Inspirations Behind Harper Lee's Book, To Kill A Mockingbird

Nelle Harper Lee is a very well-known author, who earned fame from her book, To Kill a Mockingbird. This book was so well-written that she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. To Kill a Mockingbird is admired by many people, so it is reasonable to think that the book was inspired by life experiences. To make a book of such strong emotion, Harper Lee must have experienced some of that emotion herself. Harper Lee’s early life must have inspired her to write To Kill a Mockingbird.

Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, very similar to Maycomb, Alabama, which is the setting of her book. Scout and Harper Lee lived in southern Alabama country, so Harper Lee would know firsthand how life was in a town like Maycomb. As a child, it is known that Harper Lee was a lot like Scout. Both of them were rowdy and tomboyish, so Harper Lee found inspiration for Scout in her younger self. Harper Lee also fought with fellow classmates at school and talked back to teachers, and it is evident that Scout embodies a young Harper Lee. As Scout bears much resemblance to Harper Lee, their childhoods were also similar.

While Harper Lee was growing up, a case called the Scottsboro Trials took place. This trial was centered on two white women accusing 9 black men of rape. Harper Lee was young at the time and very impressionable, so it is very clear that the Scottsboro Trials were the inspiration behind Tom Robinson’s Trial. In the Tom Robinson Trial, Tom Robinson, a black man, was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. Both of these trials took place in the 1930s, and, in both of these trials, the charge is the same, rape. The races of each party were the same, the plaintiff was white, and the defendant was black. In the Scottsboro ...

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... in the summer. Whenever Capote came back to Monroeville, children living there would continually tease him about not being very strong and wearing fancy clothes. Harper Lee would always stick up for him, similar to how Scout would defend Dill if anyone teased him. Harper Lee and Capote both developed a love of reading and writing, and both published books. In one of Capote’s books, Other Voices, Other Rooms, the character Idabel was clearly influenced by Harper Lee, and, in turn, Dill Harris was clearly influenced by Capote. Dill Harris was extremely close friends with Scout, and he always came to Maycomb in the summers. Scout and Dill would write original plays with interesting storylines, and act them out with Jem. The fact that Scout and Dill wrote plays together may be a reference to Harper Lee and Capote perusing careers in the field of literature.