She is not radically different in the two books, but different in ways that novelists often change the personalities and other traits of their characters in later drafts of the stories.Ģ. It’s not simply that she is twenty years older in Watchman, it’s that I don’t think she is simply a grown-up version of the Mockingbird Scout. The Scout character in Watchman, who is more commonly called Jean Louise, also strikes me as significantly different from the Scout character in Mockingbird. They can choose whichever conception of the character they like best. One implication of this for readers is that if they don’t like the Atticus in Watchman, that doesn’t need to “ruin” the Atticus in Mockingbird for them. She had the freedom to adjust the characters to meet the needs of the particular book. She did not need to keep the characters completely consistent between the two books. Lee never expected to publish both books. Even the outcome of the trial that is central to Mockingbird is different when it is referred to in Watchman. They are separate treatments of the same core material. Mockingbird and Watchman are not really sequels or prequels to one another. He is a different character in Mockingbird than in Watchman, though carved from the same materials. In doing so, I believe Lee created an alternate version of Atticus Finch. The editor, enjoying the childhood flashbacks the most, urged Lee to write a novel set 20 years earlier, focusing on those elements of the story. Lee submitted Watchman to her editor in the 1950’s.

Why is Atticus Finch so different in Watchman than he is in Mockingbird? The publication history of the two novels is crucial in answering that question. In other words, there are two Atticuses, created by the author to fit the needs of the particular book. Instead, I think he is essentially a different character in Watchman than the reconceived Atticus in Mockingbird. I believe it is a mistake to see Atticus Finch as simply older and more racist than he was in Mockingbird. I spent the entire day reading Go Set a Watchman, but rather than do a typical review, I want to focus on four issues I think are being ignored in the early reviews and discussions of this novel.ġ. The most unpleasant surprise in Go Set a Watchman for many readers is that the beloved Atticus Finch, one of the great American literary heroes of integrity and justice, is an aging racist in the new book.

After 55 years of waiting for a follow-up novel to Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, readers finally have the new book in their hands, and many are shocked by certain elements of it.

To kill a watchman