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Harper Lee: Introduction to Harper Lee
Early Life
Born in Monroeville, Alabama, on April 28, 1926, Nelle Harper Lee is the
youngest of three children of Amassa Coleman Lee and Francis Lee. Before
his death, Miss Lee's father and her older sister, Alice, practiced law
together in Monroeville. When one considers the theme of honor that runs
throughout Miss Lee's novel, it is perhaps significant to note that her
family is related to Confederate General Robert E. Lee, a man especially
noted for his devotion to that virtue.
Miss Lee received her early education in the Monroeville public schools.
Following this, she entered the University of Alabama to study law. She
left there to spend a year in England as an exchange student. Returning to
the university, she continued her studies, but left in 1950 without having
completed the requirements for her law degree. She moved to New York and
worked as an airline reservation clerk.
Character It is said that Miss Lee personally resembles the tomboy she
describes in the character of Scout. Her dark straight hair is worn cut in
a short style. Her main interests, she says, are "collecting the memoirs of
nineteenth century clergymen, golf, crime, and music." She is a Whig in
political thought and believes in "Catholic emancipation and the repeal of
the corn laws."
Sources Of To Kill A Mockingbird Among the sources for Miss Lee's novel are
the following:
(1) National events: This novel focuses on the role of the
Negro in Southern life, a life with which Miss Lee has been
intimately associated. Although it does not deal with civil
rights as such - for example, the right to vote - it is greatly
concerned with the problem of human dignity - dignity based on
individual merit, not racial origin. The bigotry of the
characters in this novel greatly resembles that of the people in
the South today, where the fictional Maycomb County is located.
(2) Specific Persons: Atticus Finch is the principal character
in this novel. He bears a close resemblance to Harper Lee's
father, whose middle name was Finch. In addition to both being
lawyers, they are similar in character and personality - humble,
intelligent and hard-working.
(3) Personal Experience: Boo Radley's house has an aura of
fantasy, superstition, and curiosity for the Finch children.
There was a similar house in Harper Lee's childhood.
Furthermore, Miss Lee grew up amid the Negro prejudice and
violence in Alabama. In addition, she studied law and visited
her father's law offices as a child, just as Scout visits
Atticus' office and briefly considers a career as a lawyer.
Writing Career Harper Lee began to develop an interest in writing at the
age of seven. Her law studies proved to be good training for a writing
career: they promote logical thinking, and legal cases are an excellent
source of story ideas. After she came to New York, she approached a
literary agent with a manuscript of two essays and three short stories.
Miss Lee followed his suggestion that she expand one of the stories into a
novel. This eventually became To Kill A Mockingbird.
After the success of her first novel, Miss Lee returned to Monroeville to
begin work on a second one. She learned quickly that privacy was not one of
the prizes of a best-selling novelist. "These southern people are southern
people," she said, "and if they know you are working at home, they think
nothing of walking in for coffee." Miss Lee also has said that her second
novel will be about the South, for she is convinced that her section of the
country is "the refuge of genuine eccentrics."
Miss Lee thinks of herself as a journeyman writer, and of writing as the
most difficult work in the world. Her workday begins at noon and continues
until early evening. At the end of this time, she may have completed a page
or two. Before rewriting, she always allows some time to elapse, for a
fresh viewpoint on what she has done.
Besides her prize-winning novel, Miss Lee has had several essays published.
For example, "Christmas to Me" appeared in the December, 1961, issue of
McCalls, and "Love - In other Words" appeared in the April 15, 1961,
edition of Vogue. These essays display the same easy, sympathetic style of
her novel.
Success Of To Kill A Mockingbird The success of Harper Lee's novel, To Kill
A Mockingbird, can be assessed from its appearance on the bestseller lists
for a period of over eighty weeks. Also the book was chosen as a Literary
Guild selection; a Book-of-the-Month book; and a Reader's Digest Condensed
Book. It was also published in paperback by Popular Library. In April, 1961,
Miss Lee was awarded the Alabama Library Association Award. In May, 1961,
she was the first woman since 1942 to win the $500.00 Pulitzer Prize for
fiction. In addition to its acclaim in the United States, To Kill A
Mockingbird has received awards in foreign countries. For example, in
Britain it was selected British Book Society Top Book of the Year. It
remained on the British book lists as a top seller for many months. Besides
this, it has been translated into several foreign languages. This is an
unusual amount of honor to be conferred on any novel; that an author's
first work should receive such recognition is truly extraordinary.
Background Of The Novel
Early South In order to appreciate To Kill A Mockingbird fully, the reader
should be familiar with some of the background of its setting. The South in
the colonial times grew into an area with large cotton plantations and
small cities. Because of the necessity for cheap labor to pick and seed the
cotton, Negro slavery took a strong hold there. At the outbreak of the
American Revolution, there were over 500,000 slaves in this country, with
by far the greatest number in the South. As time passed, plantation owners
formed a landed aristocracy. The Negroes, though slaves, gained a measure
of economic security. On the perimeter of this were the poorer white
farmers who either owned small pieces of land or worked as sharecroppers.
Civil War With the invention of machines like the cotton gin, that could do
the work of many men, the need for slaves began to decrease. The
profitability of slavery also decreased, and plantation owners often
treated Negroes with less kindness. There were two extremes. A few
Southerners gave their slaves freedom, while others totally disregarded
them. The Civil War brought slavery to an end, but created other, worse
problems. The carpetbaggers who streamed into the South for political and
economic gain aggravated the wounds which the war had opened. The Negro was
caught in the middle. On the one hand, the Northerners claimed to be
working for his benefit, but were really doing little. On the other, the
Southerners began to take out their bitterness for the Yankees on the
Negroes. The colored man represented two things to the Southerner. First,
he was a slave who was now forcibly being given equal rights with his
former master. Second, he was the symbol of defeat, and a reminder of what
the North had done to the South. Therefore, he became an outcast, a
scapegoat to be subjugated and mistreated.
Post Civil War As time passed and new methods for farming and cotton
production were developed, many people in Southern rural areas became
extremely poor. Some moved to the city; others stayed on the land to try to
get whatever was possible out of it. Then, in 1929, the Great Depression
hit the United States. The farmers seemed to suffer most because they
depended entirely upon their land for a living. Their crops rotted, and
they had little or no money for seed. But, in 1932, a new era was ushered
into American political and economic life. With Franklin Roosevelt, the
federal government began to take an active interest in the workingman. Laws
regulating farm production, labor unions, and social security became a part
of the American way of life. A new social consciousness was arousing many
people in the nation.
Novel In Its Setting To Kill A Mockingbird is set against this background
of 1930 Southern life. The Finches are a family who once had a large,
successful plantation. Their ancestors had been aristocratic ladies and
gentlemen of the South. Now they have been reduced to gentile poverty. They
are better off by far than the Cunninghams, for example, who have nothing
but their land. Atticus Finch has his law career, and Alexandra is still
able to make a living at Finch's Landing. Actually, the extremes of poverty
are illustrated in the Ewells and the Negroes. The Ewells are poor, but
they don't want to do anything about it. The Negroes are poor because
nobody will let them do anything about it. The Ewells won't work even when
they can. The Negroes will work, but the only jobs available to them are
the menial, low-paying ones.
Copyright c 1993 Bureau of Electronic Publishing, Inc. Harper Lee To Kill a
Mockingbird Part I
Section: To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter: Part I
Chapter 1 Scout (Jean Louise) Finch narrates the story, beginning with a
brief family history. Simon Finch, a fur-trapping apothecary journeyed from
England to Alabama, establishing the family which made its living from
cotton on Simon's homestead, Finch's Landing. The Civil War left the family
only its land, which was the source of family incomes until the twentieth
century when Atticus Finch (Scout's father) and his brother Jack left the
land for careers in law and medicine. Atticus settled in Maycomb, the
county seat of Maycomb County, with a reasonably successful law practice
about twenty miles from Finch's Landing, where his sister Alexandra still
lived.
Scout describes Maycomb as a lethargic, hot, colorless, narrow-minded town
where she lives with her father, brother Jem (four years older) and the
family cook, Calpurnia. Scout's mother had died when she was two.
When she was five, Scout and Jem found a new friend, Dill Harris ("Goin' on
seven"), next door in Miss Rachel Haverford's collard patch. Dill was Miss
Rachel's nephew from Meridian, Mississippi, who spent summers in Maycomb.
In the summertime, Jem, Scout and Dill usually played within the boundaries
of Mrs. Henry Dubose's house (two doors north) and the Radley place (three
doors south). The Radley place fascinated the children, because it was a
popular subject of gossip and superstition in Maycomb. Arthur Radley had
gotten into trouble with the law when he was a boy. Instead of being sent
to the state industrial school, his father took custody of him within their
house. He was not seen again for fifteen years. Many legends grew up about
the Radley house and about what went on inside. Miss Stephanie Crawford, a
neighborhood gossip, added fuel to the fire - a fire which included stories
of crime, mutilation, curses and insanity.
Dill was fascinated by these stories, and gave Scout and Jem the idea of
making Boo Radley come out of seclusion. When Dill, always eager for some
new adventure, dared Jem to run up to the house and touch it, Jem thought
things over for a few days. Finally, filled with fear, he accepted the dare.
He ran up, touched the house, and ran back. As the three children stared at
the old house, they thought they saw an inside shutter move.
Comment Many themes and plot-themes emerge in Chapter 1. Great emphasis is
placed on the world of Scout, Jem, and Dill - a small world bounded by a
few houses and composed of only a few people. From the limited knowledge of
this small childish world at the novel's opening, Jem and Scout broaden
with the passing of years and events. By the time the novel reaches its
conclusion, they will have learned much more about human nature. Also, Miss
Lee emphasizes the Radley family. They are the focal point for the
development of numerous themes to come. For example, when old Mr. Radley
died, Calpurnia did something she had never been known to do before. She
spoke evil about a white man when she said, "There goes the meanest man
ever God blew breath into." Finally, there are the themes relating to
family and the Maycomb setting. They increase in importance from chapter to
chapter.
Notes
amble - to walk leisurely
nebulous - not clear
predilection - preference
repertoire - the collection of plays, songs, etc., with which a performer
is familiar
transition - a change
vapid - not interesting
Chapters 2 and 3
Scout At School
Dill returned to Mississippi at the end of the summer. Although she was
looking forward to school more than anything in her life, Scout's first day
at school was a disappointment. When Miss Caroline tried to teach reading,
Scout was bored. Much to Miss Caroline's dismay, Scout was already
accomplished at reading and writing. She told Scout to tell her father not
to teach her anything more, because it would interfere with her reading.
Later, at lunch time, Walter Cunningham had no food with him. When the
teacher tried to give him a quarter, the boy would not take it. Scout made
the mistake of trying to explain the reason to Miss Caroline. The
Cunninghams were poor country folks who had been hit hard by the Depression
and were too proud to accept charity. For her trouble, Scout got her
fingers cracked. Thinking that Walter Cunningham was the cause of her
difficulty, Scout tried to beat him up. Jem would not let her. Instead, he
invited the boy to lunch at their house.
That afternoon, Miss Caroline saw a cootie crawl out of Burris Ewell's hair.
She was shocked by this and told the boy to go home and wash his hair. The
boy really did not care, however, and became abusive, since he was in
school only because the truant officer had made him come. He did not plan
to return. That night Scout had a talk with her father. She said she hoped
that Atticus would allow her to stay home from school like Burris Ewell.
However, he explained to her that the Ewells were a different kind of
people. They did not care about learning and had been a disgrace to Maycomb
for generations. Then Atticus made a bargain with his daughter. He told
Scout that he would continue to read to her every night provided she would
go back to school and promise not to tell her teacher about it.
Comment These two chapters can be considered together for they contain the
story of Scout's first experience away from her narrow world at home. The
reader must remember that although she was bright for her age, Scout was
only six. Whatever she had learned thus far, she had learned at home from
her father, her brother, Calpurnia, and a few neighbors. Therefore, she had
much to learn from and about the rest of the world. For example, Scout was
a town girl and not a farm girl like many of the other children in the
class. Miss Caroline, the teacher, was not from Maycomb, and could not be
expected to know or to understand the peculiarities of the people of
Maycomb. The little girl could not comprehend why Miss Caroline did not
have a better understanding. With her limited experience, Scout thought
that people were alike everywhere. Therefore, she thought that her teacher
should automatically know that the Cunninghams were poor. Also she thought
that her teacher should understand that the Cunninghams, and other people
of Maycomb, were too proud to accept anything that they could not pay back.
But Maycomb was farm country, and farmers were a "set breed of men,"
prizing independence more than a full stomach. Miss Caroline was from the
city; Scout learned that city people were different.
Miss Caroline: Note, however, that Miss Caroline seemed to have learned
something that first day at school too. In the morning, she became
disturbed when Scout tried to tell her about Walter Cunningham. In the
afternoon she was quite willing to listen to one of the older children when
he explained to her about Burris Ewell. Thus the reader will find this
entire novel is a series of experiences in which one character will gain
new insights from his association with the others.
New Names: There are two important new names introduced in these chapter -
Walter Cunningham and Burris Ewell. Both are from the poor, rural section
of the county. However, the reader should notice the difference in their
characters. Walter is proud and independent; he won't accept charity. He
apologizes for still being in the first grade. At lunch Atticus speaks to
him about farming as though he were a grown man. On the other hand, Burris
Ewell is surly. He dares Miss Caroline to make him do anything. Here,
therefore, the author presents the reader with the first series of
character contrasts. These will be important to the reader throughout the
entire novel, especially if he expects to be able to understand fully the
theme of the story.
Notes
transaction - business deal
cunning - attractive in a skillful way
illicitly - unlawfully
vexations - annoyances
mortification - humiliation
iniquities - sins
fractious - unruly, irritable
Chapters 4, 5 and 6
Radley's Oak Tree
Because Scout was in the first grade, she got out of school thirty minutes
earlier than her brother. This meant a walk home alone past the dreaded
Radley house. Usually she would run by it. There were two giant oaks on the
Radley property. One day as Scout was running past, she noticed something
shiny in a knothole of one of the trees. Examining it, she found two pieces
of chewing gum. When she decided they were all right to eat, she put them
into her mouth. When Jem came home, he made her spit out the gum. Anything
found on the Radley place might be poison. On the last day of school the
children found a box with two pennies in it. They did not know what to make
of the situation, but they decided to keep the pennies.
Dill Returns Two days later Dill arrived. As usual he was full of wild
stories and anxious to play games of make-believe. The group decided to
play a game modeled on the life of Boo Radley. One of the stories about him
was that he had stabbed his father with a pair of scissors, so the children
began to act this out every day. They continued until Atticus caught them
and took away the scissors.
While the two boys played a scissorless version of their Boo Radley game,
Scout became friendly with Miss Maudie Atkinson, a benevolent neighbor who
had grown up with Atticus' brother Jack. The two of them would sit on Miss
Maudie's porch and talk. One day they had a talk about Boo Radley and Miss
Maudie tried to explain the mystery of the Radley family. Recalling that
Arthur had been nice to her as a boy, she called the Radley house a sad
place. She denied the rumors about Boo as "three-fourth colored folks and
one-fourth Stephanie Crawford." The next morning Jem and Dill decided they
would try to drop a note into the Radley house by using a fishing pole.
While they were doing this, Atticus came by and once more warned them about
bothering the Radleys.
On the last night before Dill had to return home to Mississippi, the boys
hatched a plot. They decided to sneak through the back of the Radley
property and take a peak through one of the windows. While doing this, they
saw the shadow of a man pass by. As they ran toward the back fence, a
shotgun blast went off. The three of them hurried even more and managed to
escape. However, when they got home, Jem realized that he had lost his
pants. He had had to squirm out of them while crawling under the Radley
fence. Thus he found himself faced with another problem. That night, after
everyone had gone to bed, he went back after his pants. Luckily, they were
still there.
Comment These chapters reveal the children's reaction to the Radley place,
and to the Radleys themselves. It is a typically childish viewpoint. For
example, Scout could not eat the gum because anything found on the Radley
place might be poison. Also in these chapters there is childish imitation.
The life which the Radleys led was very unusual. The family remained almost
constantly in the house. The children, with a natural inclination to
imitate the unusual in the adult world, wanted to play the Radley game. The
Radley game was their Maycomb substitute for playing cowboys and Indians.
With a typical childlike love of adventure and a curiosity to discover the
unknown, Scout, Jem and Dill longed to discover the answer to the Radley
mystery. They could not understand it as Atticus or Miss Maudie did. They
had to try to find out for themselves what went on inside the secretive
home. Thus the incident of the note on the end of the fishing pole and the
night visit. Notice, however, that although the children are curious, they
are not foolishly brave. For example, they have the length of the fishing
pole between them and the house. Also they chose the darkness of night to
sneak up to the window.
Notes
auspicious - successful, favorable
ethical - moral
reluctantly - unwillingly
benevolence - kindness
quibbling - petty arguing
Chapter 7
School started again. "The second grade was as bad as the first, only
worse." One afternoon, Jem told Scout that when he returned to get his
pants, they were hanging over the fence. Some one had mended the tear -
"Not like a lady sewed `em, . . . All crooked." After this, the children
began to find more things in the tree. First a ball of twine; then two soap
dolls; and finally an old watch. They decided they should write a thank-you
note to whoever was giving them these things. However, when they went to
put the note into the knothole, Jem and Scout found that it had been filled
in with cement. Nathan Radley, Boo's brother, said he had done this because
the tree was dying and this was the way to save it. Atticus home from work
and told Jem, "That tree's as healthy as you are." Scout noticed that Jem
had been crying when he came in that night.
Hear - Second Grade was Bad as the First: The second grade was as bad as
the first, only worse.
Comment In this chapter the children begin to stop taking things for
granted. They try to figure out how the articles in the tree got there.
When they conclude that it is probably Boo Radley who is putting them there,
they do the logical thing. They write a note which they intend to put into
the tree. There is a difference, however, in the way in which each one
reacts to the cement. Scout is still very young. She knows that Nathan
Radley is being mean, but it does not affect her personally. On the other
hand, the older Jem is more sensitive and feels things more deeply. He
cries not for himself but for Boo Radley. He cannot comprehend how one man
can be deliberately cruel to another. In his childlike way, Jem realizes
that Boo Radley must have enjoyed putting those articles into the tree for
them. Jem also realizes that the man was very considerate to sew his pants.
Because of his youth, he does not know how to fight adult cruelty. Thus he
cries.
Chapter 8 Usually Maycomb had hot summers and mild winters. When snow fell
one night, Scout thought it was the end of the world. She had never seen it
before. Because of this unexpected cold weather, everyone had fires going
at home. During the night, Miss Maudie's house caught fire. Since all the
houses were old wooden ones, everyone had to go out into the cold night.
While Scout was watching the firemen at work, someone slipped a blanket
around her shoulders. Later, first Jem and then Atticus realize that Boo
Radley must have done this. Jem is afraid to return the blanket; he is
afraid of what Nathan may do to Boo. Atticus agrees that they should keep
the blanket and the incident to themselves.
Comment Kindness is a prominent theme in this chapter. There is the
unexpected kindness of Boo Radley. An air of mystery pervades the blanket
incident because no one realizes at the time that the action is being taken.
The effect on Scout is typical. She is all right until it dawns on her what
has happened. Then she is sick with fright at the thought that Boo Radley
stood right behind her and touched her. On the other hand, Jem reacts
differently again. His first concern is Boo. In a babbling attempt to
defend him, Jem blurts out the story of his pants to Atticus. His
compassion is genuine. He is afraid of what Nathan may do to Boo. As soon
as his fear for Boo is relieved, however, he relaxes and makes a joke at
Scout's expense - he re-enacts the scene for her benefit, frightening her
terribly.
Miss Maudie Courage is also an important theme, embodied in Miss Maudie's
character. The day after her house burned down, she did not wallow in self-
pity. She laughed and said that she was glad that the whole thing had
happened. Now she would be able to build a smaller house, take in roomers,
and have more room for the plants which she loved so dearly. The children
were perplexed by her unexpected good humor, but they admired her good-
natured bravery in the face of personal tragedy.
Notes
unfathomable - not understandable
aberration - a departure from what is right or correct
perpetrate - to do or perform something
perplexity - confusion
Chapter 9
Chapter 9 introduces the reader to the main action of the story - Atticus
Finch's defense of the Negro Tom Robinson. "Maycomb's usual disease," as
Atticus calls it, begins to show itself. The narrow-minded bigotry of the
townspeople and of the Finch family is hard for Scout to cope with. First
there was Cecil Jacobs who announced in the schoolyard that Scout's daddy
defended "niggers." Scout denied it, but ran home to get an explanation.
Atticus told her that he was going to defend Tom Robinson, a member of
Calpurnia's church. He explains that the case is very important to him
personally, and requests that Jem and Scout try to ignore the talk they
will hear around town. Next day, Scout is ready to fight Cecil Jacobs again,
but remembers Atticus' request and walks away from a fight for the first
time in her life.
Some time later they left for Finch's Landing for the customary family
Christmas celebration with Uncle Jack, Aunt Alexandra and cousin Francis.
Francis taunts Scout by calling Atticus a "nigger-lover," saying that
"he's ruinin' the family." Scout flies to her father's defense with fists
and "bathroom invective," but gets a spanking from Uncle Jack. Later he
apologizes when he hears her side of the story, and promises not to tell
Atticus what Scout and Francis really fought about.
Comment This chapter is very important if the reader is going to understand
the full meaning of this novel. Atticus has been appointed to defend a
Negro. Scout is ridiculed by one of her schoolmates because of this. Here
is shown the attitude of the townspeople toward the Negroes. Then on
Christmas Scout hears the same talk from her cousin Francis. This shows the
attitude of the Finch family itself about the problem. Both Cecil Jacobs
and Francis are, of course, echoing what they have heard the adults say on
the subject. Obviously, to both family and townspeople it seems that
Atticus Finch is making a mistake. How does Scout act about this matter:
She wants to fight with her fists. But she soon learns that this is not the
way to combat a dispute over ideas. Uncle Jack spanks her, but in her mind
he has been unfair. Uncle Jack had not listened to her side of the story.
When she can tell him about it in the quiet of her room, he says that he is
sorry.
Scout And The Adults What then is the picture of the world in the mind of
this child, and how does it foreshadow the future events of the story? At
first Scout fights with her fists because she does not know how to fight
any other way. Then she sees adult injustice applied to her by Uncle Jack,
some one whom she loves. She begins to realize that lack of knowledge and
lack of forethought often lead people to do things that they might not
otherwise do. Later, when Scout sees the injustice performed by the people
against the Negro Tom Robinson, she is going to be able to have just a
little bit better understanding of the reasons for it.
Notes
analogous - similar
provocation - something or someone who causes anger in another
romp - generally to play, but here to scold or punish
scurry - to run in a hurried manner
Chapter 10
The first nine chapters give us a picture of Atticus Finch as a kind and
understanding man. He is also an upright man who is trying to raise his
children properly. In this chapter we get a clearer picture of him. First
we see him through the eyes of his children. To them he is old and feeble
because he can't play football. Then an event occurs to change this picture.
A mad dog comes down the street. It is Atticus who is called upon to do the
shooting. His children see him now as a brave man. Scout wants to brag
about this to all her friends, but Jem tells her not to.
Comment To the reader this chapter might seem out of place. It appears to
be an unrelated incident. However, it serves to help prepare the reader for
what is to follow. In a sense, it sums up the character of Atticus Finch.
Thus far we have seen him as a very quiet and serious person. Now the
author shows another side of his character. He is brave but in a different
way. He does the day-to-day actions so well that when he is called upon to
do an extraordinary action, its performance comes naturally to him.
Scout Vs. Jem Again we see a contrast in the attitude of the two children.
The younger Scout still cannot understand why things should or should not
be done. For example, she cannot understand why Atticus never told his
children about his ability to shoot. On the other hand, Jem, the older
child, is beginning to have a sense of values. He realizes that being a man,
and more importantly, a gentleman, is not just in acting and talking. It is
knowing when
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