To Kill A Mockingbird
...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 significannot
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,...
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