To Kill a Mockingbird is a Gothic historical novel.
To Kill a Mockingbird . The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee 's observations of her family , her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville , Alabama , in 1936 , when she was 10 years old . As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman , the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence .