To Kill a Mockingbird

Walker_Annabelle_English3_MLAStyleResearchPaper

Walker, Annabelle

English 3

To Kill A Mockingbird Research Paper

10 March 2013

The Similarities of Her Life and Her Fiction

Many authors that write meaningful and classic novels have many ways of finding inspiration for their writing. Harper Lee had things throughout her childhood that she used to create the fictional character Scout Finch, which was meant to be a reflection of herself. The first similarity of their childhoods is that both their fathers were small-town lawyers; the second is that Finch was Lee’s mother’s maiden name, and the third similarity is the character Boo Radley, which was based on an actual person who lived down the street from Harper Lee when she was young.

Nelle Harper Lee, born on April 28th 1962, lived in Monroeville, Alabama and only wrote one book throughout her lifetime, which was To Kill A Mockingbird. “We know that she was a lawyer 's daughter, raised in a small Alabama town in the 1930s, just like her plucky narrator Scout Finch” (Shmoop Editorial Team Pg.1). Lee had knowledge of the injustices and prejudices in her small town when she was young, just as Scout had in the book did because of their fathers. In the story, Atticus Finch, the father of Scout, is a lawyer in the town of Maycomb who defends the black man, Tom Robinson, in a trial in which Tom Robinson was innocent, but was believed by all the white townspeople to be guilty. Atticus “stood for truth and fairness” (Shmoop Editorial Team Pg.1). Lee 's father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was an attorney, similar to Atticus Finch, and in 1919, he defended two black men accused of murder. He believed in the same values as Atticus, and after the two black were convicted, hanged, and mutilated, he never tried another criminal case.

The second connection to Harper Lee’s life and the book was the last name of the family, Finch, which was Lee’s mother’s maiden name. “Although Scout 's mother died when she was a baby, and Lee was 25 when her mother died, her mother was prone to a nervous condition that rendered her mentally and emotionally absent. Lee had a brother named Edwin, who, like the fictional Jem, was four years older than his sister. Also as in the novel, a black housekeeper came daily to care for the Lee house and family” (Claudia Durst Johnson Pg.4). It is common for authors such as Harper Lee to use the names of friends, relatives, or even people they barely know to create fictional characters. Authors use many different types of inspiration to make their writing unique. To Kill A Mockingbird is not an autobiography, but it is an example of how an author should write about what he or she knows and write truthfully. This is the reason that several people and events from Lee’s childhood parallel those of the childhood of Scout, such as the name Finch.

Lastly, another very important character in the book, Boo Radley, was a character that was based off of a real man in Harper Lee’s life. Arthur "Boo" Radley is the most mysterious character in To Kill a Mockingbird and slowly reveals himself throughout the novel. He is the quiet man who lives down the street from Scout and Jem who rarely presents himself to the children. When Boo finally comes out of his home, he saves the children from Bob Ewell, who is trying to murder them. No one sees what happens in the scuffle, but at the end of it, Ewell is dead and Boo carries Jem to the Finch house. When Scout sees Boo she does not recognize him because she has never seen him before, except in her dreams. Boo Radley was written to symbolize good, and was the human “mockingbird” of the story. The character Boo Radley was based off a man that lived down the street from Harper Lee when she was a child, and was written to be mysterious just as the man was. Lee wanted her book and characters to have “a realism and rich depth” (Terry Skinner Pg. 1) which is the reason she made so many connections between real people and her fictional characters. The man that lived down the street from Lee never came out of the house and made her and her friend Truman Capote, the person the fictional character Dill was created from, constantly wonder about him. She created Boo Radley just as she saw the mystery man down the street, and created Jem and Scout to be curious just as she and Truman were.

Harper Lee had many connections between real people and the characters of the book such as her father and Atticus Finch, the actual family name Finch, and the reclusive Boo Radley. She used these connections to be the inspiration of her writing, which is a common thing of authors. The many events and characters that paralleled Lee’s life in To Kill A Mockingbird is of the many reasons it became one of the greatest and most well known novels ever to be written.

Works Cited

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Harper Lee: Childhood." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 November 2008. Web. 11 March 2013. <http://www.shmoop.com/harper-lee/facts.html>

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 November 2008. Web. 11 March 2013. <http://www.shmoop.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird/atticus-finch.html>

Johnson, Claudia Durst. “Release of To Kill a Mockingbird in the Civil Rights Era.” Library.thinkquest.org. 25 March 2004. Web. 11 March 2013. <http://thinkquest.org/pls/html/think.library>

Skinner, Terry. “The Similarities Between Harper Lee’s Life and To Kill A Mockingbird.” www.studymode.com. June 2012. Web. 11 March 2013. <http://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Similarities-Between-Harper-Lee-s-Life-1035736.html>

Cited: Shmoop Editorial Team. "Harper Lee: Childhood." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 November 2008. Web. 11 March 2013. &lt;http://www.shmoop.com/harper-lee/facts.html&gt; Shmoop Editorial Team. "Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 November 2008. Web. 11 March 2013. &lt;http://www.shmoop.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird/atticus-finch.html&gt; Johnson, Claudia Durst. “Release of To Kill a Mockingbird in the Civil Rights Era.” Library.thinkquest.org. 25 March 2004. Web. 11 March 2013. &lt;http://thinkquest.org/pls/html/think.library&gt; Skinner, Terry. “The Similarities Between Harper Lee’s Life and To Kill A Mockingbird.” www.studymode.com. June 2012. Web. 11 March 2013. &lt;http://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Similarities-Between-Harper-Lee-s-Life-1035736.html&gt;