Harper Lee

When first reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Nelle Harper Lee, I was shocked. Not in the bad kind of way, but the kind where it changes the reader in ways they would’ve never imagined. That’s how it felt.

Her greatest contribution to society was probably her book To Kill a Mockingbird, in which she talks about the racial matters that went on in the deep south. Ranked second only to the Bible “as making a difference in people lives,” her book has impacted the way people think about whites and blacks and, in a way, has helped in shaping humanity. You could tell she felt very passionate about equality, and when the murder of Emmett Till and the Scottsboro Boys Trial happened, I imagine she was outraged. Growing up, her father dealt with many cases in which a black man was accused of doing wrong to a white man or woman. Almost every time, the black man was found “guilty” and sentenced to jail, or death row. Her book centers around social injustice and the turbulent struggle for equality, when a black man is accused of raping a white woman. In the South, it didn’t matter if you were guilty or not, it was all about your race and skin color. When she wrote her book, she changed and shaped the lives of many, by proving that by being a different race and having a different color of skin didn’t matter. We all have a huge impact on each other and racial inequality is not okay. She used her words to make people feel something, and to show the story behind each person so you can understand what they are going through. We cannot automatically think someone is a bad person based off of their background and where they come from. To Kill a Mockingbird has changed America “for the better” and incorporates lessons of human dignity and respect for others in hopes of bringing our nation together.

Many say her book was based off of her childhood, and in a way, that seems true. There wasn’t just one particular historical event or aspect of culture that impacted her life, there were many. When she was just five years old, the Scottsboro Boys Trial took place. When she was just twenty-nine years old, Emmett Till was murdered, and Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus. To add on, she was living in a very racist time period and an even more racist place. But all of those things shaped her in ways she could’ve never imagined. Emmett Till was a black boy who was lynched after being accused of offending a white woman in her family’s grocery store. He was fourteen years old. The Scottsboro Boys Trial was about nine black men falsely accused of raping two white women on board a train. They were between the ages of thirteen and twenty. Rosa Parks was a black woman who had enough of white superiority and refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus. Each event holds a different story and contributed to her book, To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the racial prejudices of the south.

Her book has impacted me in ways I would’ve never imagined. It is so, so very powerful and I think every single human being should read it. She has really influenced the nation and changed it in so many ways. It definitely is a must read!

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