As an author, Harper Lee’s style of writing is very descriptive with tremendous amounts of imagery, allowing the reader to visualize what the author presents in the novel. The imagery provides the reader with a perspective of the characters and helps the reader understand the characters more fully. Lee uses many literary devices such as metaphors, similes and personification in her writing. She uses a narrator, that is looking back and describing her life at an early age and describes her impactful experiences.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s incredible imagery is shown during the trial. When Atticus asks Tom to stand up and as he stands, “Tom Robinson’s powerful shoulders rippled under his thin shirt. He rose to his feet and stood with his right hand on the back of his chair. He looked oddly off balance, but it was not from the way he was standing. His left arm was fully twelve inches shorter than his right, and hung dead at his side. It ended in a small shriveled hand, and from as far away as the balcony I could see that it was no use to him” (Lee 21). Imagine this man!

The small details written in this paragraph give the reader a very clear image of Tom Robinson’s appearance. Harper Lee uses descriptive imagery to explain to the reader Tom’s physical appearance. While reading this, one might feel sorry for Tom because of his condition and one may realize it is not possible that he is guilty of raping Mayella. This gives the reader the understanding that Tom is innocent, but likely to be found guilty in spite of this strong evidence he is not in favorable circumstances because the chances that the court will rule in favor of a black man over a white man are slim.

Harper Lee is an incredible writer who magnificently uses her writing skills in order to write her book in the perspective of an eight-year-old girl. She manages to control the grammar of her book to make is seem like Scout is really talking the reader. Although Lee adjusts her writing to make it seem like a little girl’s, she still makes the book very powerful and full of mature literary devices. The book is written in a very mature tone even though the main character is young. To Kill a Mockingbird is an extremely powerful and well-written book.

I would recommend this book to many of my peers and other people. This book shows people the inequality of people at this time period and although most people learn about this time period in history, it is important to also read about it from a more realistic standpoint. To Kill a Mockingbird was a powerful book that was not just a summer reading assignment to me. This book was a pleasure to read and a very inspirational story.