Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird gives an accurate reflection of race relations in the Southern United States during the 1930s. The novel, set around a single-father family in small-town Alabama, contains a vast array of symbolism to intertwine the main plot with several subplots. Through her novel, Lee debunked the quaint antebellum Southern society for the realism of Southern culture. The timing of this publication, which denounced prejudicial attitudes, coordinated with the early Civil Rights Movement in the United States. This best selling novel became a classic and required reading for many American high school students.

Author Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1926. She spent four years at the University of Alabama and one year at Oxford University in England. She also attended law school, leaving six months short of finishing her coursework to pursue a writing career...