Harper Lee, a rather quiet woman from Monroeville, Alabama, shook the world when she published her debut novel in 1960, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Lee, 89, passed away on Feb. 19, in her hometown of Monroeville. Nearly all of us have read her literary masterpiece at some point in our lives, and her novel continues to be read and taught in classrooms decades after its release. Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1960 and her book was made into a popular, Academy Award-winning film released in 1962. She rarely made public appearances and many believed she would never publish another novel. However, a companion novel “Go Set a Watchman,” was released in 2015 with some controversy. According to HarperCollins Publishers, “Go Set a Watchman” was sent in prior to “To Kill a Mockingbird”,
At a time when racism was the norm in parts of the country, Lee used pen and paper to speak up. Lee’s monumental book challenged segregation in the South. The book is based in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the 1930s, focuses on Scout Finch, her brother Jem, and their father, Atticus, a lawyer. The book is a mix of light hearted, warm scenes, and emotional, heart-breaking situations, which showed the true effects of racism in the South. Atticus defended Tom Robinson, a black man in Maycomb, despite discontentment from people in the community. Robinson is found guilty of raping a white woman, even though he is clearly innocent.
Symbolism seeps from each page of the novel. As the titles shows, the mockingbird symbolizes innocence, which pertains to Tom Robinson. Atticus tells his children that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird because they simply sing, causing no harm to anyone or anything.
For me, Harper Lee was a hero, a voice for the voiceless and a literary genius. I could only imagine the immense pressure, fear and excitement Lee felt when she was writing each word. As a white, southern woman in the segregated South, Lee disregarded societal norms and fought hate with words. The book was published at a crucial point in American history, as the Civil Rights Movement was making progress. Parts of Lee’s life might have been spent in solitude, out of sight from the public eye, but her words had and still have a profound effect on readers to this very day. She saw first hand the horrible effects of racism and intolerance in her own state. While we’ve studied and listened to stories about the Jim Crow-era South, Lee’s words make us reflect on the harsh realities African-Americans faced during segregation. As Lee so artfully said in chapter three of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” Her book allowed us to “climb inside” of each character’s skin, examining the lives of those who were hurt by intolerance and by those who preached from a pulpit of hate.
The world not only lost an incredible writer, but lost an activist, a voice for change and an American hero. May her words continue to inspire change for good. Rest in peace, Harper Lee.
