To Kill a Mockingbird 杀死一只知更鸟(英文版)

Harper Lee, the contemporary American writer, is noticeable for her great novel To Killa Mockingbird which has been welcomed and loved by readers since its publication. Thisnovel focuses on the trial of the black man Tom though the eyes of the little girl Scout whoexperiences innocence to mature in order to display the social reality and assail the socialevils such as the social hierarchy, racial discrimination and the dark side of human nature, atthe same time, the author convinces the reader that there is still good and justice in humanbeing.While To Kill a Mockingbird has been a bestseller that won readers love since it waspublished in 1960, and the book received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. In 1999, itwas named the best novel of the century in an investigation launched by the librarymagazine. Harper Lee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, but thestudy of the novel is relatively few, in view of this, the paper tries to analyze To Kill aMockingbird from the wide range of influence on American LiteratureGothic feature toallow more readers to appreciate the charm of the novel.All in all, the use of Gothic elements in Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird enhances thereadability of the novel, giving their works a special artistic charm and making it handeddown among the enduring masterpiece.Harper Lee is an American writer, who earns her fame worldwide by writing the novelTo Kill a Mockingbird, which is prized by the novelist and essayist Truman Capote:“Someone rare has written this very fine novel, a writer with the liveliest sense of life and thewarmest, most authentic humor. A touching bookso likeable.”1Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1962, in Monroeville, Alabama, whose father was alawyer. One of Lees childhood friends was the future novelist and essayist Truman Capotewho lived with relatives next door to Lees family. During her undergraduate studies at theUniversity of Alabama, Lee wrote for several student publications, which built a solidfoundation for her future writing. In the mid 1950s, she moved to New York City, where shecompleted and published To Kill a Mockingbird in the year 1960. To Kill a Mockingbird wasan immediate bestseller and won great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize forLiterature in April 1961. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom of the UnitedStates for her contribution to literature in 2007.To Kill a Mockingbird tells the growth of the little heroine both in physical and mental,in which the little girl learns a lot of lessons from what she has experienced. The major eventinvolving the trial of the black young man who is actually innocent displays the main socialproblemracial prejudice in that age.The novel focuses on the story occurs in the small town Maycomb that suffers the severGreat Depression. Scout and Jem are reared by their father, for their mother died when theywere very young. During summer vacation they make acquaintance with Dill who is in hisaunts. The three children get together to have more exciting adventures. They venture to themysterious house, in which lives an eccentric person Boo Radley who is actually a victimof his fathers indifference and autocratic. However, they are scared to death by the largeshadow of Boos brother and rushed home. Late in the night, Atticus is informed of the casein which the black young man Tom is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Atticus promised todefend for Tom. Tom is sentenced to death although Atticus shows Toms innocence by theself-evident testimony. After the trial ends, life returns to quietness, but Ewell vows toretaliate for he feels he is fooled by Atticus and Judge. Scout and Jem are attacked by BobEwell on the late night of Halloween. At the dangerous moment, they are saved by BooRadley who becomes the real human being rather than a freak in their mind.Gothic fiction is associated with the development of aesthetic concept sublimity. Sincethe classic On the Sublime written by Longinus in the late 17th century, has been translatedinto English, many critics and writers have discussed and explored the origin of sublimity,who argue consistently that the grand, horrible things can cause a lofty beauty. This kind ofview is further developed by the well-known British political commentator and critic,Edmund Burke in the 18th century. In his aesthetics book A Philosophical Inquiry into theOrigin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful , he expresses his view in one section Of theSublime in this book: “Whatever is in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that isto say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in amanner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongestemotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”4Harper Lee has been influenced by the Gothic tradition in South America in a certaindegree. Five years after she was born, the notorious trial-the Scottsboro Case occurred, inwhich the nine young black men were charged with raping two white women and became thevictims of racial prejudice. With that age as the setting, Harper Lee catches the climate of theage and criticizes the racial discrimination in her work To Kill a Mockingbird. The bookgives a vivid description of a panorama of America in the 1930s, which echoes the civilrights movement in the 1960s. After its publication the book was well-sold and became a bigshot.To Kill a Mockingbird is regarded as the second book only next to The Holy Bible inbeing “most often cited as making a difference” in peoples lives. It is still a controversialquestion whether Harper Lees novel To Kill a Mockingbird belongs to the Gothic fiction ornot. However, to some extend, the Gothic tradition is deeply rooted in South Americanliterature and exerts a great influence on the writers writing style. Harper Lee uses theGothic writing techniques skillfully.As an American masterpiece in the contemporary canons, To Kill a Mockingbirdstrengthens its high position with its frequent publication and its population from the readers.However, at the time of its publication, the novel met the hostility and criticism rather thanagreement and praise from the critics and scholars. When it came to Harper Lees writingtechniques, Granville Hicks, the famous critics of Lees age, pointed out that the point ofview is not as satisfactory as the rest of the novel. Phoebe Adams, the reviewer of TheAtlantic Monthly did not agree with the point of view as well by saying that it wasunconvinced that the narrator was a girl of six with a tone of a well-educated adult.In To Killa Mockingbird, Harper Lee fully shows her writing skills by employing the Gothic writingtechnique in the whole novel to create the mysterious atmosphere and eccentric characters toreveal the social reality, which makes the reader curious and enlightened. In this paper, ToKill a Mockingbird is analyzed from its motif, setting, plot and character to show its Gothicfeatures such as mystery, violence, the supernatural, so on and so forth. The thesis containsfour parts: the first chapter is named Gothic motif; the second chapter