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Harper Lees novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird, is a piece of literature that will stand throughout time. The novel inflicts many interesting points. Harper Lees life was an interesting one. Her novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird, won many awards. The similarity between Scout and Miss Lee is great. The narrator, Scout told the novel pretty well, but Harper Lees determination to get her point across was so great that it was at the expense of the character.
Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, a city of about 7, 000 people in Monroe County. Monroeville is in southwest Alabama, about halfway between Montgomery and Mobile. She is the youngest of four children of Alaska Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee. As a Kid Harper was a tomboy. She got into many fights. One incident was when Miss Lee was in fourth grade and a fifth grade bully was picking on her.
She fought the bully and won. Harper Lee attended Huntington College 1944 - 45. She also studied law at University of Alabama 1945 - 49 but did not complete requirements for a law degree. It became very useful for her writing later on. It promotes logical thinking and it is an excellent source of story ideas. She also studied one year at Oxford University.
In the 1950 s she worked as a reservation clerk with Eastern AirLines. In order to concentrate on writing Harper Lee gave up her position with the airline and moved into a cold-water apartment with little furniture. Her fathers sudden illness forced her to divide her time between her writing and her family. In 1957 Miss Lee submitted the manuscript of her novel To Kill a Mocking Bird to the J.
B. Lippincott Company. She was told that her novel consisted of a series of short stories strung together, and she was urged to re-write it. For the next two and a half years she re-worked the manuscript with the help of her editor, Tay Hohoff, and in 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird was published, her only published book. In 1961 she had two articles published: Love in Other Words in Vogue, and Christmas to Me in Mc Calls. Christmas to Me is the story of Harper Lee receiving the gift of a years time for writing from friends.
In June of 1966, Harper Lee was one of two persons named by President Johnson to the National Council of Arts. Also named to the 26 member council was artist Richard Diebenkorn Jr. Harper Lees novel To Kill a Mocking Bird was extremely successful. She became famous only with this piece of literature. The novel sold over two and a half million copies in its first year and went through fourteen printings. It was on the best seller list for over 80 weeks.
It was also chosen as a Literary Guild selection, Book of the Month, and it was awarded the Alabama Library Association Award. Harper Lee then went on to win the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She was the first woman to do this since 1942. Harper Lees naming of the characters in To Kill a Mocking Bird relates partly to her family. The last name Finch was named after her sister Alice Finch Lee. The Cunningham's were named after her mother Frances Cunningham Finch Lee.
To Kill a Mocking Bird had an affect on public life. Two bars were named Boo Radley's one which was in New York City and the other in Mobile, Alabama. A song by Bruce Hornsby was made called Sneaking up on Boo Radley. A rock group was formed also name Boo Radley. A business named Atticus Communications was named after Atticus Finch. A Houston, Texas rock group was also named Atticus Finch.
The similarity between Harper Lee and Scout is great. Both of them, whom which are girls, grew up being known as tomboys. As mentioned earlier in this essay, Harper Lee got into many school yard fights. Scout also got into many fights one whom was with Walter Cunningham.
Harper and Scout also grew up being quiet intelligent. The overall story was told pretty well by the narrator, Scout. Unfortunately, the novel tells its story with too much clarity; midway through the novel, one forgets that the narrator is only a child. Scout sees the actions around her with far too much objectivity. As she analyzes the situations affecting her and her family, she seems too wise in the ways of the world, much like an adult in a childs mind rather than an adult reminiscing about childhood. For example, Scouts revelation at the end of the novel.
while she was standing on the Radley porch, was clearly beyond a childs capability of understanding. Most adults would be too traumatized by the experience in the forest even to be lucid, let alone come to the deep philosophical reasoning that she reached about Boo. Instead of a character revelation from Scout, it comes across more as a direct message from the author, as if she had temporarily possessed Scouts mind. As good as the novel is, this uneven characterization happens throughout. Scout repeatedly discovers ideas that are more suited to someone much older. She would act like a normal child, break off into a philosophical dream, and then revert to her childhood persona once again.
Harper Lee is so determined to get her point across that she interjects her points at the expense of the character. She manages the job so skillfully that usually the reader is not aware of what is happening at first-read. It is only after putting the book away that the reader recognizes the deception, throwing all the considerations reached by the reader into doubt. Since the revelations of the character cannot be trusted, the unfortunate truth is that it becomes difficult to trust all else that Harper attempts to share. 1) Noel Polk, Lee, harper, World Book Online, web December 20, 1999 2) web 3) Educ Eth- The English Page, web 4) Naming of The Parts, web
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Research essay sample on Kill A Mocking Bird Piece Of Literature
