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How Did Harper Lee Influence Writers

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Harper Lee, one of the greatest influences of literature brought the idea of racial segregation to life throughout her works. She grew up in a time period in which Southerners suffered segregation and discrimination, this played a part in her political standpoints and inspired her to take a stand on issues such as discrimination. Her works became prominent in the Civil Rights Movement because she addressed topics such as blacks being falsely accused of crimes and false assertions against people of that race. Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, released in 1960, brought to life the ongoing racial problems that lived in America during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. Her life directly paralleled her novel, her father took on an occupation …show more content…

When talking about To Kill a Mockingbird, she stated “as a writer, I realized that you can tell a story that’s entertaining but doesn’t dodge political issues. Righteous anger can motivate people to action, and that’s one of the values of the book” (Winslet 1) Her writings portrayed many political standpoints which influenced many famous people, including Martin Luther King Jr. in his book Why We Can 't Wait, he even mentions Atticus Finch and his “strength of moral force and how nonviolence could symbolize a gold badge of heroism.” (Levy 1) Lee’s character, Atticus, greatly influenced people and authors of that time, his attitude of “having to make the best of things, and the way he conducted himself when the chips are down” (Lee 75) showed a character that many people tried to reflect in their everyday …show more content…

Releasing her novel into classrooms around the nation taught the students about the Southern views and their oppression which helped bring to light the reasons for the movement. Her novel kept up a popular status to his day and her ideas of hope and justice still empower classrooms. When talking to a teacher here at Pilot Grove about her stance on the book she stated that “if she had to choose a book to teach in classrooms, it would be this one because of its literary variations and its overarching sense of hope.”
Another schoolteacher noted that “Harper Lee’s greatest contribution to our culture was that she found a way to make people listen who weren’t listening. To help people see who would have rather turned away.” (Crum 1)Her writing made the idea of racial segregation and stereotyping come to light by addressing it in her widely popular novel. Lee’s greatest feat in American literature, her contribution to the Civil Rights Movement through her book To Kill a Mockingbird, impacted the way that not only authors, but the way people of this day

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736 Words | 3 Pages

No hope. No equity. Some of those rebels use radical schemes to make statements, while others simply stand in the streets and preach. Harper Lee chose a different way to display her disapproval — writing. In ​To Kill a Mockingbird​, Harper Lee employs irony, symbolism, and humor to launch real world ideas and values at the public, and lets them slowly come to a realization on where our problems really lie.

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965 Words | 4 Pages

Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird was set in the southern states of America during the interwar period, a place and period of time where racism and sexism were predominant. This story highlights the plight of those that acted out against the dominant ideology. Some brave people began to speak and act upon what they believed in no matter what society said. A few women began to speak up which was very uncommon. Miss Maudie Atkinson, Calpurnia, and Scout Finch showed very strong characteristics.

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926 Words | 4 Pages

Harper Lee’s novel, To kill a Mockingbird, is a book about the Finch family, living in Maycomb, Alabama, during the early 1930s. The book is told through the perspective of an 8-year-old girl called Scout, and it's about the struggles she and her brother Jem, age 11, face when their father Atticus takes a case defending a black man accused of raping a white girl. Lee embraces the idea of nonviolent resistance and shows how sometimes it can be the most powerful influence in change, how hate is not the way, and she pushes the reader to consider their worldview about the differences among people. The Author shows her belief in nonviolence in many ways throughout this book.

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257 Words | 2 Pages

This novel came out just as people were fighting over school desegregation, and civil rights movements that sought to restore basic civil rights for African Americans. It was a time of group action in the United States during which African Americans and the NAACP’s objective was to fight racism, discrimination and racial segregation that denied them their fundamental and basic rights. Lee was inspired by a catalysing event that occurred in her hometown in the 1930s when she was only ten years old. The trial is famously known as the Scottsboro Boys Case, where nine young black boys were wrongfully convicted of a heinous crime. They were charged with raping two white girls on a train and were sentenced to the death penalty.

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468 Words | 2 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee in 1962 during the Civil Rights movement, but was set in Alabama in the 1930s. Lee’ father, who was a lawyer in the South during a time of racial prejudice paralleling Atticus, defended an innocent Black men in a case he later lost. Similar to Atticus, Lee’s father lost the case because his client was Black. Having experienced this racial prejudice first hand, Lee chose to write this novel to highlight the racial injustice that took place during the 1930s and the many effects that occured from the racism. Lee uses ethos and logos in Atticus’s speech to the jury, to inform the reader of the injustices of racism.

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767 Words | 4 Pages

Harper Lee is a friendly and outgoing person. Harper Lee began writing To Kill A Mockingbird in 1960. This story took place in 1936 when harper lee was younger living out her childhood in Monroeville, Alabama. This book explains to us the roots and consequences of racism that occurred in the book and how good and evil can happen to a town or an individual. In her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee uses Tom Robinson, Atticus, and Jem to show that good and evil can happen in a person and a town.

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1671 Words | 7 Pages

There have been movies and books released about the Scottsboro case, and a movie made based on Harper Lee’s novel (McDaniel 3).  The movies and books are loved by many and often compared. Some today credit Harper Lee with playing a role in the fight to end racism because of how she portrayed characters within her novel.   Therefore, Harper Lee’s

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1059 Words | 5 Pages

However, there were many who rejected the idea of segregation and became what people consider a hero today. To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee in the 1960’s. It tells the story of a young girl, named Scout, growing up during this time period. In the story, her father defies the Jim Crow Laws by defending an African American, named Tom Robinson.

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1426 Words | 6 Pages

Those decades shared a major subject, inequality. Harper Lee decided to acknowledge the inequality in her novel To Kill A Mockingbird. She wrote the story with setting in the 1930s but opinions from the 1960s. Raised in a town that held tight to their 1930s opinions during the 1960s, she decided to write what she knew. She showed the inequality in problems such as economy, race, and women.

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520 Words | 3 Pages

(Lee, 224) In conclusion, throughout her book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows us how life really was at that time. Racism was causing people to think badly of others that were different from them. She experienced segregation that divided people. She also showed us that we can overcome these things by including a character like Atticus.

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743 Words | 3 Pages

Harper Lee uses Characterization to show the reader of her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, how different people and events impact children as they grow up and shape the kind of adults they will turn out to be. She shows how the people of Maycomb influenced Jem and how Scout’s view was changed by a single person. Lee also makes it evident that one event can change children’s entire perception of the

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1019 Words | 5 Pages

Literature can be analyzed with many different critical lenses. While analyzing To Kill a Mockingbird, one may use a critical lens to recognize the different ideas throughout the novel. Harper Lee’s novel demonstrates her perspective on intolerance and discrimination within the early twentieth century. Firstly, intolerance of people who are different is very prevalent within the novel.

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714 Words | 3 Pages

Through To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us the righteousness of empathy. Harper Lee 's technique of writing and coinciding Christian beliefs weaved through emphasizes the importance of the story 's moral and themes. It is through Scout, the young dynamic and protagonist, that Lee opens the reader 's eyes to a realistic world of prejudice and inequality during the 1930s. Though introducing many characters throughout the novel, it is through Lee 's wise father character, Atticus Finch, that she further helps teach her readers life lessons, one being empathy. While narrating in first person, Lee further details her novel with the setting and use of style and diction.

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955 Words | 4 Pages

Lee has many intentions and beliefs for her writing the novel, she highlighted equality, civil rights, racisms, prejudice and bigotry. This ties in with the title of the novel because there are two characters that are portrayed as mockingbirds Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Mockingbirds in the novel are proven to be a sin to kill, as quoted on page 98 “mockingbirds don’t do one things but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up peoples gardens, don’t nest in the cribs, don’t do one thing just sing their hearts for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

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1128 Words | 5 Pages

Although the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, took place in the 1930s, it ties closely into the Civil Rights Movement. This novel displayed the obvious superiority whites had over blacks. It took place during a time when colored people faced discrimination, prejudice, and racism. When the book was published in the 1960s, it made whites furious, resulting in a lot of controversy. Harper Lee had a goal when writing, she wanted to show the relation between actual events that happened during the civil rights and incorporate it into her own novel to show how cruel colored people were treated, specifically when whites accused blacks of doing sinful acts.

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