Published in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird became an instant success, won Harper Lee a Pulitzer Prize, and was made into a film starring Gregory Peck. Nearly sixty years on, it’s still a much-loved classic and a landmark in civil rights literature.

Alabama childhood

The story, told by eight-year-old Scout, is a vivid evocation of childhood in the depression-era Deep South: times are hard and attitudes both conservative and racist. With their mother dead and their lawyer father Atticus at work, Scout and her older brother Jem spend the hot summers kicking around the “tired old town" of Maycomb with their friend Dill, looking for any amusement. A mysterious, reclusive neighbour called Boo Radley fuels the children’s vivid imaginations.

‘As the summer progressed, so did our game. We polished and perfected it... It was a melancholy little drama, woven from bits and scraps of gossip and neighbourhood legend”.’

“Con l'avanzare dell'estate, progredì anche il nostro gioco. lo rifinimmo, lo perfezionammo e aggiungemmo dialoghi e intreccio, fino a dare forma a un piccolo dramma nelle cui parti ci alternavamo ogni giorno.”

But their wild fantasies about Boo are soon eclipsed. When Atticus is assigned to defend Tom Robinson - a black man falsely accused of raping a young white woman - he knows there’ll be trouble.

Atticus and Scout

The character of Atticus Finch is a highly idealised one. While his children think he’s terribly old (fifty!), they also respect his wisdom and fairness. Scout’s childish questions and Atticus’s reasoned responses cut through the deep prejudices of Maycomb and telling the story from Scout’s child’s-eye perspective is one of the book’s great achievements. In an emblematic moment, Atticus buys Jem and Scout air rifles but says they must never aim at mockingbirds. Scout is confused but their neighbour Miss Maudie explains:

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” 

“I merli non fanno niente di speciale, ma fa piacere sentirli cinguettare. Non mangiano le sementi dei giardini, non fanno il nido nelle madie, non fanno proprio niente, cinguettano soltanto. Per questo è peccato uccidere un merlo.”

Race

The book successfully brought the thorny issue of American racial prejudice into the mainstream. The black community of Maycomb live segregated and in poverty beyond the town rubbish dump. When summing up his defence of Tom Robinson against the fabricated rape charges of Mayella Ewell –the alleged victim–, Atticus challenges the courtroom with a question:

“What did she [Mayella] do? She tempted a Negro. She was white and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man. Not an old Uncle but a strong young Negro man.”

“Che cosa aveva fatto? Aveva adescato un negro. Lei, una ragazza bianca, aveva adescato un negro. Aveva fatto una cosa che nella nostra società è addirittura innominabile: aveva baciato un negro. Non un vecchio zio Tom, ma un negro forte, giovane.”

Writing from life

Harper Lee, like the novel’s protagonists, grew up in a sleepy Southern town. She was a childhood friend of writer Truman Capote, on whom she modelled the character of Dill. Her father AC Lee, an Alabama lawyer, unsuccessfully defended two black men accused of murder. 
Lee really knew the characters she was depicting, she understood their motivations with an empathy that Atticus encourages:

“…if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.”
“Sir?”
“ – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” 

“…voglio insegnarti un semplice trucco, Scout, e se lo imparerai andrai molto più d'accordo con tutti: se vuoi capire una persona, devi cercare di considerare le cose dal suo punto di vista...
- Come hai detto?...
- Se vuoi capire una persona, devi provare a metterti nei suoi panni e riflettere un poco.”

In 2015, the novel Go Set a Watchman was published, seven months before Harper Lee’s death. Marketed as a sequel, it was in fact an early draft of To Kill a Mockingbird and is notably different, especially in the character of Atticus. Most fans were disappointed and prefer to remember the original Finch family: funny, feisty Scout and Atticus, an icon of social justice.