Essay On To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Harper Lee has been a very influential writer in our world today. In her book To Kill a Mockingbird, she has covered the significant topics of discrimination, the importance of education, and the good and the bad that lies in each person. Many of the people and events in Harper Lee’s life have inspired her to write her award winning novel.

Nelle Harper Lee grew up in the small town of Monroeville, Alabama alongside her two parents and four siblings. Harper uses her family as a main inspiration for the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, so that it may create a more personal feel while reading the novel. This clearly shows how much Harper Lee’s family meant to her. Examples of the relations she made to her family can be seen in characters such as her sister, father, mother, neighbor, and other people that have been in her life.

Her sibling, Louise Lee, plays a key role in the naming of the main character Jean Louise Scout Finch. Jean Louise Scout Finch,who is also referred to as Scout Finch, was a tomboy who never actually fit in with all the other female roles in the novel. She was always told what to wear by her aunt, however, she was more content with plain overalls. As a child, Harper too was given the label of a “tomboy.” In fact, she was called “The Queen of the Tomboys.”

Atticus Finch, father of Scout and Jem Finch, was closely related to Lee’s father. Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a caring father and professional lawyer who served in the Alabama legislature for over 12 years. Starting out as a supporter of racial segregation, Amasa quickly turned against these ideas after witnessing several protests that changed his point of view. Harper deeply loved her father and he always treated her and her other siblings wi...

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...ing her law degree, Harper Lee decided that she wanted to become an author and the birth of her writing career began.

Harper began to compose several short stories in which she would submit different local publication agencies. After adding on to one her short stories and submitting it for publication, it was quickly rejected. But with the help of her editor, Harper Lee was able to successfully publish To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 just as the Civil Rights Movement was in effect in the United States.

The success of Harper Lee’s one and only novel was immense. Winning the Pulitzer Prize just after a year of publication, being translated into more than forty languages, selling more the 30 million copies worldwide, and being adapted into a Oscar Winning Movie just two years after its publication are just few of the many accomplishments of this brilliant classic.