Changes

"... it was a debut novel written by a woman who’d been earning a living as a clerk for an airline company at the time she’d written it." -- [[Daniel Clay]]</ref>

"... it was a debut novel written by a woman who’d been earning a living as a clerk for an airline company at the time she’d written it." -- [[Daniel Clay]]</ref>

== To Kill A Mockingbird ==

== To Kill A Mockingbird ==

The novel is partly autobiographical. It deals with racial prejudice and class in [[The South|the American south]] in the early 1930s. The book is set around a framework of historical events, with references to President Roosevelt and Hitler.  In the Depression-era small southern town, a racially-charged trial takes place. The defendant, an African-American man is charged with the rape of a white woman. He is defended by Atticus Finch, an attorney with a strong moral center. The story is narrated by Finch's daughter, Scout, who is aged five when the story begins, eight when it ends. Lee endows her character with streetsmarts and simple honesty such that the story is pervaded by a sense of overwhelming authenticity.

The novel is partly autobiographical. It deals with racial prejudice and class in [[The South|the American south]] in the early 1930s. The book is set around a framework of historical events, with references to President Roosevelt and Hitler.  The main character is one Jean Louise Finch, known as Scout, who [[Bildungsroman|ages from five to eight over the course of the novel]].  As a young child, she, her brother Jem, and their summertime friend Dill develop a fascination with the legend of Boo Radley, a man whom they believed murdered his parents (who are now in the chimney) and lives in a nearby house.  They learn what they can from neighbors, particularly Miss Maudie Atkinson.

 

Their father is one Atticus Finch, the courteous and logical small town lawyer, expert in settling quarrels between Scout and Jem by listening to both sides.  He is polite enough to deal with one mean and whiny neighbor, Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, who is suffering a [[morphine]] addiction. At one point, Jem is forced to read ''[[Ivanhoe]]'' to her in parts, as she breaks her addiction.  She dies shortly afterwards.

 

Scout and Jem continue to age, and a large portion of the novel deals with a trial which the town attends.  A Negro man, Tom Robinson, is on trial for the unproven, probably fictional rape of Mayella Ewell, daughter of the licentious Bob Ewell.  Atticus has been hired to defend Tom Robinson.  In the end, when Scout and Jem are going home, they are attacked in the dark by the elder Ewell and saved by their childhood legend Boo Radley.

== Go Set a Watchman ==

== Go Set a Watchman ==

==References==

==References==

<references/>

<references/>

[[Category:The South]]

[[Category:The South]]

[[Category:Authors]]

[[Category:Authors]]

[[Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom award winners]]

[[Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom award winners]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Harper}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Harper}}