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Harper Lee's Life Analysis

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Harper Lee is an American writer, born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She is famous for her race relations novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. And it became an international bestseller and was adapted into screen in 1962 under a movie named ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ as well. Lee was 34 when the book was published, and it still remains her only novel.
Lee’s childhood has a huge impact on her book. It has affected not only the settings and characters, but also the events. Analyzing the novel, there are quite many similarities between Lee’s life especially throughout her childhood and the life in the novel. Monroeville, which is Lee’s hometown, is a quiet small town where everyone knows their …show more content…

As previously mentioned, Maycomb is a quiet small Southern town where black people are totally oppressed. They are thought of as citizens belonging to a lower social rank. Moreover, they are excluded from the town’s society. All what they get is oppression and injustice. For example, Atticus thinks that everyone deserves a fair trial while Maycomb thinks that only white people do. Tom Robinson was proved to be innocent due to the clear evidence. Yet, he was sentenced to a long time prison only because of his skin color. And when he tries to escape due to the injustice he faces, he gets shot to death. Oppression based on ethnicity is more of an ideology inherited through generations. This is why children at school start to abuse Jem and Scout after their father accepts to defend Robinson. Moral education would change ill personalities and make them more open to people from different races. It will make them consider them as real human beings. For example, Scout never considered Boo Radley as a person. She even participated in acting out his story with Jem and Dill. When Atticus saw them doing this, he advised them to try to see life from another person’s point of view instead of making judgements. When Boo Radley finally got out of the Radley Place to save her and Jem from Ewell’s attack, had a small talk with her then disappeared there again, she managed to understand how life is to Boo. She could finally see him as human being. She could then understand her father’s advice about trying to see life from someone else’s perspective. Then Scout started to embrace sympathy and understanding according to her father’s advice. And this is what it takes to manage compassion and forgiveness towards people; a little of

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Truman Capote was one of Harper Lee’s closest childhood friends. She stepped up to serve as his protector (“Early” 1). Harper Lee’s novel to kill a mockingbird was her first novel. Harper Lee was born and raised in Monroeville, Alabama on April 28, 1926 (“Harper” 1. Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer, a member of the Alabama state legislature (“Harper” 1).

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Scout's growing understanding and acceptance of the people in her community, flaws and all, is one of the most significant ways she demonstrates tolerance. Scout, for example, is terrified of Arthur "Boo" Radley at first and believes the rumors that he is a "monster”. However, as she learns more about him and his situation, she starts to see him as a human being and develops empathy for him. This is demonstrated when Scout says "I was too old and too big for such childish things, but I knew that Jem's ideas about Arthur Radley were, to him, as real as the things he could see" (Chapter 6). This shows that Scout is growing in her understanding of people and her ability to empathize with them.

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“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” is one of Harper Lee’s most memorable lines from To Kill a Mockingbird (39). The reason why is because its lesson is found throughout the story in the most unexpected ways. This theory is taught to the characters Jem and Scout through others such as Boo Radley. This is why Boo is a catalyst through which Jem and Scout are able to learn empathy from the rumors circulating around him, a surprising night, and gifts.

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The way the people and the town influence Jem and Scout make the characters more realistic and the overall story much more interesting. To Kill a Mockingbird is an exceptional novel that conveys many positive messages throughout. In her novel, Lee creates honest and relatable characters that take the reader on a journey through life in the south during the Great Depression. Readers are impressed by Lee’s eloquent writing and amazing characters, all of which make To

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The story is filled to the brim with examples of discrimination based on class, race, and gender. The Maycomb community is an invidious environment, unpleasant and unfairly discriminating against colored people. Maycomb is a representation of larger societal issues, where xenophobic people, unable to stand up against social norm, lead us to an ineffable dystopian world; where every person of color is atrocious, every woman is weak, and people who are of lower class are objects to be used and

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That’s one part I didn’t like about the book. The stereotypes of the black families of Maycomb. As soon as Bob Ewell turned Tom Robinson in for “raping” his daughter the whole white community believed it because he was black. He was a kind, loving father and husband. But no one bothered to get to know the real him or see past the color of his skin to really know that.

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