Harper Lee Research Paper

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Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 to Frances Finch Cunningham Lee and Amasa Coleman Lee. Harper’s mother was one of the founding families in Finchburg, Alabama. She was the last child born to the Lee family, which already included two girls and a boy. Harper and her family lived in Monroeville, Alabama. As a young child growing up in Alabama, she became friends with an extremely shy boy named Truman Capote who spent his summer vacations in her hometown. Later on she based the character ‘Dill’ on her childhood friend. Truman eventually grew up to become a famous writer just like Harper Lee. Harper began writing at the young age of seven. She continued to write throughout her young life. (Bloom “Biographical Sketch”). She…show more content…
This trial was known as ‘The Scottsboro trial’. One woman was a known prostitute and the other woman was a minor. The minor was most likely being forced into prostitution. The nine black men were wrongly accused of raping these women. The women decided that they would falsely accuse these men in order to avoid being caught for prostitution and also for not paying the train ticket. (Faulkner 418-419) The To Kill a Mockingbird Trial was about Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell. Mayella was the daughter of a very poor white family and to the townsmen they were known as white trash. They lived behind the garbage dump in Maycomb. The Ewells were known for being rude and inconsiderate. Mayella’s father, Robert, didn’t care much for his children and was always drunk. Atticus suspected him of beating Mayella and for forcing her to frame Tom Robinson. Atticus suspected this of him because in the courtroom he asked Mr. Ewell to write out his name. His dominant hand is his left and Mayella was struck on the right side of her face, which makes perfect sense. In the South during this time period, Tom never had a chance of being found innocent mainly on the fact of the color of his skin. The cases are very similar and suggest that the Scottsboro trial may have inspired Lee to write about Tom Robinson’s fictional trial (Wilson 28-29). Despite the striking similarities between the trials, Lee denies any relationship between the
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