FREE ESSAY ON NELLE HARPER LEE

NELLE HARPER LEE

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Early Life
Born in Monroeville, Alabama, on April 28, 1926, Nelle Harper Lee is the youngest of
three children of
Amassa Coleman Lee and Francis Lee. Before his death, Miss Lee's father and her older
sister, Alice,
practiced law together in Monroeville. When one considers the theme of honor that runs
throughout Miss
Lee's novel, it is perhaps significant to note that her family is related to Confederate
General Robert E.
Lee, a man especially noted for his devotion to that virtue.
Miss Lee received her early education in the Monroeville public schools. Following this,
she entered the
University of Alabama to study law. She left there to spend a year in England as an
exchange student.
Returning to the university, she continued her studies, but left in 1950 without having
completed the
requirements for her law degree. She moved to New York and worked as an airline
reservation clerk.
Character
It is said that Miss Lee personally resembles the tomboy she describes in the character
of Scout. Her
dark straight hair is worn cut in a short style. Her main interests, she says, are
collecting the memoirs
of nineteenth century clergymen, golf, crime, and music. She is a Whig in political
thought and believes
in Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the corn laws.
Sources Of To Kill A Mockingbird
Among the sources for Miss Lee's novel are the following:
(1) National events: This novel focuses on the role of the Negro in Southern life, a life
with which Miss
Lee has been intimately associated. Although it does not deal with civil rights as such -
for example, the
right to vote - it is greatly concerned with the problem of human dignity - dignity based
on individual
merit, not racial origin. The bigotry of the characters in this novel greatly resembles
that of the people in
the South today, where the fictional Maycomb County is located.
(2) Specific Persons: Atticus Finch is the principal character in this novel. He bears a
close resemblance
to Harper Lee's father, whose middle name was Finch. In addition to both being lawyers,
they are similar
in character and personality - humble, intelligent and hard-working.
(3) Personal Experience: Boo Radley's house has an aura of fantasy, superstition, and
curiosity for the
Finch children. There was a similar house in Harper Lee's childhood. Furthermore, Miss
Lee grew up amid
the Negro prejudice and violence in Alabama. In addition, she studied law and visited her
father's law
offices as a child, just as Scout visits Atticus' office and briefly considers a career
as a lawyer.
Writing Career
Harper Lee began to develop an interest in writing at the age of seven. Her law studies
proved to be
good training for a writing career: they promote logical thinking, and legal cases are an
excellent source
of story ideas. After she came to New York, she approached a literary agent with a
manuscript of two
essays and three short stories. Miss Lee followed his suggestion that she expand one of
the stories into
a novel. This eventually became To Kill A Mockingbird.
After the success of her first novel, Miss Lee returned to Monroeville to begin work on a
second one. She
learned quickly that privacy was not one of the prizes of a best-selling novelist. These
southern people
are southern people, she said, and if they know you are working at home, they think
nothing of
walking in for coffee. Miss Lee also has said that her second novel will be about the
South, for she is
convinced that her section of the country is the refuge of genuine eccentrics.
Miss Lee thinks of herself as a journeyman writer, and of writing as the most difficult
work in the world.
Her workday begins at noon and continues until early evening. At the end of this time,
she may have
completed a page or two. Before rewriting, she always allows some time to elapse, for a
fresh viewpoint
on what she has done.
Besides her prize-winning novel, Miss Lee has had several essays published. For example,
Christmas
to Me appeared in the December, 1961, issue of McCalls, and Love - In other Words
appeared in the
April 15, 1961, edition of Vogue. These essays display the same easy, sympathetic style
of her novel.
Success Of To Kill A Mockingbird
The success of Harper Lee's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, can be assessed from its
appearance on the
bestseller lists for a period of over eighty weeks. Also the book was chosen as a
Literary Guild selection;
a Book-of-the-Month book; and a Reader's Digest Condensed Book. It was also published in
paperback
by Popular Library. In April, 1961, Miss Lee was awarded the Alabama Library Association
Award. In May,
1961, she was the first woman since 1942 to win the $500.00 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
In addition to its
acclaim in the United States, To Kill A Mockingbird has received awards in foreign
countries. For
example, in Britain it was selected British Book Society Top Book of the Year. It
remained on the British
book lists as a top seller for many months. Besides this, it has been translated into
several foreign
languages. This is an unusual amount of honor to be conferred on any novel; that an
author's first work
should receive such recognition is truly extraordinary.
Background Of The Novel
Early South
In order to appreciate To Kill A Mockingbird fully, the reader should be familiar with
some of the
background of its setting. The South in the colonial times grew into an area with large
cotton plantations
and small cities. Because of the necessity for cheap labor to pick and seed the cotton,
Negro slavery
took a strong hold there. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, there were over
500,000 slaves in
this country, with by far the greatest number in the South. As time passed, plantation
owners formed a
landed aristocracy. The Negroes, though slaves, gained a measure of economic security. On
the
perimeter of this were the poorer white farmers who either owned small pieces of land or
worked as
sharecroppers.
Civil War
With the invention of machines like the cotton gin, that could do the work of many men,
the need for
slaves began to decrease. The profitability of slavery also decreased, and plantation
owners often
treated Negroes with less kindness. There were two extremes. A few Southerners gave their
slaves
freedom, while others totally disregarded them. The Civil War brought slavery to an end,
but created
other, worse problems. The carpetbaggers who streamed into the South for political and
economic gain
aggravated the wounds which the war had opened. The Negro was caught in the middle. On
the one
hand, the Northerners claimed to be working for his benefit, but were really doing
little. On the other,
the Southerners began to take out their bitterness for the Yankees on the Negroes. The
colored man
represented two things to the Southerner. First, he was a slave who was now forcibly
being given equal
rights with his former master. Second, he was the symbol of defeat, and a reminder of
what the North
had done to the South. Therefore, he became an outcast, a scapegoat to be subjugated and
mistreated.
Post Civil War
As time passed and new methods for farming and cotton production were developed, many
people in
Southern rural areas became extremely poor. Some moved to the city; others stayed on the
land to try
to get whatever was possible out of it. Then, in 1929, the Great Depression hit the
United States. The
farmers seemed to suffer most because they depended entirely upon their land for a
living. Their crops
rotted, and they had little or no money for seed. But, in 1932, a new era was ushered
into American
political and economic life. With Franklin Roosevelt, the federal government began to
take an active
interest in the workingman. Laws regulating farm production, labor unions, and social
security became a
part of the American way of life. A new social consciousness was arousing many people in
the nation.
Novel In Its Setting
To Kill A Mockingbird is set against this background of 1930 Southern life. The Finches
are a family who
once had a large, successful plantation. Their ancestors had been aristocratic ladies and
gentlemen of
the South. Now they have been reduced to gentile poverty. They are better off by far than
the
Cunninghams, for example, who have nothing but their land. Atticus Finch has his law
career, and
Alexandra is still able to make a living at Finch's Landing. Actually, the extremes of
poverty are
illustrated in the Ewells and the Negroes. The Ewells are poor, but they don't want to do
anything about
it. The Negroes are poor because nobody will let them do anything about it. The Ewells
won't work even
when they can. The Negroes will work, but the only jobs available to them are the menial,
low-paying
ones.
Chapter 1
Scout (Jean Louise) Finch narrates the story, beginning with a brief family history.
Simon Finch, a
fur-trapping apothecary journeyed from England to Alabama, establishing the family which
made its
living from cotton on Simon's homestead, Finch's Landing. The Civil War left the family
only its land,
which was the source of family incomes until the twentieth century when Atticus Finch
(Scout's father) and
his brother Jack left the land for careers in law and medicine. Atticus settled in
Maycomb, the county
seat of Maycomb County, with a reasonably successful law practice about twenty miles from
Finch's
Landing, where his sister Alexandra still lived.
Scout describes Maycomb as a lethargic, hot, colorless, narrow-minded town where she
lives with her
father, brother Jem (four years older) and the family cook, Calpurnia. Scout's mother had
died when she
was two.
When she was five, Scout and Jem found a new friend, Dill Harris (Goin' on seven), next
door in Miss
Rachel Haverford's collard patch. Dill was Miss Rachel's nephew from Meridian,
Mississippi, who spent
summers in Maycomb.
In the summertime, Jem, Scout and Dill usually played within the boundaries of Mrs. Henry
Dubose's
house (two doors north) and the Radley place (three doors south). The Radley place
fascinated the
children, because it was a popular subject of gossip and superstition in Maycomb. Arthur
Radley had
gotten into trouble with the law when he was a boy. Instead of being sent to the state
industrial school,
his father took custody of him within their house. He was not seen again for fifteen
years. Many legends
grew up about the Radley house and about what went on inside. Miss Stephanie Crawford, a
neighborhood gossip, added fuel to the fire - a fire which included stories of crime,
mutilation, curses
and insanity.
Dill was fascinated by these stories, and gave Scout and Jem the idea of making Boo
Radley come out
of seclusion. When Dill, always eager for some new adventure, dared Jem to run up to the
house and
touch it, Jem thought things over for a few days. Finally, filled with fear, he accepted
the dare. He ran
up, touched the house, and ran back. As the three children stared at the old house, they
thought they
saw an inside shutter move.
Comment
Many themes and plot-themes emerge in Chapter 1. Great emphasis is placed on the world of
Scout,
Jem, and Dill - a small world bounded by a few houses and composed of only a few people.
From the
limited knowledge of this small childish world at the novel's opening, Jem and Scout
broaden with the
passing of years and events. By the time the novel reaches its conclusion, they will have
learned much
more about human nature. Also, Miss Lee emphasizes the Radley family. They are the focal
point for
the development of numerous themes to come. For example, when old Mr. Radley died,
Calpurnia did
something she had never been known to do before. She spoke evil about a white man when
she said,
There goes the meanest man ever God blew breath into. Finally, there are the themes
relating to
family and the Maycomb setting. They increase in importance from chapter to chapter.
Chapters 2 and 3
Scout At School
Dill returned to Mississippi at the end of the summer. Although she was looking forward
to school more
than anything in her life, Scout's first day at school was a disappointment. When Miss
Caroline tried to
teach reading, Scout was bored. Much to Miss Caroline's dismay, Scout was already
accomplished at
reading and writing. She told Scout to tell her father not to teach her anything more,
because it would
interfere with her reading. Later, at lunch time, Walter Cunningham had no food with him.
When the
teacher tried to give him a quarter, the boy would not take it. Scout made the mistake of
trying to
explain the reason to Miss Caroline. The Cunninghams were poor country folks who had been
hit hard
by the Depression and were too proud to accept charity. For her trouble, Scout got her
fingers cracked.
Thinking that Walter Cunningham was the cause of her difficulty, Scout tried to beat him
up. Jem would
not let her. Instead, he invited the boy to lunch at their house.
That afternoon, Miss Caroline saw a cootie crawl out of Burris Ewell's hair. She was
shocked by this and
told the boy to go home and wash his hair. The boy really did not care, however, and
became abusive,
since he was in school only because the truant officer had made him come. He did not plan
to return.
That night Scout had a talk with her father. She said she hoped that Atticus would allow
her to stay
home from school like Burris Ewell. However, he explained to her that the Ewells were a
different kind of
people. They did not care about learning and had been a disgrace to Maycomb for
generations. Then
Atticus made a bargain with his daughter. He told Scout that he would continue to read to
her every
night provided she would go back to school and promise not to tell her teacher about it.
Comment These two chapters can be considered together for they contain the story of
Scout's first
experience away from her narrow world at home. The reader must remember that although she
was
bright for her age, Scout was only six. Whatever she had learned thus far, she had
learned at home
from her father, her brother, Calpurnia, and a few neighbors. Therefore, she had much to
learn from
and about the rest of the world. For example, Scout was a town girl and not a farm girl
like many of the
other children in the class. Miss Caroline, the teacher, was not from Maycomb, and could
not be
expected to know or to understand the peculiarities of the people of Maycomb. The little
girl could not
comprehend why Miss Caroline did not have a better understanding. With her limited
experience, Scout
thought that people were alike everywhere. Therefore, she thought that her teacher should
automatically
know that the Cunninghams were poor. Also she thought that her teacher should understand
that the
Cunninghams, and other people of Maycomb, were too proud to accept anything that they
could not pay
back. But Maycomb was farm country, and farmers were a set breed of men, prizing
independence
more than a full stomach. Miss Caroline was from the city; Scout learned that city people
were different.
Miss Caroline: Note, however, that Miss Caroline seemed to have learned something that
first day at
school too. In the morning, she became disturbed when Scout tried to tell her about
Walter
Cunningham. In the afternoon she was quite willing to listen to one of the older children
when he
explained to her about Burris Ewell. Thus the reader will find this entire novel is a
series of experiences
in which one character will gain new insights from his association with the others.
New Names: There are two important new names introduced in these chapter - Walter
Cunningham and
Burris Ewell. Both are from the poor, rural section of the county. However, the reader
should notice the
difference in their characters. Walter is proud and independent; he won't accept charity.
He apologizes
for still being in the first grade. At lunch Atticus speaks to him about farming as
though he were a grown
man. On the other hand, Burris Ewell is surly. He dares Miss Caroline to make him do
anything. Here,
therefore, the author presents the reader with the first series of character contrasts.
These will be
important to the reader throughout the entire novel, especially if he expects to be able
to understand
fully the theme of the story.
Chapters 4, 5 and 6
Radley's Oak Tree
Because Scout was in the first grade, she got out of school thirty minutes earlier than
her brother. This
meant a walk home alone past the dreaded Radley house. Usually she would run by it. There
were two
giant oaks on the Radley property. One day as Scout was running past, she noticed
something shiny in
a knothole of one of the trees. Examining it, she found two pieces of chewing gum. When
she decided
they were all right to eat, she put them into her mouth. When Jem came home, he made her
spit out
the gum. Anything found on the Radley place might be poison. On the last day of school
the children
found a box with two pennies in it. They did not know what to make of the situation, but
they decided to
keep the pennies.
Dill Returns
Two days later Dill arrived. As usual he was full of wild stories and anxious to play
games of
make-believe. The group decided to play a game modeled on the life of Boo Radley. One of
the stories
about him was that he had stabbed his father with a pair of scissors, so the children
began to act this
out every day. They continued until Atticus caught them and took away the scissors.
While the two boys played a scissorless version of their Boo Radley game, Scout became
friendly with
Miss Maudie Atkinson, a benevolent neighbor who had grown up with Atticus' brother Jack.
The two of
them would sit on Miss Maudie's porch and talk. One day they had a talk about Boo Radley
and Miss
Maudie tried to explain the mystery of the Radley family. Recalling that Arthur had been
nice to her as a
boy, she called the Radley house a sad place. She denied the rumors about Boo as
three-fourth
colored folks and one-fourth Stephanie Crawford. The next morning Jem and Dill decided
they would try
to drop a note into the Radley house by using a fishing pole. While they were doing this,
Atticus came
by and once more warned them about bothering the Radleys.
On the last night before Dill had to return home to Mississippi, the boys hatched a plot.
They decided to
sneak through the back of the Radley property and take a peak through one of the windows.
While
doing this, they saw the shadow of a man pass by. As they ran toward the back fence, a
shotgun blast
went off. The three of them hurried even more and managed to escape. However, when they
got home,
Jem realized that he had lost his pants. He had had to squirm out of them while crawling
under the
Radley fence. Thus he found himself faced with another problem. That night, after
everyone had gone
to bed, he went back after his pants. Luckily, they were still there.
Comment
These chapters reveal the children's reaction to the Radley place, and to the Radleys
themselves. It is a
typically childish viewpoint. For example, Scout could not eat the gum because anything
found on the
Radley place might be poison. Also in these chapters there is childish imitation. The
life which the
Radleys led was very unusual. The family remained almost constantly in the house. The
children, with a
natural inclination to imitate the unusual in the adult world, wanted to play the Radley
game. The
Radley game was their Maycomb substitute for playing cowboys and Indians. With a typical
childlike love
of adventure and a curiosity to discover the unknown, Scout, Jem and Dill longed to
discover the answer
to the Radley mystery. They could not understand it as Atticus or Miss Maudie did. They
had to try to
find out for themselves what went on inside the secretive home. Thus the incident of the
note on the
end of the fishing pole and the night visit. Notice, however, that although the children
are curious, they
are not foolishly brave. For example, they have the length of the fishing pole between
them and the
house. Also they chose the darkness of night to sneak up to the window.
Chapter 7
School started again. The second grade was as bad as the first, only worse. One
afternoon, Jem told
Scout that when he returned to get his pants, they were hanging over the fence. Some one
had mended
the tear - Not like a lady sewed 'em, . . . All crooked. After this, the children began
to find more things
in the tree. First a ball of twine; then two soap dolls; and finally an old watch. They
decided they should
write a thank-you note to whoever was giving them these things. However, when they went
to put the
note into the knothole, Jem and Scout found that it had been filled in with cement.
Nathan Radley,
Boo's brother, said he had done this because the tree was dying and this was the way to
save it. Atticus
home from work and told Jem, That tree's as healthy as you are. Scout noticed that Jem
had been
crying when he came in that night.
Hear - Second Grade was Bad as the First: The second grade was as bad as the first, only
worse.
Comment
In this chapter the children begin to stop taking things for granted. They try to figure
out how the
articles in the tree got there. When they conclude that it is probably Boo Radley who is
putting them
there, they do the logical thing. They write a note which they intend to put into the
tree. There is a
difference, however, in the way in which each one reacts to the cement. Scout is still
very young. She
knows that Nathan Radley is being mean, but it does not affect her personally. On the
other hand, the
older Jem is more sensitive and feels things more deeply. He cries not for himself but
for Boo Radley.
He cannot comprehend how one man can be deliberately cruel to another. In his childlike
way, Jem
realizes that Boo Radley must have enjoyed putting those articles into the tree for them.
Jem also
realizes that the man was very considerate to sew his pants. Because of his youth, he
does not know
how to fight adult cruelty. Thus he cries.
Chapter 8
Usually Maycomb had hot summers and mild winters. When snow fell one night, Scout thought
it was the
end of the world. She had never seen it before. Because of this unexpected cold weather,
everyone had
fires going at home. During the night, Miss Maudie's house caught fire. Since all the
houses were old
wooden ones, everyone had to go out into the cold night. While Scout was watching the
firemen at work,
someone slipped a blanket around her shoulders. Later, first Jem and then Atticus realize
that Boo
Radley must have done this. Jem is afraid to return the blanket; he is afraid of what
Nathan may do to
Boo. Atticus agrees that they should keep the blanket and the incident to themselves.
Comment
Kindness is a prominent theme in this chapter. There is the unexpected kindness of Boo
Radley. An air
of mystery pervades the blanket incident because no one realizes at the time that the
action is being
taken. The effect on Scout is typical. She is all right until it dawns on her what has
happened. Then she
is sick with fright at the thought that Boo Radley stood right behind her and touched
her. On the other
hand, Jem reacts differently again. His first concern is Boo. In a babbling attempt to
defend him, Jem
blurts out the story of his pants to Atticus. His compassion is genuine. He is afraid of
what Nathan may
do to Boo. As soon as his fear for Boo is relieved, however, he relaxes and makes a joke
at Scout's
expense - he re-enacts the scene for her benefit, frightening her terribly.
Miss Maudie
Courage is also an important theme, embodied in Miss Maudie's character. The day after
her house
burned down, she did not wallow in self-pity. She laughed and said that she was glad that
the whole
thing had happened. Now she would be able to build a smaller house, take in roomers, and
have more
room for the plants which she loved so dearly. The children were perplexed by her
unexpected good
humor, but they admired her good-natured bravery in the face of personal tragedy.
Chapter 9
Chapter 9 introduces the reader to the main action of the story - Atticus Finch's defense
of the Negro
Tom Robinson. Maycomb's usual disease, as Atticus calls it, begins to show itself. The
narrow-minded
bigotry of the townspeople and of the Finch family is hard for Scout to cope with. First
there was Cecil
Jacobs who announced in the schoolyard that Scout's daddy defended niggers. Scout denied
it, but ran
home to get an explanation. Atticus told her that he was going to defend Tom Robinson, a
member of
Calpurnia's church. He explains that the case is very important to him personally, and
requests that Jem
and Scout try to ignore the talk they will hear around town. Next day, Scout is ready to
fight Cecil Jacobs
again, but remembers Atticus' request and walks away from a fight for the first time in
her life.
Some time later they left for Finch's Landing for the customary family Christmas
celebration with Uncle
Jack, Aunt Alexandra and cousin Francis. Francis taunts Scout by calling Atticus a
nigger-lover, saying
that he's ruinin' the family. Scout flies to her father's defense with fists and bathroom
invective, but
gets a spanking from Uncle Jack. Later he apologizes when he hears her side of the story,
and promises
not to tell Atticus what Scout and Francis really fought about.
Comment
This chapter is very important if the reader is going to understand the full meaning of
this novel. Atticus
has been appointed to defend a Negro. Scout is ridiculed by one of her schoolmates
because of this.
Here is shown the attitude of the townspeople toward the Negroes. Then on Christmas Scout
hears the
same talk from her cousin Francis. This shows the attitude of the Finch family itself
about the problem.
Both Cecil Jacobs and Francis are, of course, echoing what they have heard the adults say
on the
subject. Obviously, to both family and townspeople it seems that Atticus Finch is making
a mistake. How
does Scout act about this matter: She wants to fight with her fists. But she soon learns
that this is not
the way to combat a dispute over ideas. Uncle Jack spanks her, but in her mind he has
been unfair.
Uncle Jack had not listened to her side of the story. When she can tell him about it in
the quiet of her
room, he says that he is sorry.
Scout And The Adults
What then is the picture of the world in the mind of this child, and how does it
foreshadow the future
events of the story? At first Scout fights with her fists because she does not know how
to fight any other
way. Then she sees adult injustice applied to her by Uncle Jack, some one whom she loves.
She begins
to realize that lack of knowledge and lack of forethought often lead people to do things
that they might
not otherwise do. Later, when Scout sees the injustice performed by the people against
the Negro Tom
Robinson, she is going to be able to have just a little bit better understanding of the
reasons for it.
Chapter 10
The first nine chapters give us a picture of Atticus Finch as a kind and understanding
man. He is also an
upright man who is trying to raise his children properly. In this chapter we get a
clearer picture of him.
First we see him through the eyes of his children. To them he is old and feeble because
he can't play
football. Then an event occurs to change this picture. A mad dog comes down the street.
It is Atticus
who is called upon to do the shooting. His children see him now as a brave man. Scout
wants to brag
about this to all her friends, but Jem tells her not to.
Comment
To the reader this chapter might seem out of place. It appears to be an unrelated
incident. However, it
serves to help prepare the reader for what is to follow. In a sense, it sums up the
character of Atticus
Finch. Thus far we have seen him as a very quiet and serious person. Now the author shows
another
side of his character. He is brave but in a different way. He does the day-to-day actions
so well that
when he is called upon to do an extraordinary action, its performance comes naturally to
him.
Scout Vs. Jem
Again we see a contrast in the attitude of the two children. The younger Scout still
cannot understand
why things should or should not be done. For example, she cannot understand why Atticus
never told his
children about his ability to shoot. On the other hand, Jem, the older child, is
beginning to have a sense
of values. He realizes that being a man, and more importantly, a gentleman, is not just
in acting and
talking.
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