Themes and Symbols in the Novel To Kill a Mockingbird Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28. She was a caring person yet very curt, she wrote in one of her poems, “There is only one kind of love…love”, (Lee, Love in Other Words, article) which showed one of her better qualities. She told it like it was and didn’t let people tell her only what she wanted to hear. To Kill a Mockingbird is a story written written to show the importance of black people in the 1930’s. It is a good story with a good point. The prime messages observed in this novel is that of racism, how the actions of a community, not just a parent, can affect a child