“Go Set a Watchman” by Harper Lee – Atticus' Fall

Atticus Finch is known to most people as being a paragon of virtue and justice, someone who goes against the grain with his progressive attitude and way of thinking, piercing through the veils of racism and discrimination in a time when they were in place rather tightly.

Harper Lee certainly made a solid statement through him about our morality and in which way we ought to move, which is why many were rather appalled at the premise of the sequel she published to her only novel, titled Go Set a Watchman: a somewhat different portrayal of Finch.

Before going into that, let me give you an overview of what the story is all about. We follow Jean-Louise Finch as she returns to the town of Maycomb at the age of twenty-six, after having spent many years in New York. She revisits the events of the trial as well as many of the characters who appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird, exploring and often challenging the beliefs they hold about their world and society.

Atticus Finch is perhaps the biggest surprise in this book, mainly because we discover a seemingly new side to him: that of the racist who believes in the inferiority of one race to another.

Now, this may give the impression that Lee chose to rewrite the character, but such is not the case: he is very much in line with the man we know. And so Jean-Louise basically finds herself confronted with harrowing realities and truths she believed inapplicable to her own family.

To begin with, it is important to understand that in literary culture, Atticus is known as somewhat of a hero and an icon, someone who managed to surpass racism despite his upbringing and environment, a loving and protective crusader for justice... the perfect ethical role model.

However, in this book a new light shines down on him and reveals that despite all of the qualities witnessed in the previous book, Atticus nevertheless holds racist convictions in regards to the world.

However, being the intelligent man he is, there is an entire rationalization at play, with a developed philosophy in which Atticus, at least to himself, reconciles the contradicting parts of his personality.

These revelations feel like a betrayal as much to the reader as they do to Jean-Louise, who constantly tries to explain things away in search of the hope that the one who taught her the value of tolerance, acceptance and equality is intolerant himself.

Perhaps unfortunately though, Atticus is still the same old character from the first novel... as a matter of fact, this sequel sheds a somewhat different light on a few of his actions, such as having Calpurnia enter through the back door, for example. In the end, he is still the same highly-intelligent, driven and loving father, neighbour, and friend to the community... and perhaps that is the scariest part of it all.

Through this book we come to realize that in spite of all that we thought about Atticus, he is still nothing but a human, and the values he grew up with, the values of the past, are entrenched in him whether he likes it or not.

His sense of justice may exceed that of his neighbours, but it also certainly has its limits; he may have been a hero in the past era, but as time moved on, his views became too limited and the torch had to be passed on to the newer generation, Jean-Louise, who by the way makes for a very uplifting moral compass, amongst other things.

This book, it seems to me, is about the fall of heroes such as Atticus whose once novel perspective of the world is rendered obsolete with the passage of time and a changing of the guard.

And we get to see it all happen as Jean-Louise re-explores the town we got to know so well in the first novel, meeting many of the same characters along the way and basically providing a fresh and new picture of something old and seemingly static.

All in all, Go Set a Watchman is extremely-well written and seriously doesn't lack in food for thought, especially in a time when racial tensions seem to be running higher and higher in some places. Though it does smash about the idyllic view of the world that the first novel left us with, it presents in its place something a lot more realistic and relatable.

If you are a fan of the first book, want to know Atticus under a more realistic light, and are interested in reading more of Harper Lee's thoughts on racial segregation, I definitely recommend you pick this book up.

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Harper Lee (April 28, 1926 - February 19, 2016) Harper Lee is an author of American origin who is without a doubt best-known around the world for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Though she did publish articles, that book remains her sole one, though it did also earn her the Presidential Medal for Freedom as well as a large number of honorary degrees.