The Influence of Harper Lee's Novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird' on America

Have you ever been discriminated against for something you cannot control? During the 1950s and most of the 1960s, the biggest civil rights movement during that time had been the fight for African Americans to gain the same rights as white people. The famous American author, Harper lee once stated that “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” During this time, due to segregation and discrimination practices, African Americans had been denied their basic civil rights. By depicting the personal impacts of prejudice, Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird has educated Americans and helped expand diversity and rights for all people.

Harper Lee, the famous author of To Kill A Mockingbird wrote the prominent novel in 1960. The book introduced a variety of characters of different race and age. The novel had been released while the civil rights movement had reached its peak, and Lee put the story into perspective so that young adults could get their hands on it as well. Magill’s Survey of American Literature vol. 4 states that in the book many of the characters had the assumption that the black men only had the desire to be with white women. This had become one of the prejudice issues that occurred throughout the entire novel. This issue helps the reader to view what is happening in both perspectives, the whites and the blacks. “The novel traces the circumstances that lead Atticus to take on the case of Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.” “His only crime is to have been born black in a society that has certain assumptions about black people”. Lee had written about this topic to show what life is like to live in the south and the many issues of racial injustice that occur.

Lee had created such a dramatic impact with this novel. After schools all over the country started to incorporate the novel into their teachings it helped to teach the readers about life in the south and the unfairness that is brought upon the African Americans. “She placed race prejudice in a perspective which allows us to see it as an aspect of a larger thing; as something that arises from phantom contacts from fear and lack of knowledge.” It continues, decades later to be in the curriculum of thousands of American schools. The book eventually became a popular film and became known everywhere. Magill’s Survey of American Literature Vol.4 states that this novel’s film had won an academy award. According to Authors and Artists for Young Adults Vol. 13 the book won a variety of awards such as the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1961, the Paperback of the Year Award, and Best Sellers in 1962.

Years after To Kill A Mockingbird had been released, Lee decided to continue addressing the racial issues of the south by writing another book entitled Go Set A Watchman. This new book was not a sequel, but yet another occurrence of racial events that took place during the 1950s. Blooms Literature states that the new book “ features several of the same characters as To Kill A Mockingbird, but is set during a later date during the 1950s.” Publishers weekly says that the novel helps to show the growing civil rights movements.

To conclude, this novel continues to help change the view we have on others, as well as ourselves. It helped to bring out the beauty of complexity in today’s society as well as the justice that each and every individual holds. Lee’s works have without a doubt left a dramatic impact on decades in the past and the decades to come.