It has been controversial since the announcement of its existence, but Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman has finally arrived, and readers aren’t happy. Read our spoiler free review for more.
The book is set just after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling in 1954, which deemed segregation in schools unconstitutional. Given the current climate in the United States, in a way the timing of Go Set A Watchman could not have been more perfect.
The point that most readers are stuck on is this new, unfamiliar Atticus Finch. Where is the man who fought a losing battle just because he thought he should? It doesn’t fit with the character who was more saint than man, and who was entrenched further by the 1962 film starring Gregory Peck, for which he was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor.
In addition to Atticus, there unfortunately isn’t a lot in Go Set A Watchman for fans of To Kill A Mockingbird. Two of the most beloved characters are dismissed in a sentence and not heard from again, while we’re forced to deal with characters we have never met before (despite everyone being lifelong friends). Watchman even rewrites the events of Mockingbird in a way that fans of the first book will be less than thrilled about.
Atticus is an interesting point. Most Watchman readers assume that time has changed his perspective, but reconsidering Mockingbird with this new Atticus in mind is a fascinating exercise. It could be that our hero hasn’t changed at all; at all times he has stuck to his own ethical code, it’s just that in Watchman we finally have a glimpse as to what that is.
It is also important to remember that Go Set A Watchman is a first draft. Indeed, the publishers have made a point of noting that this new book has only been “lightly copyedited.” Due to this, you’ll spot long sections of Watchman that were repeated verbatim in Mockingbird. While any inconsistencies between the two (including those surrounding Mockingbird‘s famous trial) can be attributed to the fact that Watchman was written first and never revised, that is unlikely to provide much comfort to the first book’s legion of fans.
And it isn’t fair to compare the books on these grounds; Mockingbird set a standard almost impossible to best, even with a fully edited book, so how could its first draft ever compare? The knee-jerk reaction is strong and understandable, but it isn’t necessarily right.
Yet if you can read past the notably absent characters and the unrefined writing, thematically at least, Go Set A Watchman is inarguably more complex than To Kill A Mockingbird. Like Scout, we too must accept Atticus as a man with failings and inconsistencies. We made him a god, and now we feel outrage when he doesn’t meet our impossible standards.
It is easy to love the Atticus Finch of To Kill A Mockingbird; indeed, the book demanded it of us. In Watchman he is certainly racist — but by the end, you should have some questions about Scout, too. No one is allowed out of Lee’s narrative easily. And Watchman‘s ideological debate over race offers a more complex take into the racial struggle that continues into the modern day, in a way that the triumphs of Mockingbird allowed us to ignore.
Go Set A Watchman is complex, fascinating, and challenging. But the complications it contributes to our memory of To Kill A Mockingbird could prove too disappointing and damaging for fans of the first book. And that is understandable; we have to be able to recognize that our heroes are human — but that doesn’t mean we have to choose to read about it, too.
Do we need more ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’?
There are still a lot of concerns over the ethics of publishing Go Set A Watchman, and whether or not the book’s release is in accordance with Harper Lee’s wishes. Even now, we are learning through her lawyer of plans to publish a potential third book, based on more material found in Lee’s safe deposit box.
Perhaps fans are interested in reading more of this unrevised and unedited material. It certainly provides much fodder for future scholars of Lee’s life and works. But there is a reason why a first draft is not the final published version we see of a book. For To Kill A Mockingbird fans especially, it might be best to leave Harper Lee’s works well enough alone. Luckily, if we prefer, we can all choose not to read it.