LatinosUSA

Harper Lee was born on 28 April 1926, and died on  19 February 2016
She is best known for writing the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, published in 1960, which won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Gregory Peck

The novel is both a coming-of-age story, or bildungsroman, (the story of two siblings who are terrified yet fascinated by their neighbour, the reclusive Boo Radley) and the account of racial prejudice, the injustices suffered by minority groups and the destruction of innocence.

The title is symbolic and represents a cruel and unmotivated action: innocence can be destroyed by evil.
Translated into Italian the title has become  “Il buio oltre la siepe” a metaphor about the neighbour that Jem and Scout have never seen but they fear only because they do not know him.

Here are some quotes:

• “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”
• “Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.”
• “Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself”.
• “I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”
• “You really never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
• “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”