Harper Lee Born April 28, 1926

About the author  Grew up in Monroeville, Alabama  Her father, a lawyer and state legislator, was a descendant of General Robert E Lee  Lee was an avid reader and from a young age wanted to become a writer

More About the Author  Attended University of Alabama and later moved to NYC to pursue a writing career  After two years of writing and revising, To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960

About the novel  To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate success  Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961  Voted best novel of the century by Library Journal in 1999

More About the Novel  1991 survey by the Library of Congress asked readers to rank books that had made a significant difference in their lives. TKaM ranked second after the Bible.  TKaM is the only novel Lee ever published  For more than 40 years, Lee has declined to comment on her novel, letting it speak for itself

Style  Coming of Age  Lee chose a form of fiction that explicitly deals with the main characters growing up and maturing.  Language  Lee employs colloquial language – esp. in the speech of the characters (dialogue) and in the descriptions of setting

Style Cont.  Narration  Double-layered narration is used.  The older Scout explicitly tells the story at the outset of the novel and at its end.  In the middle, the story is told from the perspective of Scout as a child.  However, there are points in the novel where the two narrators are almost telling the story at the same time.

Style Cont.  Symbols  Lee employs several central symbols in the novel  Mockingbird  Snowman  Mad dog  Boo Radley  Clothing – esp. Scout’s clothes  Buildings

Themes  Race Relations  Growing up  Search for Identity  America divided  Justice vs. the Law  History vs. the Present  Conformity vs. Individuality  Gender Roles  Stereotypes Exposed  Myths of Childhood