"To Kill A Mockingbird"

Comparison Essay # 99691

English > Analysis
English > Comparison
Literature > American

Compares Harper Lee's actual life with that of the character of Scout Finch from Lee's novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird".

1,180 words () | 9 sources | MLA | 2003 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," written by Harper Lee. The paper specifically focuses on the similarities that seem evident between the life of Harper Lee herself and her character of Scout Finch. It looks at the parallels between the trial of Tom Robinson in "To Kill a Mockingbird" and one of the most notorious series of trials in the nation's history, the Scottsboro trials.

From the Paper:

"How would you write a book about your childhood memories, let's say at six years old, some thirty years later, without ever writing a diary? You would need to know specific dates, important events, your favorite places to go, and other important things that had happened while growing up. Well, Harper Lee, wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, some thirty years after her childhood. Lee had many childhood experiences which are similar to those of Scout Finch, the narrator of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird."
" Harper Lee was making use of a history as she knew it, and in the back of her mind was her knowledge of the Scottsboro Trials, based on the arrest of nine young African-American men in Alabama in the l930s. During the l950s when she was writing To Kill a Mockingbird, the Civil Rights movement was an active force in American life, especially in the south. But it was her imaginative gifts as a storyteller that enabled Harper Lee to move beyond the factual circumstances of history and to write an original and compelling novel with moral meaning
(http://www.co.forsyth.nc.us/library/book/author.html.)."

Sample of Sources Used:

"Harper Lee."(2000): 3 Pages. 5 April 2003. http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/about_harper_lee.html
"Harper Lee's Childhood." (2000): 1 Page. 4 April2003. http://www.co.forsyth.nc.us/library/book/author.html.
"Historical Background." 4 Pages.5 April 2003. http://www.library.thinkquest.org/1211/SG/SG5html.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books Inc. 1960
O'Neill, Terry. "Readings on To Kill a Mockingbird." San Diego: Greenhaven Pass, Inc., 2000