Discussion for article #238348
Actually if you can accept that Atticus Finch from “Mockingbird” is a character in literature and that every book is its own little universe, this sounds like an interesting premise. Huckleberry Finch comes to mind—he completely accepted his society’s views on white supremacy, but he refused to act on them anyway, even believing he would go to hell as a result, because of a more powerful inner decency and understanding. I hope I won’t be burned as a heretic for saying it but I think the Mockingbird Atticus is saintly in a way you don’t see all that often in real life, and IMHO he’s far from the most interesting character in the book.
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Go Set A Watchman is not the “Mockingbird Sequel.” GSAW was written first. The TKAM story was part of Watchman (a flashback to 20 years before). In GSAW, Jean Louise is trying to reconcile how Atticus could express the views he does, considering her remembrance of Atticus when she was growing up. Taken together, the novels main themes are how children often see their parents differently than an adult sees their parents.
If anyone is interested, the first chapter has been released online
Love Jean Louise’s description of Maycomb: " If you did not want much, there was plenty."
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I agree with you, Matt. Atticus could have been a segregationist all along, but, as a lawyer, he was more concerned with a miscarriage of justice. Another interesting thought is this: Would Atticus have believed, and defended, Tom Robinson if Robinson had been accused by a more “upstanding” member of the community? As a member of the Southern upper class, Atticus would have loved down on the “white trash” Ewells as much as the segregationist Atticus would have looked down, paternally, on the blacks.
Could you have worked a 3rd "unexpectantly’ into that first sentence?
Absolutely. The three children keep having to revise their understanding of things over and over again. (OK Dill not so much in the course of the plot but he’s certainly a case of lost innocence.)
The publication of Watchman after so many years has raised suspicions that Nelle (as her friends call her) Harper Lee, having had a debilitating stroke, quite deaf, almost blind, terribly frail and living in a nursing home was bamboozled by some who saw a best seller in the making. Theorizing is that she seriously reconsidered the premise of Atticus as a racist in his old age, wanted to present Scout as her young innocent self, put the manuscript away, and then produced her masterpiece. That old manuscript may have not been meant to found except people around her today saw a big payday. I read the excerpt that’s available online and won’t go any further.
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It certainly has smell-test problems. She had decades to pursue the idea, and any publisher would have offered millions in advance. Even she were perfectly lucid and capable of making decisions, like those people from the state said, a person who’s in ill health toward the end of her life may relent in the face of pressure from others motivated by getting piles of money. Sad. This is the last thing a creative person with high standards would wish to happen, having some early work you weren’t sure about publicized with great fanfare.
Agreed. But what influences me in a small way is that I had a dear friend here in SF with whom I’ve lost touch who grew up in Monroeville AL, Lee’s hometown, and she spoke of Nelle’s sister Alice who was an attorney and did work for so many people in that small town. When she would start reminiscing, I’d start listening. The courthouse that we saw in Mockingbird still stages annual reenactments from the movie using local actors, and my friend still comes back from where she lives now in New Orleans to take part in those festivities…