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The first book that we will be reviewing is Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman". I really wanted to read this 'novel' being the sequel of the classic "To kill a Mocking Bird" which is a book I liked a lot.
The controversies of whether ( the late) Harper Lee really wrote "Watchman" and "Atticus Finch" being the opposite of his portrayal in "Humming Bird" had made my longing, rather acute, and when I got the chance to read it, I finished it in one sitting.
To be frank, I did not like it. It is not possible to read this novel without comparing it to "Mocking Bird" and that is unfair. But, I have no doubt that Harper Lee wrote both the books. There are innumerable similarities in the text of both the books which foster's the idea of the same author. I also did not find any truth in Atticus' character being demonized. For me, Atticus Finch is the same. Perhaps the readers who think that Atticus is made into a racist in "Watchman" need to look at the periods of setting of both books.
In Mockingbird, we see Maycomb county where the whiteman and the blackman living a life of the rulers and the ruled and everyone seems to be comfortable with the situation. We see everything from the eyes of "Scott" and story meanders along a lot of sidetracks which add reality to it, there is a shroud of 'doom' in the near future in the atmosphere pervading through out the novel. The adults know the peace in their county is too good to last. Scott knows nothing about this as she's a child. There are no grey characters in 'Mockingbird' only the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys sometimes forget about being good, as in the lynch mob which Scott disperses, without any idea as to what she is doing. The alleged negro rapist needs to be disabled so that Atticus can free him, we can now see. If he had both hands, perhaps Atticus would have lost the case.
I could find no indication of any change in Atticus Finch except that he is twenty years older. In 'mockingbird' he is able to curb his racism or let's call it 'liberal racism'. In 'Watchman' times have changed. Atticus is seventy years old, and he is trying to make the best of a bad situation. He does not believe in equality of all men but he does not despise Negroes. He wants Maycomb County to remain as it was before, but realizes that it is impossible. He is against the NAACP and lists all their actions in Maycomb County, which is to take advantage of the constitution as the whites have done since decades, and take all incidents to the judiciary. He is against integration. But despite all this, he knows he and a few other men which is stopping the violence. Alabama, is the state of Rosa Parks, the bus strike, violence by whites on black soldiers coming from WWII, of Racist white officials , Selma to Montgomery march, and the rise of Martin L.King Jr. and his " I have a dream speech"
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Rosa Parks sitting in the bus in Montgomery. The person sitting behind
her is a reporter.
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A lot of things had happened in the past twenty years in Alabama, the repercussions of which were felt in every county. Maycomb was no exception despite being a fictional county made up by Lee. I feel that the Atticus portrayed in "Watchman" is brilliant character rendition through time, by Harper Lee.
