Harper Lee was an American author of two best-selling novels of the time. She comes from a small town Maycomb located in the south of American. But this ordinary southern background does not stop her to climb the zenith of literature and comes out as a voice for the suffering of black people in America. She has depicted the way black people are politically victimized and thrown into the shackles of hardships and difficulties.
Harper Lee was a graduate of the University of Alabama. Because of her excellence in writing and true depiction in art, she has been awarded honorary Ph.D. degrees twice by different universities. She has received the highest civilian awards by the American government. She has also been awarded the highest medal for arts by the government of America. Her greatest wish was to remain secluded and this contributed to her non-wed life and she died silently at the age of 89.
A Short Biography of Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee was an American novelist. She was born on 28th April 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She was the youngest daughter of Frances Cunningham Finch Lee and Amasa Coleman Lee. She had three siblings: Alice F. Lee, Louise Lee Conner, and Edwin Lee. Her full name was Nelle Harper Lee but her parents selected Harper as her addressing name. It was selected to pay tribute to Dr. William Harper of Selma. The said Doctor saves the life of Louise, Harper`s sister.
She spent her childhood in Monroeville which is a very small town in the southwestern part of Alabama; U.S. Lee’s Father Frances served as an editor of a newspaper, a businessman, and served a state governing body from 1926–1938 as well. On the other hand, her mother was suffering from bipolar disorder and she could not go out of her home. Lee had seen her suffering and had an impact on her mother as well.
Since her childhood, Lee was a devoted reader and a bright student. She spent her childhood in the ways of tom-boys. She joined Monroe County High School in Monroeville. There she developed a taste for English Literature. Then she went to Huntingdon College. This is located in Montgomery. There she remained an active member of the literary society and the glee club. After attending college, she went to the University of Alabama. She completed her graduation from the very university at Tuscaloosa. In university, she became famous for being a lonely and separated student.
In 1948 Lee was sent to a summer school at Oxford University in England in the European Civilization exchange program. She was supported and encouraged by her father for this trip. He wanted Lee to develop more interest in legal studies but she returned to the University of Alabama. There she got enrolled in Law but left the University six months prior to completion of her degree. In university, she developed her taste for writing and she started contributing to the magazines. Soon she became the editor of Rammer Jammer magazine. She convinced her parents that her future was not in law but in literature and writing.
In 1949, she came to New York when she was 23 years old. She started serving a reservation clerk at Easter Airlines and British Overseas Airways. During her stay in New York, she composed many short stories and essays but she published none among them. Later on, her agent motivated her to write. Her agent advised her to develop a short story into a novel. For this very reason, she resigned from her workplace and devoted her time to writing. She was financially supported by her friends Michael Martin Brown and his wife so that she could devote her energies and time to writing without being worried about finances.
In 1957, she presented the original draft of her novel to J. B. Lippincott Company. In spite of the fact that editors found the work excessively long-winded, they saw glimpses of success in the work and urged Lee to revamp it. In 1960, with the assistance of Lippincott proofreader Tay Hohoff, her first novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published.
Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Harper Lee as the president of the National Council on the Arts in 1966. Lee soon realized that her book became controversial because it dealt with the subject of racial discrimination. Thus she wrote a letter to the editor in 1966 to ban the novel. She also asked the editor to put it in immoral literature and not give it for another print.
After the publication of the novel, she became a popular figure. The media started interviewing her and inviting her to various talks and conferences. Harper Lee enjoyed it at the start and corresponded with the fans and followers but she realized that she was disturbing her. Thus, she went into her privacy and avoided all sorts of talks and interviews. She never granted permission for an interview. She even got an unlisted telephone connection so that fans could not reach her through this. She stopped replying to all sorts of letters as well. She spent around Forty-years in Manhattan.
In the mid-1960s, not long after publishing To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee went with her beloved companion Truman Capote to Holcomb, Kansas. She filled in as an assistant in research for Capote’s 1966 novel, In Cold Blood.
Lee additionally published three articles during the 1960s: “Love — In Other Words” in Vogue (1961), “Christmas to Me” in McCall’s (1961), and “When Children Discover America” in McCall’s (1965). She has received a few privileged doctorates, including one from the University of Alabama and another from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama.
In 1998, the Harper Lee Award for a Distinguished Alabama Writer was revealed by the official advisory group of the Alabama Writers’ Forum. This honor perceives a practiced author who was born in the state or who lived in Alabama during their early stages.
Lee was awarded the Alabama Humanities Award by the Alabama Humanities Foundation in 2002. Harper Lee was awarded the inaugural ATTY Award in 2005 in regard to positive depictions of Attorneys in her novel. She was awarded by Spector Gadon & Rose Foundation. She was also awarded the Los Angeles Public Library Award in 2005. Harper Lee was in Monroeville when she was asked by Veronique Peck, the widow of Peck, to travel to Los Angeles to receive this award.
She was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Notre Dame. Harper Lee was conferred upon the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush on 5th November 2007. This is the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2010, Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama for excellence in arts.
.Harper Lee did not write more and explained the reasons for not writing more. She said that there are two reasons for it. “One, I wouldn’t go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say, and I will not say it again.”
Nelle Harper Lee died on 19th February 2016 at the age of 89.
Books
Harper Lee Published only two books in her novel. The first one was To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and Go Set a Watchman (2015). Harper Lee also collaboratively worked on In Cold Blood (1966) with Capote.
To Kill a Mockingbird
It was published in July 1960. It became the Book-of-the-Month Club and honored by the Literary Guild as well. A brief version of the plot of this novel appeared in Reader’s Digest magazine. In 1967, it received the Pulitzer Prize. This novel has been translated into more than 40 languages of the world. it was adapted into a film in 1962. It was also awarded by the National Conference of Christian and Jews for the Brotherhood Award in 1962.
This novel is told predominantly from the point of view of Jean Louise (Scout) the daughter of white legal advisor Atticus Finch. Scout and her sibling, Jem, become familiar with the standards of racial equity and receptiveness from their father. They likewise build up the fortitude and the solidarity to follow their feelings in their associate and possible fellowship with a hermit, “Boo” Radley, who has been derided by the network.
Harper Lee’s Writing Style
Realistic Language Use
The language Harper Lee uses in her novel is reasonable and realistic. She has precisely depicted what life resembled in a little country like Maycomb in the southern parts of America during the 1930s. Lee uses the conversational language of the locality to give her novels a touch of reality and realistic depiction. She has seen the attitude of Whites towards black and is very much aware of the humiliation of blacks through language. Thus, she has used the colloquial language of the society and the people living in that society.
She is realistic in her use of language and has not never tried to be sophisticated while using language. She has done things for the reason to portray the actual people. If she had used embellished and sophisticated language in her novels this would have never highlighted the actual sufferings of black people.
Harper Lee’s utilization of language in the novel is changed in style and awesome in accomplishing her different scholarly purposes. Descriptive sections are wealthy in symbolism and tactile language. Her imagery and use of various environmental factors make the plot of her writing appealing to the readers. Besides, discourse is every now and again written in a vernacular style to mirror the characters’ personalities in content as well as in phrasing.
The language Atticus utilizes mirrors his insight and training; Bob Ewell’s language uncovers his obliviousness. Additionally, the voice of Alabama is heard in numerous Southern articulations and expressions. In utilizing language so dexterously, Harper Lee recounts to a holding story, makes singular characters, and catches life in Maycomb. The language of the novel serves to create huge numbers of the neighborhood shading components in it.
Addition of her Own Color to Language
Despite the fact that Harper Lee’s composing style is practical and very clear but she is likewise ready to utilize it to cunningly make strain and tension when required in the course of her novels. She does not make it simple writing that has no charm; rather she adds the color of her genius while staying realistic and true to society. This can be found specifically in the last part of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, when Bob Ewell tries to assault Jem and Scout. ‘’I made one mammoth stride and wound up reeling: my arms futile, in obscurity, I was unable to keep my parity,” Scout tells the readers.
Use of Figurative Language
Harper Lee uses figurative language in her writing to make pictures in the minds of her readers. She likewise utilizes humorous language which is in some cases there to feature a character’s misconception of a specific circumstance. For example, when Bob Ewell doesn’t see a portion of the inquiries he is posed in court, particularly those concerning whether he is a left-handed person. As Scout tells the readers, Mr. Ewell went irately to the appointed authority and said he didn’t perceive what his being left-handed had to do with it, that he was a Christ-dreading man and Atticus Finch was exploiting him.
Narrative Selection
Harper Lee has utilized the first-person story with inside and out character detail to summon thoughtful and compassionate emotions inside the readers. Scout, a six-year-old young lady, is the storyteller of the story in To Kill a Mockingbird. However, this has not restricted the language that Lee has used to show expressions.
This makes it evident to the readers that the book is composed of a grown-up scout who is reproducing her youngster hood. Lee has utilized language to speak to each character, for instance Burris Ewell utilizes foul words at whatever point conceivable which shows his poor class and absence of habits. Conversely Atticus is formal in his discourse, as his words are frequently astute with much incongruity.
Through the essential voice in the novel, Scout’s, Harper Lee makes the emotional incongruity that drives the novel. Through Scout’s eyes, and in her own language, situations develop for the readers to comprehend and decipher from their grown-up viewpoints. This frequently makes humor in the novel. Harper Lee’s thoughts of social uniformity and equity are communicated through Atticus’ respectability and through his youngsters’ developing mindfulness and extreme comprehension of conventionality and good conduct.
From her point of view, the South as of now is a position of prejudice and unfeeling foul play, burdened by ages of custom and social class. In any case, she demonstrates it to be where fortitude and individual soul live and where change will happen as guardians like Atticus show their qualities to their kids.
Use of Tone
Tone is another significant artistic strategy utilized by Harper Lee in her novels. She uses her tone in a very artistic way. The tone of her novel changes as the plot advances ahead. Her tone also changes in regard to the changes in the surrounding environment of various characters. For example, Scout’s tone is utilized to recount the story in her first novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The tone is guiltless, virtuous, and silly. This shows the benevolence where Atticus has brought her up.
Notwithstanding, as she grows up and encounters the malicious side of human instinct, her tone changes and turns out to be increasingly incredulous of the general public she lives with. The sentence of Tom torments her guiltless brain. She discovers the idea that Tom is honest. She also gets to know that he is indicted in light of the fact that he is Black blamed for assaulting a White young lady. Prejudice, indecencies in the general public are a portion of the topics that shape the tone of the novel from the storyteller’s perspective.
Use of Symbols
Harper Lee uses profound symbols to convey her subjects. She uses various symbols in her novels and the symbols also carry deep meanings. These symbols are not used for any amusement rather they play a pivotal role in the plot of the novels. She utilizes a “mockingbird” to speak to the great and virtue of the general public. For example, Miss Maudie clarifies that mockingbirds don’t do anyone any mischief. They simply sing calmly and along these lines it is evil to slaughter them.
Mockingbird is utilized to speak to the great individuals in the general public wrongly charged or murdered. Tom Robinson portrays the decency that is wrongly charged and indicted and later murdered while attempting to get away from the jail. Boo Radley is another mockingbird; he shields the kids from the deadly Bob Ewell. The sheriff needs to ensure him since he is a mockingbird doing no mischief to anybody. Everything he did was to shield the blameless youngsters from genuine underhandedness. Ewell is an image of evil in the general public.