FREE ESSAY ON NELLE HARPER LEE

NELLE HARPER LEE

VEssay submitted by Unknown 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
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