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To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee: A Literary Analysis

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“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
There isn’t a book lover in the world who doesn’t hold ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ close to its heart. This work of fiction by Harper Lee was her very first book and remained her only one for over 50 years. Published in 1960, it gave Lee one of the most prestigious awards, i.e. the Pulitzer Prize.
Nelle Harper Lee was born and raised in Monroeville, Alabama, the youngest of four children of Frances Cunningham (Finch) and Amasa Coleman Lee. Her first name, Nelle, was her grandmother's name spelled backwards, and the name she uses. Harper Lee is her pen name. Her mother was a homemaker; her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, practiced law and served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938. Before he became a title lawyer, he once defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper. Both clients, a father and son, were hanged. …show more content…

Her publishers had told her to rewrite and redraft the entire book as it was more of a series of anecdotes than a proper novel. Afterwards, it was renamed as ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, which, as we all know, has become a symbol of modern American Literature.
Harper Lee had taken inspiration from real life incidents in order to create the story of that book.As Scout’s character in To Kill a Mockingbird was inspired by Lee herself, the character of Dill was inspired by Truman Capote, her childhood friend, and later, a fellow writer. The case which the character’s father had taken upon in the book is similar to the one her father lost in real life.
After publishing the book, she went to help Capote, by being his research assistant, and they together, in 1966, went on to publish the book, In Cold Blood under Truman’s

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“So lets ignore each other, try to pretend the other person doesn't exist, but deep down, we both know it wasn't supposed to end like this”. quote by Unknown. Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for her world famous book To Kill a Mockingbird in the year 1960. One specific character named Dill, was based off of her childhood friend Truman Capote. While Mr. Capote based his character, Idabel Thompkins, in his novels Other Voices, Other Rooms, on Harper.

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The time period of the 1930s included The Great Depression, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights Coalition, leaving hardships and crime in their wake. Harper Lee’s famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird that was published on July 11, 1960, gives the readers an insight of what it was like for her growing up in a small southern town in the 1930s. The events she witnessed growing up as a lawyer’s daughter during this time had significant influence for the best-selling novel To Kill a Mockingbird that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and became an Academy Award winning film in 1962. To Kill a Mockingbird has a strong theme of believing the good in everyone, no matter the circumstances. Harper Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer.

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Remember that special bird that always seems to be belting its cheerful tunes? Has anyone ever told you to appreciate the bird’s special knack for singing? Or rather, to do no harm to the frail animal since, after all, “It's a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee, pg.119). Harper Lee took this aphorism and turned it on its head: she gave this phrase a new meaning by creating the critically acclaimed novel, To Kill A Mockingbird starring the brother sister duo, Scout and Jem, both of whom constantly finding themselves in the most unlikely but simultaneously relatable predicaments. The audience follows the pair through their highs and lows in a key coming of age story.

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“Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father is passing,” said the people of color in the upper balconies watching the Tom Robinson case to Scout, as her father walks past them (Lee 241). Harper Lee is the brilliant mind behind the story To Kill a Mockingbird, published in the year 1960. She lived through the great depression, and the segregation of black and white people, and wrote this story so she could express her views about it. This piece of literature created by the author is positioned during the time of racial segregation between black and white people in America.

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