To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis Essay

Award-winning American author, Harper Lee, published her first but legendary novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, in 1960 and since then the book has become one of the most acclaimed and widely read novels worldwide since its focus were of very sensitive but universal issues humanity have and is still facing which are racial injustice, prejudice, discrimination, segregation and rape. Due to this, the novel has been frequently analyzed using the socio-cultural school of literary criticism. However, I am taking the challenge to scrutinize Lee’s masterpiece using the historical-biographical theory after being inspired by some readings I made. This theory will enable me to understand the novel more by incorporating facts, events, and history during the

The novel was set within three years from 1933-1935. During Walter Lett’s trial which Harper’s father handled and which Harper personally witnessed, it was 1936, a year not far from the novel’s timeframe. Harper Lee was also born in Alabama in 1926 and in that decade the Great Depression was making waves. This tells us that the historical era of the novel is during the Great Depression, a downfall of the economy in the States, which strengthened racial discrimination and favoritism towards the whites. As I read in Cliffsnotes, during the 1960’s, the time by which the novel was published, the Jim Crow Laws were passed in the States and these laws removed many privileges and rights for the blacks and the church even supported these inhumane and unjust laws. Even marriages between blacks and whites were not allowed during the time in which Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird. In summary, historical-biographical criticism helped me infer moral ideas which Harper Lee’s experiences have taught her and the facts about her life that were mirrored in the novel made her work much more beautiful and interesting because of the countless and priceless insights one might get. This is why I chose this theory for To Kill A