thesis statement about courage in to kill a mockingbird

101 To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Titles & Examples

If you struggle to find “To Kill a Mockingbird” essay topics on prejudice, race, the characters’ courage, or any other issue, look no further. Our team has prepared a list of titles and essay writing tips for this book.

🏆 Best To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Topics & Examples

📌 most interesting to kill a mockingbird essay titles, 👍 good to kill a mockingbird research topics, ❓ to kill a mockingbird essay questions.

Before we will talk about the do’s and don’ts in essay writing, let’s clarify the types of essay.

When working on “To Kill a Mockingbird” essay thesis, you can focus on the facts of the book or concentrate on your attitude towards its key issues and characters. According to your approach, we can divide essays into two main areas:

• Objective essay: you set out your personal thoughts on a chosen issue and provide supporting arguments and evidence;
• Subjective essay: you express your point of view on a specific topic without claiming the truth and strengthening it with facts.

For example, when you choose a “To Kill a Mockingbird” essay topics on goodness, you will state that Atticus is a kind and fearless. No doubt that this character has a positive role.

On the other hand, when you describe Mayella, you will have to choose: will you condemn her or express pity.

As for the essay content, it can be divided into many subcategories:

• Philosophical essay
• Critical essay
• Literary analysis
• Historical essay, etc.

There are also a few key literary types:

• Feature article, etc.

Do’s & Don’ts When Writing To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

Now, it’s time to talk about what you should write and what to avoid in your paper. First of all, you have to remember that all “To Kill a Mockingbird” essay titles should reveal the essence of the issue.

Recommendations for essay writing:

• Do mark your essay subject at the beginning of the text. “To Kill a Mockingbird” essay hooks will help you to catch the reader’s attention. Don’t forget to emphasize the central issue in the conclusion.
• Do support the style of presentation by your emotions, vision, and opinion. Use the “question-answer” in paragraphs. Make the transitions between paragraphs harmonious and smooth.
• Do use quotes, historical facts, and observations to argue the thesis statement, solve the main issue, and describe the key subject of the paper.
• Do stick to the central thesis of your essay. Avoid deepen into philosophical reflections — tell about concrete facts and examples. Here’s an example: don’t include the facts from the author’s biography if you focus on the events of the book and factors that affect discrimination.
• Do proofread the paper. Read carefully your essay several times and think if your readers will understand your expressions.
• Do not use specific terminology in “To Kill a Mockingbird” essay. For example, when you write about discrimination, you don’t necessarily have to provide its dictionary definition or use complex law, historical and psychological literature, and samples. Just your own language. However, it doesn’t mean that your opinion should seem ungrounded.
• Do add your emotions to the paper. Let your readers feel that you believe in your ideas when defending the essay thesis.
• Don’t choose the header before you write an essay. First, you should write an essay, and only then compile the title of your paper.

Well, now you know about the essay types, what to do, and what to avoid in your essay. Of course, you may ask: “What to write in my own essay?”

The key to success is to start. Check “To Kill a Mockingbird” essay examples on our website to get inspiration. Even the topic seems to you too complicated, start your research, and then you will be able to express new and original thoughts.

• Slavery in To Kill a Mockingbird Novel The introduction of Tom by the author is a plot device to represent the plight of the slaves in the state.
• “To Kill a Mockingbird”: Book and Movie Differences It is important to note that the film, To Kill a Mockingbird entails most of the aspects depicted in the novel.
• To Kill a Mockingbird Main Themes The main themes of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird cover both adult and children’s concerns, including the dignity of human life, the importance of truth, the rights of people to be different, the need […]
• “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962) by Robert Mulligan This movie presented a timely reflection of the extent of deep racial problems and social injustices existing in the southern part of the US in the early 60s.
• Nelle Harper Lee and Her Reflection in “To Kill a Mockingbird” The author perfectly reflects her life in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird as her father played an essential role in creating the story.
• Analysis of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Although the innocent black man is killed while attempting to break out of prison when he might have gone free had the case proceeded to a higher court, Atticus and the town’s sheriff conjure a […]
• Novel Appreciation: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The contemporary discussion of this novel is often tied to the question of racism; nevertheless, I am convinced that this book can be of great interest to modern readers, and I would like to discuss […]
• Themes in “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird, in its imperfection, is a testament to the march of progress in social justice and racial equality.
• The Problem of Racism and Injustice in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee In the novel, Harper Lee demonstrates her vision of the question of the social inequality with references to the problem of racism in the society based on prejudice and absence of actual principles of tolerance […]
• Moral Principles in Harper Lee’s Novel To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee explores a great number of themes in the first chapters of the novel, for example, integrity of a person and his/her ability contradict the norms, adopted in the community.
• The Title of Lee’s “How to Kill a Mockingbird” Book The novel’s core topic is the disappearance of innocence and the influence of bias on the lives of the novel’s characters.
• Empathy and Racism in Stockett’s The Help and Li’s To Kill a Mockingbird To start with, the first approach to racism and promoting empathy is to confront prevalent discrimination and racism, which was often shown in The Help. Another solution to racism and the possibility of promoting empathy […]
• Systemic Racism in Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” & Whitehead’s “The Nickel Boys” Racism in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is pronounced and presented as the natural habitat of the town of Maycomb.
• Lift a Ban on “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Lee Understanding different activities have remained vital in society.”To Kill a Mockingbird” is a book that explains the problems of the United States and promotes people to be just and respect human rights.
• “To Kill a Mockingbird” Drama Film The plot proves to be logical and consistent throughout the movie, motivating the audience to watch till the end of the film.
• Understanding Other Perspective: To Kill a Mockingbird The literature portrays the actual happenings in the society in an educative and corrective manner that is acceptable to both sides of the victim and perpetrator of injustices.
• “To Kill a Mockingbird”: The Novel by Harper Lee Scout does not realize the severity of many of the events of the book as they are taking place, and as such she is an innocent.
• American History in “To Kill a Mockingbird” Book & Film Racial attitudes and the dominance of white men over the black ones in the USA are the central ideas of the movie and the novel.
• Racist Trial in the Novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee For the purpose, evaluation would be made in the context of utilization of events, time and culture of the book and compare it to today’s society, culture and racial attitudes.
• Racial Prejudice in Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” Paul Lawrence Dunbar in his poem, “Sympathy” has vividly portrayed the pangs of a caged bird and likens it to the collective pain that colored people have felt like victims of racial prejudices.”And a pain […]
• “To Kill a Mockingbird” Novel by Harper Lee It is one of the main characteristics of the mockingbird includes its innocence and imitation of the songs of other birds in a loud voice.
• “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee In consequence, the book became a model source of reading that inspired people to further take on the issues of race in the USA and throughout the world.
• American Novel: “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee It is also worth to mention that the novel is indeed relevant to its readership because it mirrors the nature of society affected by racism and inequality. Through the act of inclusiveness, I am in […]
• What It Takes to Kill a Mockingbird: In Search for the Differences Between the Novel and a Movie The characters both in the novel and in the movie were often pushed to the breaking point; however, one of such moments described in the book was left out of the movie.
• Social Issues in the “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee The phrase ‘to kill a mocking bird’ stands out as a metaphor in the book To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
• To Kill a Mockingbird: Movie Analysis Speaking of the movements which convey the essence of the film without any speech “intrusion”, it would be a good idea to drive the example of Boo Radley standing in the darker corner of the […]
• To Kill a Mockingbird The author, in the novel To Kill a Mocking Bird presents a deeper understanding in relation to events occurring in her novel. To enhance understanding of the novel, the author has widely embraced symbolism in […]
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To Kill a Mockingbird

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

Many people in To Kill a Mockingbird confuse courage with strength and believe that courage is the ability or willingness to use strength to get one’s way. However, the novel makes it abundantly clear that this understanding of courage is immature at best and is possibly wrong altogether. Instead, the novel proposes that courage isn’t about winning. Instead, it’s about thinking about something and choosing to do what’s right, even if doing so is difficult or guaranteed to fail.

When the reader first meets Scout , she believes that she’s very courageous: she’s hotheaded and consistently gets in fights to defend what she believes is right. Though Jem is a little old for fights like this, he, too, thinks of fighting as a more or less appropriate way to demonstrate one’s courage. This is supported as time goes on and Jem in particular, who loves football, is mortified that Atticus is the only father in town who doesn’t play in the inter-church football game because of his age. In Jem and Scout’s understanding, Atticus isn’t as courageous or as admirable as the other Maycomb fathers, simply because he’s a lawyer, which means that his contribution to the world isn’t something entirely tangible, unlike other fathers who are farmers or shop owners. In this sense, Scout and Jem tie a person’s worth to what they can do, but only if their capabilities are immediately visible to others.

This understanding of what courage means and what worth is begins to break down in February, before Tom Robinson ’s trial. When Scout and Jem discover what turns out to be a rabid dog heading for their neighborhood, Mr. Tate forces Atticus to shoot the dog—which shows Atticus’s children that he can do things—he just chooses not to. At the same time, Atticus begins to encourage Scout in particular to not fight people who taunt her for Atticus’s role in the trial. Though Scout characterizes not fighting as cowardice, Atticus insists that it’s courageous to take the moral high ground and make the choice to not try to appear powerful with one’s fists, something that he embodies as he embarks on Robinson’s case.

Atticus knows full well that Robinson won’t win his case. In Maycomb, a small, Southern town in 1935, the idea that a black man accused of rape wouldn’t suffer consequences (no matter the truth) is far-fetched. Despite this, Atticus insists to Scout and Jem, and to other adults alike, that he has to take Robinson’s case and do his best to clear Robinson’s name. He feels he must do so even if he knows he’ll be unsuccessful, something that even Scout suggests at one point is actually silly and misguided, not courageous. Atticus, however, makes the case to Scout that courage doesn’t mean winning at all. Rather, courage, in Atticus’s understanding, means taking a stand for what’s right and seeing it through, even though he knows he won’t be successful. On the day of Tom Robinson’s death, Scout begins to embody this when she begins to understand that being a lady—something she previously found unappealing and boring—actually means doing exactly that. Scout begins to see that it takes courage and poise to navigate a roomful of opinionated, racist ladies, keep the conversation focused on inoffensive topics, and keep everyone’s refreshments in order, all while experiencing major emotional turmoil and trying not betraying that to her guests. In this situation, there is no winning to be had—Scout’s courage results only in a smooth meeting of the local missionary circle, which isn’t disrupted and made ugly by news of Robinson’s death. But it’s nevertheless a turning point in Scout’s understanding of what it means to be courageous, as it represents a form of courage she previously hadn’t thought worth considering.

In this sense, Mockingbird suggests that courage is playing the long game rather than focusing on immediate wins, something it illustrates clearly when Mr. Ewell , the man who accused Robinson, attempts to murder Scout and Jem. His attempt to murder children (and for that matter, his harassment and attempted crimes against Helen Robinson and Judge Taylor ) is undeniably cowardly and morally reprehensible, but it’s possible that his attempt at violence was, in his mind, an attempt to salvage his family name by bringing down Atticus. The novel offers an example of true courage, meanwhile, when Boo Radley leaves his house for the first time in 25 years to save the children, something that clearly causes him distress, even if he knows it’s the right thing to do. With this, the novel makes allowances for the fact that at times, courage does mean acting out with one’s strength, as Boo does by killing Mr. Ewell in defense of the children. But in order to be genuine courage within the world of the novel, it must still happen only in times of great need, and must be in service of the greater good.

Courage ThemeTracker

Courage Quotes in To Kill a Mockingbird

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it

There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.

“If you shouldn't be defendin' him, then why are you doin' it?”

“For a number of reasons,” said Atticus. “The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again.”

"Atticus, are we going to win it?"

“No, honey.”

“Then why—”

“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win,” Atticus said.

After my bout with Cecil Jacobs when I committed myself to a policy of cowardice, word got around that Scout Finch wouldn't fight any more, her daddy wouldn't let her.

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.

“Atticus, you must be wrong…”

“How's that?”

“Well, most folks seem to think they're right and you're wrong…”

“The one that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

“It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

Dill's eyes flickered at Jem, and Jem looked at the floor. Then he rose and broke the remaining code of our childhood. He went out of the room and down the hall. “Atticus,” his voice was distant, “can you come here a minute, sir?”

Beneath its sweat-streaked dirt Dill's face went white. I felt sick.

Jem was standing in a corner of the room, looking like the traitor he was. “Dill, I had to tell him,” he said. “You can't run three hundred miles off without your mother knowin'.” We left him without a word.

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35 To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Topics

Harper Lee’s classic American novel To Kill a Mockingbird is among the most taught books in American literature. The story of young Scout Finch, her brother Jem, and their father Atticus–as told through the eyes of Scout–is one that has captivated readers for generations.

With the reading of the novel also comes an assortment of assignments that require students to analyze and interpret the text. One such assignment is the To Kill a Mockingbird essay.

While understanding the book’s content can be a challenge in and of itself, crafting a well-written essay on the subject can be even more so. However, we’ve created a handy guide detailing everything you need to know about writing a To Kill a Mockingbird essay, including tips on structure and 35 essay topic ideas.

How to Write the Essay

To Kill A Mockingbird essays can be written in many different writing styles depending on the essay prompt and the teacher’s individual preferences. However, there are a few key things that every To Kill A Mockingbird essay should have. Let’s take a look at what those are.

A Strong Thesis Statement

A strong thesis statement is the most crucial element of a good To Kill A Mockingbird essay. This statement is what your entire essay will be based around and should be narrow in focus. Depending on whether your essay is an argumentative, persuasive, comparative statement, or literary analysis essay, your thesis will take on a different form.

An Argumentative Thesis Statement

If you’re writing an argumentative essay, your thesis statement should take a clear position on the issue at hand. For example, if you’re writing about whether or not Atticus Finch is a good father, your thesis statement might look something like this:

“Atticus Finch is a good father because he is patient, teaches his children to be moral people, and is always there for them when they need him.”

A Persuasive Thesis Statement

If you’re writing a persuasive essay, your thesis statement will take on a slightly different form. Instead of simply stating your position, you’ll also need to provide evidence from the text to support your claim. So, for example, if you’re writing about whether or not Atticus Finch is a good father, your thesis statement might look something like this:

“Atticus Finch is a good father because he is patient, teaches his children to be moral people, and is always there for them when they need him. This is evident in how he deals with Scout’s defiance, helps Jem come to terms with Boo Radley, and stands up for Tom Robinson in court.”

A Comparative Thesis Statement

If you’re writing a comparative essay, your thesis statement will need to compare and contrast two or more characters, themes, or elements from the text. For example, if you’re comparing and contrasting the characters of Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell, your thesis statement might look something like this:

“Though both Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell are fathers, they couldn’t be more different in the way they raise their children. Atticus Finch is a patient and level-headed father who instils morality in his children, while Bob Ewell is an abusive and alcoholic father who does nothing but harm his daughter.”

A Literary Analysis Thesis Statement

In this type of essay, you’ll be asked to analyze the themes, symbols, or other literary devices used in the text. So, for example, if you’re writing about the theme of racism in To Kill A Mockingbird, your thesis statement might look something like this:

“The theme of racism is evident in To Kill A Mockingbird through the characters of Tom Robinson, Calpurnia, and Atticus Finch.”

In each of these examples, you’ll notice that the thesis statement is clear, concise, and takes a position on the issue at hand. This is exactly what your thesis statement should do as well.

The Body Paragraphs

Once you have a thesis statement, you can begin to write the body paragraphs of your essay. In each body paragraph, you’ll need to include a topic sentence, supporting evidence from the text, and your own analysis.

The topic sentence is the first sentence of the paragraph and introduces the main idea that will be discussed in the paragraph. The supporting evidence can be quotes, events, or other information from the text that backs up your main idea. And finally, your analysis is your interpretation of the evidence and how it supports your main idea.

For example, if you’re writing about Atticus Finch as a good father, your first body paragraph might look something like this:

Paragraph 1:

• Topic sentence: Atticus is a good father because he is patient.
• Supporting evidence: “Atticus was making a feeble attempt to comfort her, but his hands were shaking as badly as hers.” (Lee 94)
• Analysis: This quote shows that even when Scout is misbehaving, Atticus remains calm and patient with her.

With each new paragraph, you’ll need to include a new topic sentence and supporting evidence.

The Conclusion

The conclusion of your essay is where you’ll need to tie everything together and leave your reader with a clear understanding of your position. To do this, you’ll need to restate your thesis statement and main points from the body of your essay.

You’ll also want to leave the reader with something to think about. Maybe offer a new perspective on the text, or suggest how the themes of the text apply to real life.

For example, your conclusion might look something like this:

“Though Atticus Finch is a fictional character, he serves as an excellent role model for fathers everywhere. His patience, morality, and courage are qualities that all fathers should strive to possess.”

35 To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Topics

Sometimes the most challenging part of essay writing is coming up with a topic. That is where this list of To Kill A Mockingbird essay topics will come in handy.

To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Topics About Racism

• The racist attitudes of the people in Maycomb County
• The impact of racism on the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird
• The trial of Tom Robinson and its role in exploring the issue of racism
• Atticus Finch’s views on race and how they change throughout the novel
• How racism affects the relationships between the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Topics About Family

• The different types of families represented in To Kill A Mockingbird
• The role of family in shaping the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird
• Atticus Finch as a father figure
• The impact of Scout’s family on her development
• How the absence of a mother figure affects the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Topics About Courage

• The definition of courage and how it applies to the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird
• Atticus Finch as a model of courage
• Mrs Dubose as an example of courage
• How the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird define and demonstrate courage
• The impact of cowardice on the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Topics About Morality

• The moral development of the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird
• Atticus Finch as a moral compass for his children
• The importance of morality in To Kill A Mockingbird
• How the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird deal with moral dilemmas
• The impact of immorality on the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Topics About Prejudice

• The different types of prejudice represented in To Kill A Mockingbird
• The role of prejudice in shaping the events of the novel
• How the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird deal with prejudice
• The impact of prejudice on the relationships between the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird
• Atticus Finch’s views on prejudice and how they change throughout the novel

To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Topics About Injustice

• The injustice of the trial of Tom Robinson
• The role of injustice in To Kill A Mockingbird
• How do the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird deal with injustice
• The impact of injustice on the relationships between the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird
• Atticus Finch’s views on justice and how they change throughout the novel

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Topics About Gender

• The role of gender in To Kill A Mockingbird
• How characters in To Kill A Mockingbird are impaired or helped by gender roles
• The impact of gender roles on the relationships between the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird
• Atticus Finch’s views on gender and how they change throughout the novel
• The significance of Scout’s development as a tomboy

With any of these 35 To Kill A Mockingbird essay topics, you will have a pretty easy time coming up with an excellent essay. Remember to create a strong thesis and use the guide above when writing your To Kill A Mockingbird essay body and conclusion.

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To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Thesis

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Published: Mar 5, 2024

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Atticus's moral principles, counterarguments.

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How the moral lessons of To Kill a Mockingbird endure today

Assoc. Professor, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne

Disclosure statement

Anne Maxwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Melbourne provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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In our series, Guide to the classics , experts explain key works of literature.

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the classics of American literature. Never out of print, the novel has sold over 40 million copies since it was first published in 1960. It has been a staple of high school syllabuses, including in Australia, for several decades, and is often deemed the archetypal race and coming-of-age novel . For many of us, it is a formative read of our youth.

Read more: 'Great books', nationhood and teaching English literature

The story is set in the sleepy Alabama town of Maycomb in 1936 - 40 years after the Supreme Court’s notorious declaration of the races as being “separate but equal” , and 28 years before the enactment of the Civil Rights Act . Our narrator is nine-year-old tomboy, Scout Finch, who relays her observations of her family’s struggle to deal with the class and racial prejudice shown towards the local African American community.

At the centre of the family and the novel stands the highly principled lawyer Atticus Finch. A widower, he teaches Scout, her older brother Jem, and their imaginative friend Dill, how to live and behave honourably. In this he is aided by the family’s hardworking and sensible black housekeeper Calpurnia, and their kind and generous neighbour, Miss Maudie.

It is Miss Maudie, for example, who explains to Scout why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird: “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.”

Throughout the novel, the children grow more aware of the community’s attitudes. When the book begins they are preoccupied with catching sight of the mysterious and much feared Boo Radley, who in his youth stabbed his father with a pair of scissors and who has never come out of the family house since. And when Atticus agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white woman, they too become the target of hatred.

A morality tale for modern America

One might expect a book that dispatches moral lessons to be dull reading. But To Kill a Mockingbird is no sermon. The lessons are presented in a seemingly effortless style, all the while tackling the complexity of race issues with startling clarity and a strong sense of reality.

Read more: William Faulkner diagnosed modern ills in As I Lay Dying

As the Finches return from Robinson’s trial, Miss Maudie says: “as I waited I thought, Atticus Finch won’t win, he can’t win, but he’s the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that.”

Despite the tragedy of Robinson’s conviction, Atticus succeeds in making the townspeople consider and struggle with their prejudice.

The effortlessness of the writing owes much to the way the story is told. The narrator is a grown Scout, looking back on her childhood. When she begins her story, she seems more interested in telling us about the people and incidents that occupied her six-year-old imagination. Only slowly does she come to the events that changed everything for her and Jem, which were set in motion long before their time. Even then, she tells these events in a way that shows she too young to always grasp their significance.

The lessons Lee sets out are encapsulated in episodes that are as funny as they are serious, much like Aesop’s Fables. A case in point is when the children return home from the school concert with Scout still dressed in her outlandish ham costume. In the dark they are chased and attacked by Bob Ewell the father of the woman whom Robinson allegedly raped. Ewell, armed with a knife, attempts to stab Scout, but the shapeless wire cage of the ham causes her to loose balance and the knife to go astray. In the struggle that ensues someone pulls Ewell off the teetering body of Scout and he falls on the knife. It was Boo Radley who saved her.

Another lesson about what it means to be truly brave is delivered in an enthralling episode where a local farmer’s dog suddenly becomes rabid and threatens to infect all the townsfolk with his deadly drool.

Scout and Jem are surprised when their bespectacled, bookish father turns out to have a “God-given talent” with a rifle; it is he who fires the single shot that will render the townsfolk safe. The children rejoice at what they consider an impressive display of courage. However, he tells them that what he did was not truly brave. The better example of courage, he tells them, is Mrs Dubose (the “mean” old lady who lived down the road), who managed to cure herself of a morphine addiction even as she was dying a horribly painful death from cancer.

He also teaches them the importance of behaving in a civilised manner, even when subjected to insults. Most of all Atticus teaches the children the importance of listening to one’s conscience even when everyone else holds a contrary view: “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule”, he says, “is a person’s conscience.”

The continuing value in Atticus’ belief in the importance of principled thinking in the world of Black Lives Matter and the Australian government’s rhetoric of “African gangs” , is clear.

Atticus’ spiel on “conscience” and the other ethical principles he insists on living by, are key to the enduring influence of the novel. It conjures an ideal of moral standards and human behaviour that many people still aspire to today, even though the novel’s events and the characters belong to the past.

Lee herself was not one to shy away from principled displays: writing to a school that banned her novel, she summed up the source of the morality her book expounds. The novel, she said, “spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct”.

Fame and obscurity

When first published the novel received rave reviews . A year later it won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, followed by a movie version in 1962 starring Gregory Peck . Indeed, the novel was such a success that Lee, unable to cope with all the attention and publicity, retired into obscurity .

Interviewed late in life, Lee cited two reasons for her continued silence: “I wouldn’t go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say, and I will not say it again.”

The latter statement is doubtless a reference to the autobiographical nature of her book. Lee passed her childhood in the rural town of Monroeville in the deep south, where her attorney father defended two black men accused of killing a shopkeeper. The accused were convicted and hanged.

Undoubtedly influenced by these formative events, the biographical fiction Lee drew out of her family history became yet more complex upon the publication of her only other novel, Go Set a Watchman, in 2016. Critics panned it it for lacking the light touch and humour of the first novel. They also decried the fact that the character of Atticus Finch was this time around a racist bigot , a feature that had the potential to taint the author’s legacy .

Read more: Review/ Has Go Set a Watchman helped topple the notion of the white saviour?

Subsequent biographical research revealed that Go Set A Watchman, was not a sequel, but the first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. Following initial rejection by the publisher Lippincot, Lee reworked it into the superior novel many of us know and still love today.

Lee gave us the portrait of one small town in the south during the depression years. But it was so filled with lively detail, and unforgettable characters with unforgettable names like Atticus, Scout, Calpurnia and Boo Radley that a universal story emerged, and with it the novel’s continuing popularity.

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Go Set a Watchman
• Guide to the Classics

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