(Nelle) Harper Lee wrote about what was familiar to her. ❖ Born April 28, 1926 in
Monroeville, Alabama. ❖ Parents: Amasa Coleman Lee, descendent of Gen.
HARPER LEE And To Kill a Mockingbird
EARLY LIFE (Nelle) Harper Lee wrote about what was familiar to her Born April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama Parents: Amasa Coleman Lee, descendent of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Frances Finch Lee Grew up during the Great Depression Older sister Alice and Father practiced law
EARLY LIFE CONT. Attended public schools First year of college: Huntington College Followed with a year as an exchange student at Oxford University in England Studied law at the University of Alabama from 1945-1949 6 months prior to completing her law degree, moved to NYC 1950 and became an airline reservation clerk.
WRITING CAREER Began writing at the age of seven Was convinced by a literary agent to submit pieces to him He advised she expand one of the short stories submitted into a novel Submitted her novel to Lippincott in 1957, but it was not published until 1960 after a great deal of rewriting Lee considers herself “more of a rewriter than a writer.”
THE NOVEL T O KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Began as a short story Lee was supported by friend who encouraged her to quit her job to write full-time. Won the Pulitzer Prize Reflects Lee’s childhood in Alabama Focuses on role of “the Negro” in Southern Life
THE NOVEL TKAM Deals not with civil rights, but with human dignity Dignity should be based on human merit, not racial origin
Principal character: Atticus Finch, resembles Lee’s father • Humble, intelligent, hardworking
Scout: tomboy who resembles Lee Personal Experience: Boo Radley’s house resembles similar house from Lee’s
childhood • Fantasy, superstition, and curiosity
Lee often visited father’s office as Scout visits Atticus
BACKGROUND: THE EARLY SOUTH Colonial times: large cotton plantations and small cities Need for cheap labor allowed slavery to take a stronghold there. Plantation owners formed a aristocracy and the slaves gained a measure of economic security Poorer white farmers owned small pieces of land or worked as share croppers.
CIVIL WAR 1861-65 Machines decreased need for slavery ex: cotton gin 2 extremes: set free or total disregard Carpetbaggers made worse • Northerners did nothing to help freed slaves • Southerners took hostility felt toward “Yankees” out on Negros
Civil War Colored man meant 2 things to white Southerner • Slave forcibly given equal rights of former master • Symbol of defeat…reminder of what North did to South
POST CIVIL WAR New farming methods left many in rural South extremely poor 1929 – Great Depression : farmers suffered most because dependent on land entirely for living • Crops rotted • No $ for seed
1932 new era ushered in with Franklin Roosevelt
Fed govt. took active interest in working man Laws regulated farm production, labor unions, and social security
NOVEL IN ITS SETTING 1930’s Southern Life Finches once had large successful plantation
Ancestors had been aristocrats of the South Cunninghams have nothing but their land Atticus is a lawyer Sister, Alexandra still making a living on Finch’s Landing
Ewells illustrate extremes of poverty as well as Negroes • Ewells bc won’t do anything about it • Negros bc nobody will let them do anything about it.
