Gender Equality In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee is an author that most people know of due to her writing controversial novels and her novels also being classified as classics. It seems like most middle school and high school book lists consist of Lee’s most famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is about a single father with two children, the Finches, who fights for the rights and lives of black Americans. When the novel was published, it was considered very controversial because it dealt with white Americans fighting for black Americans, which was not the norm at the time the book was published in 1960. Her novel To Kill a Mockingbird was not her only controversial novel though; she released a second novel titled Go Set a Watchman in 2015 which is also about the Finches, just when the children are adults, and with a twist that the beloved audience of Lee’s first novel do not approve of ever so slightly. Although the books are very different with the aging of characters and opposing views from the characters in the first novel, there is one theme that is very prominent in both novels. The common theme between the novels is gender equality. Harper Lee uses gender inequality in both novels to show her readers

When she stayed in Alabama, she lived with her sister who took care of her legal and financial affairs. Lee was very involved in her church and community and became famous for avoiding the press as a celebrity. She even went so far as to only donate to charitable causes if she was able to do so anonymously. About nine years before Lee passed away, she had a stroke which brought on numerous health issues including limited vision and the loss of her hearing. She was moved to an assisted living facility where her sister told the staff that books were one of the most important things in her life, so Lee was given a magnifying glass and was able to continue to