"To kill a Mockingbird"

What is the cultural and educational background of the author?

Nelle Harper E. Lee was born in April 28 of 1926, she was an American author known for her famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown. This book led to her being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature.

Nelle Harper Lee, was the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch, she was raised in Monroeville, Alabama. Her mother was a homemaker; her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, practiced law and served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938. Lee became a title lawyer, he once defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper. Both clients, a father and son, were hanged.

What are the values and aesthetic concerns of the culture of the author (literature movement, cultural movement, society of that time, etc)? And: What important social, political or economic issues took place in the author's times?

Harper Lee, as said previously, once defend two black men accused of murdering. This somehow affected she's style of writing, and inspired her for building the "Tom Robinson's trial", at the second part of the book. 

In this period, there wear a lot of important movements going on, one was the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) in the United States that fought against discrimination and for restoring voting rights to black Americans. The genres of the story are:

- Bildungsroman: Is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age), and in which character change is thus extremely important.

-Southern Gothic: Common themes include deeply flawed characters, decayed or derelict settings, and other sinister events relating to or coming from poverty, racism, and violence.