is Harper Lee challenging the status quo about race relations through To Kill a Mockingbird (is her novel political?) or is she merely describing life as it is in Maycomb?

Harper Lee is asking questions that she herself was addressing during the 1950's. During the time this novel was penned, Lee's home in the South was experiencing segregation and the Civil Rights Movement. Lee chose to set her story during the depression, but segregation continued to be enforced into her adulthood. Through the eyes of Lee's main characters (Scout, Jem, and Atticus), it is apparent that she is challenging the status quo.