Personal Experiences In To Kill A Mockingbird

George Henry Lewes once said, “Personal experience is the basis of all real Literature.” Using personal experiences in appealing to ethos in political writing is common among most writers. Some will argue that they could care less about the past situations of the writer, but I see personal experiences as an opportunity for writers to speak truthfully from their own experiences and not from the accounts of others, which ultimately leads to a greater influence on the reader. The use of experiences shapes who the writer is and how they view society based on these encounters. This in, combination with the author’s ability to present his or her ideas, can greatly affect the audience’s view on the topics presented. History is littered with examples of writers who successfully use personal experiences in an effort to develop an ethical relationship with their readers.

She used these experiences from her childhood to create the protagonist Scout Finch. This novel shows a glimpse of Lee’s early life, thus building a relationship between the reader and text by proving that she saw all the injustices as those of the Scottsboro Trails. In the society Lee lived, people continuously assumed “…[when] it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always [won]” and no one dared to correct it (Lee 295). She is showing that by living during those dark and painful years, she is knowledgeable of how different types of people were being treated. So Scout’s experiences throughout the novel showcase what it was like growing up in the South of Alabama during the 1930s. Lee recognized the continued pain and treatment of African Americans in the 1960s, so she used her experiences to shed light on these issues ultimately earning her a Pulitzer Prize and being named one of America’s most celebrated