Tuesday, October 22, 2019

To Write a Mockingbird


Some schools have adopted it into their curriculum, and some schools have added it to their banned book list; nevertheless, most people have heard of Harper Lee’s masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. Published in 1960 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Mockingbird follows the Finch family living in Alabama and fighting against racial prejudices. In many ways, Mockingbird reflects Lee’s own childhood in Monroeville, Alabama.

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The books main character, Scout, is similar to how Lee was as a child. Both were tomboys who marched to the beat of their own drum. Both grew up in a small town with lawyer fathers. Scout struggled with being the baby of the family, and Lee was the youngest of four children. In high school, Lee developed an interest in literature. Upon graduation, she attended Huntingdon College before transferring to the University of Alabama. She was an active member of the school newspaper, and eventually became the editor. Although she attended law school for a year, she explained to her family that she was meant to be a writer. She moved to New York and began working with her childhood friend, Truman Capote, on his novel In Cold Blood. Upon its publication, Lee was surprised to discover that Capote had not given her credit for her contributions to the work. This pushed her to publish the manuscript that she had been working on entitled Go Set a Watchman. The publishers rejected this draft stating that the main character, Atticus, should have more heroic characteristics and that Scout should be a child. Thus, To Kill a Mockingbird was born. 

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For many years, Mockingbird was the only book that Lee ever published because she “said all that she wanted to say.” In this sense, Lee was intrinsically motivated. She wrote because she loved to write, not because she wanted the fame or money that came with it. Her sister even mentioned that “Books are the only thing she cares about.” Despite many requests to write a sequel, Lee stayed true to herself and never published another book… until 2015. In her later years, Lee suffered from a stroke, resulting in hearing loss, limited vision and problems with her short-term memory. When the conversation turned to the publication of Go Set a Watchman, many fans wondered if this was truly Lee’s request. Watchman has sparked controversy as the beloved character Atticus is portrayed as racist, bigoted, and has ties connections to the Ku Klux Klan. Lee’s response to these? "I’m alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions to Watchman." Although she didn’t publish a large number of novels, her contribution to the literary world continues to shape curriculum across the United States.


3 comments:

  1. A lot of creatives tend to share the drive to keep being productive and keep producing throughout their lives. I feel like there are far fewer creatives who make one significant contribution to their field and feel that their work is done. It's admirable of Harper Lee to have known what she wanted to create, set out to do it, and then withdraw back to the private sphere. Also, I had no idea she went to law school for a year. Possibly her experience there influenced her character design of Atticus Finch? Cool post!

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  2. To go off Audrey's point, many creatives work with an obsessiveness that makes them restless and unsatisfied with their work. We've seen this in Stravinsky, Gehry, and Picasso. This shows the spectrum of personality that creativity lies upon.

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  3. This was a great blog post to read. Recently I watched an interview of Ricky Gervais and he his advice was to write about what you know. It seems like that is exactly what Lee did. She was intrinsically motivated to share a version of her story growing up and she did so successfully. And I gotta say Go Set the Watchman, in my opinion, was terrible. A real flop in comparison to To Kill a Mocking Bird. Does that mean that Lee was a one trick pony or like you wrote did she really say all that she had to say in her first published work?

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