Harper Lee, was an American novelist. She was known for writing “To Kill a Mockingbird.” To kill a Mockingbird became immediately successful, and won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. “I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected.” - Harper Lee, quoted in Newquist, 1964. Harper Lee uses motif, characterization and conflict to develop the Coming of Age theme throughout “To Kill a Mockingbird”. …show more content…
Tom Robinson, being a black man was being accused of raping a white woman. Even though this is a case Atticus cannot hope to win, he still has courage and tries his best to when the trial and uphold his sense of justice and self-respect. The coming of age in this passage was Atticus teaching Scout to grow up to be the type of person that will fight for what is right, even if you can’t win. Atticus said, "Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to