273
See also: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 188–89 ■ The Sound and the Fury 242–43 ■ Invisible Man 259 ■
In Cold Blood 278–79POSTWAR WRITING
bakes the streets, refined ladies
gossip at missionary teas, poor
white children arrive at school with
no shoes, and black people live
segregated lives as land workers
or domestic servants. In southern
gothic tradition, however, there
are oddities in the community—in
particular the reclusive Boo Radley,
who lives in a supposedly haunted
house, and about whom the
children weave fantastical tales.When Atticus agrees to take on the
defense of a local black man, Tom
Robinson, who is falsely accused
of raping a white woman, Scout
describes the tensions and violence
created by Atticus’s determination
to defend Robinson, in spite of the
fact that, as he admits, it is a lost
cause. Following the trial there is
a murderous attack on the children,
which reveals Boo Radley to be
guardian, not a monster. The novelends with Scout older, wiser, and
reflecting on human behavior
within her small community.
Published as the civil rights
movement was accelerating, To
Kill a Mockingbird was an almost
instant best seller. Despite its
gentle tone, the novel, like others in
the genre, exposed the darkness
underpinning the gentility of a
Southern community forced to
face the reality of racial hatred. ■Over the course of the novel,
Scout’s perception of the world around
her matures from a naive ideal to a more
realistic understanding of society, but
she nevertheless retains her optimism.Harper Lee Born in the town of Monroeville,
Alabama, on April 28, 1926,
Harper Lee was a loner and a
tomboy. Her father was a lawyer,
and her best friend was the author
Truman Capote (she would later
help him to research In Cold Blood).
Lee attended the University of
Alabama, where she edited the
university magazine. Although
she started law school, she
wanted to write, and in 1949
dropped out and moved to New
York. In 1956 close friends offered
to fund her for a year so that she
could write. Taking inspiration
from events and people in herchildhood, she started To Kill
a Mockingbird, which she
completed in 1959.
The tremendous success of
To Kill a Mockingbird gained
Lee many literary awards,
including the Pulitzer Prize in- She accepted a post on the
National Council of the Arts but
largely retired from public life
from the 1970s. It was believed
that Lee had only ever written
one book but in 2015 Go Set a
Watchman, her second novel,
was published: although a
sequel, it was written before
To Kill a Mockingbird.
As the novel
progresses, Scout's
awareness of evil
in the world
increases as she is
exposed to darker
elements of life,
including racism
and intolerance.Yet through the influence of her father
and others around her, Scout never
loses her fundamental belief in
human goodness.This experience
leads to the loss of
her childhood
innocence, as Scout
learns that the world
is not always just
or fair.US_272-273_Mockingbird.indd 273 08/10/2015 13:09