To Kill a Mockingbird was written and published in 1960, “in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement” (Carolyn Jones). This time was just a few years after events like the murder of Emmett Till, a fourteen year old boy accused of whistling at a white woman, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the ruling in Alabama that segregation on buses is unconstitutional happened (PBS African American World). This goes to show that the time period had some effect on Harper Lee at the time.
The 1960’s was the height of racial issues during the 20th century. Even under these circumstances, Harper Lee, a white, female author, wrote her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Not only does To Kill a Mockingbird go against society’s opinions at that time, but it addresses themes that apply to everyday life. One main theme is ‘People tend to take risks for the people they care for’. To Kill a Mockingbird is about a girl named Scout and the problems her family faces. Her dad, Atticus, is lawyer who is currently defending a black man in court. Tom Robinson, the black man, was accused of raping a white girl. The story illustrates how society treats people who are different from them and how those people stick together. One example that supports
The intriguing novel, To Kill A Mockingbird is written by the prestigious author Harper Lee. Lee has utilised the lifestyle and attitudes towards African-Americans" in the 1930's to create a novel which presents the reader with Lee's attitudes and values. The dominant reading of the novel is focused on the issues of racial prejudice, but there are also a number of other alternative and oppositional readings. Examples of this are the Marxist and feminist readings which can be applied to the text.
When Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird during the 1930’s her novel Harper Lee proves the way racism had a major effect during the 1930’s. Harper Lee’s novel explained how much of an effect on the United States and the African Americans with the downfalls leading to majority of the African Americans deaths all because of them being different race and having to act different.
Decades ago, in the 1930s, people of color were not treated fairly. Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird took place in the 1930s in the fictional place of Macomb County, Alabama. It was narrated through a young girl named Scout Finch. Throughout the novel, Scout, her older brother, Jem, and their good friend Dill discover realities of society. Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, was appointed to be the attorney of a black man. Because of the time period, the case was almost hopeless, but Atticus fought anyway. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird displays universal themes such as racial intolerance and innocence of youth.
The 1964 election of Johnson was one that is remembered by many as a turning point in American history. The two candidates came into the election with wildly different views on what America should be. This election marked a return to an extremely liberal platform on the democratic side and a new fervor of conservatism from the republicans. Kennedy and Cohen write that, “democrats gleefully exploited the image of Goldwater as a trigger happy cowboy who would “Barry” us in the debris of World War III Johnson cultivated the contrasting image of a resolute statesman by seizing upon the Tonkin Gulf” (Kennedy and Cohen, 2013). As a result the election ended with a monumental victory for the liberals and a crushing defeat of the conservatives. This
Harper Lee completed the novel in 1957 and, after revisions, published it in 1960, just before the peak of the civil rights movement. John Hiett called it “a nuanced indictment of racism, [which] helped trigger the Civil Rights Movement and forced many Southerners to reexamine their attitudes.” While the critical responses to To Kill a Mockingbird were mixed: a number of critics found the narrative voice of a nine-year-old girl unconvincing and called the novel overly moralistic. It is a coming-of-age story focusing on the importance of empathy, perception, bravery, and acceptance and the book remains a staple of high school and college reading lists, beloved by millions of readers worldwide for its appealing depiction of childhood innocence, its scathing moral condemnation of racial prejudice, and its affirmation that human goodness can withstand the assault of evil. The novel has never been out of print and sells over a million copies each year (Sparknotes.com). This American classic, has been influencing readers for decades and will continue to do so.
The years of 1960 and 1961, when To Kill A Mockingbird was published, signaled a time of great change. The civil
The 1950s were a important time in the history of the United States. Many of the event that occurred during this time molded the future of an entire generation. You may think that because the country was at war 5 years ago the country would be poor but the truth is the United States at that time didn’t have many debts that is something amazing. At that time Rock and roll, Blues and Rockabilly started blooming and many other trends of that time. United states at that time was the most strongest military power and also was very popular among other countries.
African Americans still face many of the horrors they faced in the 1940’s. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a book that takes place in the early 1940’s during a time of great segregation. The novel incorporates many hardships of black people during the 1940’s that can still be seen in today’s society. African Americans often faced prejudice in courtrooms and daily life that didn’t allow them to be treated equally. Many people during this time didn’t think that African Americans were people that deserved rights, so they didn’t give them any. This made life harder for the average black American. The prejudices African Americans faced in the 1940’s can still be seen today through conviction injustices and average pay rates, but, many people
To Kill A Mockingbird has become one of the most popular books in the world, winning the Pulitzer award for fiction writing. Her novel continues to appear in the schools reading lists each year, thirty million copies have been printed in forty different languages. In her evolution of becoming famous, Lee became reclusive, only giving one single interview in 1964. She reviewed an honorary doctorate from the University of Alabama, a literary award from Los Angeles Public Library In June 2005, and she was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007 by President George W. Bush. In the article Twin Cities authors, actors on what “mockingbird” meant to them it’s stated that “To kill a mockingbird is one of the most rare novels that helped, and continues to help, a whole society reckon, with big painful truths, it's a book everyone would read, and re-read” (Hertzel). This shows how Lee's book continues to inspire many people about segregation and racism.
The 1960s in the United States is evaluated as the period of revolutionary changes had occurred in art gallery movement. It’s because the increase of the middle class owing to the rapid growth and prosperity of American economy after 1960s, had impact to the formation of the art gallery. The scale of middle class had been expanded due to the economic growth, the baby boom and the mortality decline by the advance of medical science. The continuance of economic prosperity made their incomes increased. Most of them wished to be highly educated and started to spend their spare time with the hobby to appreciate the arts. Resulting from this, the new support class for the arts started to arise from the massive middle class centered (McKay, et al.,
'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a novel that was written in the 1960s, but Harper Lee decided to set the novel in the Depression era of the 1930s in a small town in Alabama. Lee provided her readers with a historical background for the affairs of that time and in doing so she exposed the deeply entrenched history of the civil rights in South America. Like the main characters in this novel, Lee grew up in Alabama; this made it easier for her to relate to the characters in the novel as she would have understood what they would have experienced during the period when racism, discrimination and inequality was on the increase within the American society.
The book “To Kill a Mockingbird” was originally published on July 11, 1960. The author of this book “To Kill a Mockingbird” is Harper Lee and she wrote this young adult fiction, which is, categorizes as Bildungsroman and thriller fiction book. The novel starts by this young brother and sister living in this town, and their father is trying to help a black man who is falsely accused for raping white woman. Their father tries very hard and wants to show kids that keep “fighting for it, even though you know that you’re outcome will not be good”. Harper Lee is trying to inform her readers about the value of peoples right and to show what it is like at the time period of Depression.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee portrays the effects of a broken justice system. Written in 1960, the book captures the effects of racism and how it effects so many innocent lives every day.