense of mystery and
fear, as we normally associate animals or monsters/ghosts with "it". After that, the pace quickens
in the chapter and the feeling of panic and confusion grips the reader and keeps them reading on.
Eventually, the humour of Miss Stephanie Crawford's "white nigger" joke and her questioning
Jem of his absence of pants break this atmosphere of tension, panic, fear etc. The second example
of when Harper Lee creates tension would be on page 166 (part of Chapter fifteen) when the
people protesting against Atticus (for defending Tom Robinson) came forward to the jail. Firstly
she describes the jail by writing about the unusual "solitary" light, which was on. Her choice of
"solitary", as an adjective, gives us the feeling of isolation. Then Harper Lee goes on to describe
the arrival of these people in such a way to give them a sense of authority and power: "four dusty
cars came in from the Meridian highway, moving slowly in a line". She also writes about how the
"shadows became a substance" and the way the men talked: "in near whispers", giving us a sense
of fear and suspicion. Then Harper Lee goes on to describe the men themselves. This part (when I
first read it),

Harper Lee Biography Essay
The life of Harper Lee You might be wondering who Harper Lee is and why she's significant in the
1930s? Harper is a novelist, who has a prizewinning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee has
additional competed accomplishments during her early life, life as a writer, and life after her
novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee is, also known, as Nelle was born in Alabama, Monroeville
on April 28, 1926. She is the youngest of four. Her parents are Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances
Cunningham Finch Lee. Her father was a former newspaper editor, proprietor, and lawyer, serving
on the state legislature 1926 to 1938. When Harper was a child she was a tomboy and talented
reader. In 1944–1945, she joined an all–female Huntingdon college around Montgomery. Then in
1945– 1950, Lee practice at the University of Alabama for a degree in law. Moved to New York City
employed as a reservation clerk for Eastern Air Lines and British Overseas Airways Corporation,
beginning to write stories about the people in her hometown of Monroeville. ("Harper Lee")....show
more content...
The novel was about Harper Lee's life in the small southern town based on Monroeville. The novel
on the other hand was awarded in 1961 the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Harper was surprised to find
out that the novel was well known. A year later it was turned into a movie which was directed by
Robert Mulligan from Universal Pictures. Horton Foote wrote the script to the movie because
Harper Lee rejected the idea too, but frequently visited the set. She gave her father's watch to
Gregory Peck the person who plays the role of Atticus in the movie. After the movie was over it
was nominated as the eight Academy Awards only winning four and one award presented to
Gregory Peck for best screenplay as well as best actor. ("Harper Lee Biography").

Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and the Scottsboro Case
On March 25 1931 a group of nine boys were charged with raping two girls aboard a train traveling
from Paint Rock Alabama across the state's border. The trial of these boys had become collectively
known as the Scottsboro case. Several years later Harper Lee wrote her famous novel To Kill a
Mockingbird. In this story a young male Tom Robinson is charged with raping a white female. It is
by understanding the parallel between Tom Robinson's case in To Kill a Mockingbird and the
Scottsboro case that can be understood that a fair trial was unlikely and that because of Tom
Robinson's race he was presumed guilty before his trial.
Investigating the similarities between the...show more content...
Also reminiscent of the Scottsboro case was the fictional Maycomb County's jury composition. In
the novel the jury composed of solely white men, there were no blacks or women in the ranks. The
lack of diversity within the novel's jury is mimicked in the Scottsboro case. In Scottsboro it was
state law that "any businessman or professional people could excuse themselves from jury duty for
any official reason" (Hamilton 210). Thus was formed a jury of uneducated, white, landing owning,
males, with plenty of free time, alas a jury that would doom and black man or women. It is on this
topic of the loaded jury that the defense counsel for the Scottsboro case, Mr. Samuel Leibowitz,
fought for the hardest. The testimony of Scottsboro's registrar and commissioner, it is made clear
the mindset of legal system in regards to black jurors. In this testimony the feeling towards blacks
is clearly outlined, "no black man and no woman is capable of servin on a jury, supporting their
contention with the declaration that, even though there were black people who were educated, held
professional jobs, and good reputations, none had 'sound judgment' and 'they will nearly all steal'"
(12). Due to the setup of the jury system both Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro boys were dooms
to a sentence of guilty even before they reached trial.
Another peculiar commonality that is shared between the two cases is

Harper Lee Myths
A Writer In The Making
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.
Throughout To Kill A...show more content...
One myth is about how she only wrote one book, which is true though throughout her live she has
written magazine articles and earlier works from her college years. Another is about how Harper Lee
hadn't written To Kill A Mockingbird, but her friend, Truman Capote, had wrote the world renowned
classic. Many of these myths stem from Harper Lee being a very remote person, because it causes
much speculation to who she is as a writer and a person. Some myths also speculate that Harper
Lee was dead, which is true now but at the time of this myth it was false. Finally, there's a myth
about Harper Lee lacking in creativity, which is believed by many to be untrue. The reason why
many believe this myth to be untrue, is because she took her life and connected many things in her
book to these experiences. So, it seems that Harper Lee has many myths revolving around her and
more were created the longer she stayed in her remote

Harper Lee Outline
Harper Lee is a famous American author known for her classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird. To
this day, many schools teach the book as a part of their English curriculum. Harper Lee was born
in Monroeville, Alabama on April 28, 1926 as Nelle Harper Lee. She was the youngest out of four
children, she had 2 older sisters, Alice and Louise, and 1 brother named Edwin. Her father was a
lawyer and a member of the Alabama state legislature. He was also a former newspaper editor.
Lee's mother was a housewife, and was said to have suffered from a mental illness.
The character Scout from her famous novel, is modeled after the tomboyish Lee. The character Dill,
is modeled after her childhood friend and fellow writer Truman Capote. And Atticus Finch is
modeled after her own father. She attended Monroe County High School, and developed an interest
in literature there. After graduating, she attended the University of Alabama and studied law there,
but ended up not finishing her studies. Eventually she wound up in New York City working as an
east airline ticket agent, in her free time she wrote fiction....show more content...
He offered to aid her financially for one year so she could quit her job and put all her effort into
writing, a generous and golden opportunity for Lee. In this year Harper Lee wrote what would
eventually become To Kill a Mockingbird. The initial draft was titled Go Set a Watchman, she sent
this draft to a publishing company where it sparked the interest of Tay Hohoff, an editor. Hohoff
suggested that Lee polish and complete the novel fully as it could not be published yet. They
communicated back and forth with suggestions and

The Life of Nelle Harper Lee Essay
The Life of Nelle Harper Lee
On April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, Nelle Harper Lee was born to Amasa Coleman Lee
and Frances Finch Lee. Along with her siblings, Alice, Louise, and Edwin, Harper was educated in
Monroeville Public Schools before going on to attend Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama
. After a year at Huntingdon, Lee decided to follow in the footsteps of her father and began
studying law at the University of Alabama in 1945 [2]. She left there to study abroad at Oxford
University, Wellington Court in England [4]. After returning to the United States, she continued her
education at the University of Alabama. However, in 1950, six months prior to completing her law
degree, Lee moved to New York hoping to begin...show more content...
The following year, To Kill a Mockingbird was made into anaward–wining film staring Gregory
Peck as Atticus. The book was also chosen as a Reader's Digest Condensed Book, a Book–of
–the–Month book, and a Literary Guild Selection. Outside of the United States, the book was just
as successful. In Great Britian, for example, it remained on the bestsellers list for many months and
was selected as the British Book Society Top Book of the Year. In addition to this, To Kill a
Mockingbird has been translated into several foreign languages [3].
Over the years, Harper Lee has received several awards for her writing abilities. In 1966, President
Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Lee to the National Council of Arts [1]. In 1990, she received an
honorary doctorate from the University of Alabama. Seven years later, Spring Hill College in
Mobile, Alabama, awarded Lee with an honorary doctorate of human letters for her "lyrical elegance,
her portrayal of human strength, and wisdom" [2].
Harper Lee's career as a writer has been limited since the publication of her critically acclaimed
novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1961, she published two essays: "Love–In Other Words" and
"Christmas to Me." Four years later, "When Children Discover America" was published [3].
Another essay, "Romance and High Adventure," was presented by Harper Lee in 1983 at the
Alabama History and Heritage Festival in Eufala, Alabama [2].
Today,

To Kill A Mockingbird Critical Essay
Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, a sleepy small town
similar in many ways to Maycomb, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. Like Atticus Finch, the
father of Scout, the narrator and protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee's father was a lawyer.
Among Lee's childhood friends was the future novelist and essayist Truman Capote, from whom she
drew inspiration for the character Dill. These personal details notwithstanding, Lee maintains that To
Kill a Mockingbird was intended to portray not her own childhood home but rather a nonspecific
Southern town. "People are people anywhere you put them," she declared in a 1961 interview.
Yet the book's setting and characters are not the only aspects of the story shaped by events that
occurred during Lee's childhood. In 1931, when Lee was five, nine young black men were accused
of raping two white women near Scottsboro, Alabama. After a series of lengthy, highly publicized,
and often bitter trials, five of the nine men were sentenced to long prison terms. Many prominent
lawyers and other American citizens saw the sentences as spurious and motivated only by racial
prejudice. It...show more content...
Nevertheless, in the racially charged atmosphere of the early 1960s, the book became an enormous
popular success, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and selling over fifteen million copies. Two
years after the book's publication, an Academy Award
–winning film version of the novel, starring
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, was produced. Meanwhile, the author herself had retreated from the
public eye: she avoided interviews, declined to write the screenplay for the film version, and
published only a few short pieces after 1961. To Kill a Mockingbird remains her sole published
novel. Lee eventually returned to Monroeville and continues to live

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay About Racism
Breonna Burrell
Period 5
TKAM Essay
10/6/09
(Re–Write 10/24/09) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee depicts racism in the 1930's and shows
the characters had to overcome challenges because of it. The 1930's was a difficult time to live in
because of racism against African Americans and the depression, where thousands of people lost
their jobs. The idea "an extraordinary challenge can sometimes make an ordinary person into a hero"
shows that anyone in To Kill a Mockingbird could have been a hero, even in a time of hardships.
Scout Finch, Arthur "Boo" Radley, and Atticus Finch overcame challenges in the story in order to
become great heroes. For instance, Arthur "Boo" Radley overcame many obstacles in order to
become a hero...show more content...
His honesty to his children and the way he explains different situations to them makes him a hero
to his children and also to the people around him. Another instance of Atticus' heroism is when he
shoots a mad dog in the middle of February. Unbeknown to his children he is "One shot finch"
according to Miss Maudie (Lee 97). Even though he does not want to shoot the dog he goes
against his own will for the sake of the town, which makes him heroic. Atticus is a classic
example of a hero because he is not afraid to speak his mind or back down. Scout is a big hero in a
little package, saving Tom and Atticus and facing her fear of Boo Radley. Luckily, Scout is able
to calm down the mob in front of the jail where Tom Robinson is being held the night before the
trial. She stops to talk to Mr. Cunningham out of plain respect, which makes him stop and think
about what he is about to do. Once he realizes he is wrong, he stops the rest of the mob and says,
"Let's clear out...Let's get going, boys" (Lee 154), and they all leave. Because of Scout, Tom and
possibly Atticus are saved from possible death. Her bravery also gives her a heroic quality. When
she faces up to her fear of Boo Radley, she realizes he is not the mysterious bad man she thought him
to be, but is actually wonderful. When she finds out that he has brought excitement and happiness
into her life, she becomes grateful for all the things he has done for her, even though she

Harper Lee Research Paper
Harper Lee was born in times of racism and when society was unbalanced. The author of her much
accredited book To Kill a Mockingbird, wrote a world known novel and published another book
after that, which started some recent controversy. As she grew older, her work, and public
harassment began to shape Lee's character. It's interesting to learn about Harper, especially when it
comes to her background, her work, and where she is today.
Nelle Harper Lee was born April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama into a racist world. Born the
youngest of four children, Harper was known as a tomboy. Her father was a lawyer and Lee's
mother was suffering from an illness that rarely let her leave the house. Lee grew up alongside a
childhood friend, Truman Capote, who later on helped each other write books. Harper developed an
interest in literature while in high school. She joined the schools newspaper where she began to
write. High school was where Harper found her passion. In Harper's junior year of high school
she was accepted to Law school, where she left behind the contributions to the school newspapers.
After only a year of law school, Lee realized writing was her motive. Eventually, Lee met Broadway
composer Michael Martin Brown. In 1956, Brown gave Lee a full year's pay to write her novel as a
Christmas present, as well as finding her an agent....show more content...
In 1960, Lee published her book To Kill a Mockingbird and only a year later won the Pulitzer Prize
and other awards. Not long after, Harper's book became a success; she denied almost all interviews
and appearances. Later on in 1962, a movie was made for the book, by Horton Foote, who won an
academy award, and in Harper's words, "is one of the best translations of a book to film ever
made." (Lee) Afterwards, she helped Capote write his book. In 1966, he published In Cold Blood
which turned out to be a success. Capote did not give credit to Harper, but they continued to be
friends

Harper Lee's Life Experiences Shaped To Kill a Mockingbird

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Harper Lee's Life Experiences Shaped To Kill a Mockingbird