Lee's Novel To Kill A Mockingbird example essay topic

The History Behind To Kill A Mockingbird Nelle Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird has been considered one of the classic works of American literature. To Kill A Mockingbird is the work ever published by Nelle Harper Lee, and it brought her great fame. However, Nelle Harper Lee has published several other articles in popular magazines. Nelle Harper Lee is not an individual who desires to be in the light and little is known about her personal life. At the time it is believed she is possible working on her memoirs. The fictional work of To Kill A Mockingbird plots many elements close to real events in America's struggle over civil rights.

Scout Finch is the narrator in Lee's work To Kill A Mockingbird, and the two share many similarities in real life. They both grew up in the 1930 in Alabama towns. Lee's father was A masa Lee "attorney who served in the state legislature in Alabama" (Johnson). Atticus Finch who is Scout's father was also an attorney and served on the state legislature. They both had an older brother and a young neighbor playmate. Lee's was Truman Capote and Scouts was Dill.

When Lee was six years old one of the nations most notorious trials was taking place, the Scottsboro Trials. "On March 25, 1931, a freight train was stopped in Paint Rock, a tiny community in Northern Alabama, and nine young African American men who had been riding the rails were arrested" (Johnson). "Two white women on the train, 2 in an apparent effort to avoid prostitution charges, claimed that they had been raped by the black youths and these accusations nearly led to a lynching in Scottsboro, where the youths had been jailed" (Jones Ross). The trails and appeals of these youth gained national attention throughout the 1930's and, at one point, all but one of the young men was sentenced to death in the Alabama electric chair. In To Kill A Mockingbird Lee tells the story of a Mr. Tom Robinson who is an African American who is being charged with rape against a white women. Atticus is the lawyer who must defend Robinson in court.

In the Scottsboro case a central figure was a heroic judge who overturned a guilty verdict against the young men. The judge went against the public in trying to protect the rights of the African American men. In reading the novel you learn that Atticus arouses anger in the small community when he tries to defend Robinson. The Scottsboro jury had failed to include any African American which caused the Supreme Court to overturn the guilty verdict. While in Robinson's case his verdict was rendered by a jury of poor white southern. 'I don't know [how they could convict Tom Robinson], but they did it.

They " ve done it before and they did it tonight and they " ll do it again and when they do it-seems that only children weep" (Lee) The conviction of Tom Robinson was an eye opening experience to Scout and Jem. It made them doubt the entire legal system. Just as the Scottsboro trail did in non fiction world. Civil rights issues started to build up and begin to show more and more in society. While in the Lee's book Mr. Robinson broke out of jail, and unfortunately was shot to death in the streets of Maycomb county.

'I'm not a very good man, sir, but I am 3 sheriff of Maycomb County. Lived in this town all my life an' I'm go in' on forty-three years old. Know everything that's happened here since before I was born. There's a black boy dead for no reason, and the man responsible for it's dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time, Mr. Finch.

Let the dead bury the dead" (Lee). In conclusion Nelle Harper Lee novel To Kill A Mockingbird is regarded as an American classic. The novel is usually one of the major works used by educators today in teaching the effects of racism and prejudice in American society. One must remember that the story is told from the point of view of a white child. Which as a white child Nelle Harper Lee was dealing with the racism and prejudice of the time. 4

Bibliography

Johnson, Claudia Durst. Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historic Documents. Westport, Ct: Greenwood, 1994.
Jones Ross, Felecia G. "Mobilizing the Masses: The Cleveland Call and Post and the Scottsboro Incident". Journal of Negro History 84/1 (1999): 48-60 Kansas, Jane.
Nelle Harper Lee". May 2004 web Nelle Harper.
To Kill a Mockingbird. New York, NY: Harper Collins Inc, 1960.