To Kill A Mockingbird Voice Analysis

Harper Lee is a famous author who wrote the award winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. She grew up in the heart of Alabama and tied in many aspects of her southern childhood into the novel. There are historical and biological influences in the book To Kill a Mockingbird that reflect Lee’s life and the society around her during the 1930s.

Harper Lee is well known for her great contributions towards modern society through her astounding book, To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel is read world-wide, in high schools and colleges because of its in-depth look at the social classes in the south during the 1930's. The book was influenced by society, in particular the social order of the south during her childhood. Lee grew up during this time of controversy which is why she writes so passionately about the topic. Lee wrote the novel to make a point about race while basing much of the plot off a trial from her young age, her own father, and the society she grew up in.

Harper Lee introduces Scout as an insensible tomboy caught in the midst of contrite prejudicial conception. She has not yet discovered what is right and wrong due to various misconceptions that the people of Maycomb

Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel takes place during the depression in Alabama with the main character, Scout, viewing her lawyer father, Atticus, defending a wrongly accused black man of rape. The reader gets to understand Scout’s childhood view of this controversial situation. Scout’s character in to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is really the author’s own life playing out in the novel, which is most likely why this novel is thought to be one of the best American Novels of the 20th century.

Matt Berman from Common Sense Media commented, “This richly textured novel, woven from the strands of small-town life, lets readers walk in the shoes of one fully realized character after another.” To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, one of the major messages is identity. Harper Lee lets the people look into the perspectives and identity of some of the characters that make it seem very life-like. In the novel, many characters possess both admirable and dislikable qualities which are shown through their actions. With the nurturing of her father, Scout contains the charming qualities of being courage and mature for her age. The father that instilled these characteristics in Scout, is Atticus Finch. While dealing with the stressful case of Tom Robinson, Atticus maintains to keep the likable aspects of sympathy and strong will. The antagonist in this novel fighting against Tom Robinson is Bob Ewell. Bob Ewell has instilled, in him, the terrible qualities of cruelty and racism. These life-like characters that Harper Lee illustrates gives people a clear vision of who the characters portray.

As a reader, it is important to be aware of the impact of the narrative voice in a text. Discuss in relation to the narrative voice in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.

Through the use of Scout’s innocent nature and the words and actions carried out by the townspeople, Harper Lee’s critical tone regarding prejudice is revealed.

As the United States “progresses” in economic, educational and technological advancements we still are fighting for racial equality. With more than 50 years since the brown vs. board of education case there is still incidents like Ferguson, Baton Rouge, and Phiando Castile where many questions are still unanswered. However, Harper Lee dealt with these same problems in 1960 when she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee created an emotionally confronting story. Lee writes through the eyes of “Scout” a lawyer’s daughter in a small sleepy town of Maycomb in Alabama during the great depression. Throughout the book “Scout” learns coming of age lessons from Atticus and her own experiences. But when Atticus takes on a case defending a black man (Tom Robinson) convicted for rapping a white woman (Mayella Ewell) and is found guilty. “Scout” her brother Jem begin to understand the effects of the prejudices in society. Therefore, Lee applies the literary concepts of diction and tone to revel the truth that prejudices in society negatively affect the way people treat each other in To Kill a Mocking Bird.

Distinctive voices are used to express significant perspectives and ideas of the world. Thus helping them to avoid inner conflict. A character’s voice expresses their perspective regarding the world around them. Their transformation sheds light upon the morals upheld within their society. Harper Lee’s award winning, To Kill A Mockingbird reveals Jean Louise’s (Scout) Finch’s perspective of different values.

Scout relates to the overall message of the book because she never looked at people as being different because their skin color was different, but she believed everyone was the same no matter what their skin color was. The reason Harper Lee added Tom Robinson to the book is to show the readers that as a person grows up and matures, more responsibility and more problems appear in their life. One of Scouts worries at the beginning of the book was about Boo Radley, but at the end of the book her worries were about if her dad would win the case

Throughout history, there has been an overarching theme that writers write about. Great authors write about what they know. They write about what they see. They write about what they hear. They write about personal experiences and incorporate details from their lives into their literature. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a classical work that reflects the Civil Rights and Women’s Movement of the 1950’s-1960’s through her depiction of the relationship between blacks and whites and her portrayal of female characters.

Lee grew up in the south in the early nineteen-hundreds. The people around her felt blacks were beneath whites and gave them many difficulties to put up with. This injustice was especially prominent in court cases, like the one Lee depicts in her novel. Though Harper Lee accepts that there is racism in the community, she reminds us all her own thoughts by giving advice to Scout that all the readers can take something away from: “‘As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it— whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash’”(Lee 224). Clearly, dealing with the injustices of trials at home inspired Lee to write her book and point out the problems we are turning a blind eye to in our own country. Using her personal background in the oppression of the south, Harper Lee shed light on the issue by depicting the issue in her remarkably well-written

The author Harper Lee uses the voice elements tone and detail to show Mayella’s nature in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Mayella is the accused victim of a rape crime supposedly committed by Tom Robinson, a black man, and is therefore placed in court to prove her innocence and Tom Robinson’s guilt. Scout and Jem observe the case in court, and Scout infers the following: “ … she seemed somehow fragile-looking, but when she sat facing us in the witness chair she became what she was, a thick-bodied girl accustomed to strenuous labor” (Lee 151). This passage reveals to the reader Scout’s attitude towards people of lower class and their characteristics. When the author uses the phrase, “she became what she was”, the reader receives the attitude

If someone else was to narrate the story, then the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird" would have not been written in the naive, and childish tone. For example, in chapter 24, Scout describes to us, "Aunt Alexandra sat down in Calpurnia's chair and put her hands to her face. She sat quite still; she was so quiet I wondered if she would faint. I heard Miss Maudie breathing as if she had just climbed the steps, and in the dinning room the ladies chattered happily. I thought Aunt Alexandra was crying, but when she took her hands away from her face, she was not. She looked weary. She spoke, and her voice was flat." In this, it is plain to see how raw Scout gives us the description of what she saw, as if it was an unedited video(simile). Because of this,

“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” (Lee 30). To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a very vigorous story about the racial discrimination that was uncontrollable in 1930’s Alabama. The small town of Maycomb is segregated into two categories: white and black. They each have their own separate neighborhoods and churches. Rarely is such racism binded with the exception of a small girl named Scout, and her father, Atticus Finch. Though slavery was over, blacks were still hired as servants and looked down upon. Black men were not to have a relationship with white women. In To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee presents the idea that it is important to not judge other people by their appearances through the use of symbolism and characterization.