To Kill a Mockingbird (Harperperennial Modern Classics) by Harper Lee Conversation Starters. Discussing race from the viewpoint of a white family in the Deep South mired in racial politics, To Kill a Mockingbird is a bold novel that swept through the country for decades since release. The story is told by Scout, a young girl, who sees gradual changes happening around her. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who takes up the defense of a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white girl. The story rolls on to its final conclusion but not before the issues of racism have been seen and discussed from the perspective of white people in the South.