Bestselling Novel by American Writer Harper Lee

The Novel To Kill A Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee; one of the younger generation of writers. She was born in 1926 in a town called Monroeville, Alabama. As she grew up she joined a university and began writing her book based on her own background experience. Harper Lee set it in a town called Maycomb; a quiet village just like the one she lived in. Although this place did not exist Harper Lee used her knowledge from her town to create this novel.

She based the characters on people in Monroeville and used Scout to narrate the book.

Scout was made to be very much like Harper Lee because they both are similar ages and have a similar background making it easier for her to tell the story. It’s easier to tell the story because she can describe how prejudice, intolerance, injustice, and courage was built up in her time and reflect it onto Scout. At this time in the American South there was a lot of civil rights made by the people because of the War in 1861-5 making black people’s rights minimal.

Although the War took place 70 years before the period in which the book is set it’s still strong in their mind and making their beliefs very moral.

The black people in America in the period when the book was set were very outcast and looked upon very differently from white people. The black people came to America because of the slave trade and were divided into the Southern states because of the issue of slavery.

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As time passed the Northerners became very unwilling to overlook what they felt to be the evil of slavery in the South. Southerners justified their practise by arguing that the black race was naturally inferior. They told the Africans’ that they were very lucky to be American Slaves because of the Christianity and civilisation introduced to them.

The slave system suffered from brutality and the Southerners thought of them as children who were very ignorant. Because of this the white people thought upon themselves as superior beings and gave a very disliking attitude towards the black people, which has been observed in the book. In To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee uses outsiders to make a social comment about what society wants and what society rejects. Without outsiders in this novel there wouldn’t be such an in-depth, intriguing, characteristic, real life novel.

In this book outsiders work well because they can make us intrigued and because they’re not insiders people rarely know much about them. Myths and rumours are made up about them, which can change as they are passed down from people giving a sense of mystery about them because no one knows them well enough to tell the truth. In the book there are lots of characters that we want to find out about which keeps us reading on. Outsiders create different emotions for people in Macomb. For the kids, they have their wild imaginations – they create monster like people just because it keeps them entertained and excited.

The adults tend to have a sense of disgust for them. Through the outsiders we can really see what the characters in Maycomb are like. They help us see what they’re like by acting in their selfish and racist ways and show us how, in this period of time, black people are thought upon because of their alternative lifestyles. One of the outsiders in To Kill A Mockingbird is used a lot in the beginning of the book because of Scouts imagination making her obsessed with someone she hasn’t even met.

This character is called Arthur Radley (better known as Boo) and he is one of the main characters of the book. Although throughout the beginning of the book we don’t really get to see what he’s really like, we can build up a picture based on the people of Maycomb and what their beliefs are of him. Boo Radley served as a mystery at the beginning of the story. A man only known to Scout as some kind of monster from the tales gathered by the town gossips over the years. When Scout first found a gift in the tree Jem said Don’t you know you’re not supposed to even touch the trees over there? You’ll get killed if you do.

Scouts fictional life, built upon made up stories, served her, Dill and Jem a game to act out. It was not until the story progressed that we see that Boo isn’t the strange man that Maycomb folks make him out to be. Near the end of the book we find out that he’s a very caring, gentle, calm and maybe even mentally challenged man. But unfortunately for him the townspeople consider him an individual who should be locked up in a mental institution, or a homicidal maniac.

Boo Radley was in his house for a very long time, but when he came out, he came out as a man who deserved a lot more credit and respect then anyone had wanted to give him. He deserves credit because of his kind gestures which are made really discreet such as leaving them gifts in the hollow hole in the trunk of the old tree between their houses, and by covering Scout with a blanket when Miss. Maudie’s house was on fire. In To Kill A Mockingbird another use of outsiders is the Ewell family. The Ewells live in a tiny house near a dump, surrounded by woodland, on the outskirts of Maycomb.

The varmints had a lean time of it, the Ewells gave the dump a thorough gleaning every day, and the fruits of their industry made the plot of ground around the cabin look like the playhouse of an insane child”, “Nobody was quite sure how many children were on the place”, showing their lifestyle to be so corrupt that nobody really wanted to go to the dump to see who or what was there. They are made outsiders because no one in Maycomb likes grubby, smelly and poor people. The Ewells are a big family with only a drunk as a father and a big sister to look after them.

The father is called Bob and the daughter is called Mayella and they are a very important part of the book. As the book nears the end we see the trial of Tom Robinson who has been accused of raping Mayella. This is a totally different part of the book as it shows the very serious side of Maycomb. Mayella, 19, has accused Tom Robinson of raping her in her home. “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed”. Tom is a black man who lives in a “nigger-nest” near to their house. In this scene Harper Lee manages to involve most of the citizens of Maycomb because they appear at the trial.

This is the scene were we can find out how outcast and lonely Mayella is. This trial is seen to be her plead for help, showing us the bitterness she has rather than accusing her father, who we know raped her, but by accusing Tom. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird Boo Radley and The Ewells are both outsiders but have been given that status in very different way. Boo is a very sad character that keeps to himself and hides from the public eye. The townspeople of Maycomb caused him to become an outsider because of his lifestyles which did not revolve around the towns stereotypes.

Boo Radley was a made an outsider because he made it seem to the towns people he didn’t want anything to do with Maycomb. He did this by staying in his house all the time. From the book we can build up the idea that maybe he stays in his house because he was locked up by his parents or that maybe he had a lot of anger that he needed to be kept away. As a result of this the people of Maycomb ended up wanting nothing to do with him. Before Boo was made an outsider he used to be accepted in the town because; he lived in the right place, had a good reputation from his family, but ruined it when he attacked his father.

Boo stayed in his house for a very long time and only appeared occasionally in the book when helping Scout. What the people of Maycomb believe about Boo is a very different idea to what he is actually like. Unlike Boo, The Ewells have never been insiders and they didn’t bring it on themselves. They have always been looked upon as dirty and horrible people because of their reputations they have built up. They built up these reputations because they lived pretty much outside Maycomb, they live in a dump, their father is a drunk, they have no money and they way they act towards Maycomb folks.

Just like the black people of Maycomb the Ewells will always be outsiders. Harper Lee uses “outsiders” in To Kill A Mockingbird to make a social comment. She constructs them to show the contrast and differences between black and white people in her time and how society rejects and how society accepts. She manages to use them well in her novel by getting the message across about moral issues. She shows us the different people and how their own personalities, beliefs and politics, lead to them being made into outsiders.