Atticus Finch, the hero of Harper Lee’s literary classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” is revealed as a racist bigot in the author’s hotly anticipated sequel, “Go Set A Watchman.”
According to one of the first reviews of the novel, the character is revealed to have attended a Ku Klux Klan gathering and is critical of the civil rights movement, the London Evening Standard reported Saturday.
A new review of the book says, “Shockingly, in Ms. Lee’s long-awaited novel, ’Go Set a Watchman,’ Atticus is a racist who once attended a Klan meeting, who says things like ’The Negroes down here are still in their childhood as a people.’ Or asks his daughter: ’Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theatres? Do you want them in our world?’”
The new novel, set for release on Tuesday, is already anticipated to be a best-seller as the follow-up to Ms. Lee’s 1960s classic about a rape trial in the racially-divided deep south of the U.S.
“To Kill A Mockingbird” follows the story of a young girl, Scout, her brother Jem, and their lawyer father Atticus, who is portrayed as a hero, defending the rights of African-Americans facing a racially biased legal system.
The sequel, “Go Set A Watchman,” revolves around the now-adult Scout’s return to her hometown in Alabama from New York to visit her father.
The latest review of the book calls the new depiction of Atticus “disturbing” and “disorienting.”
“How could the saintly Atticus — described early in the book in much the same terms as he is in Mockingbird — suddenly emerge as a bigot? Suggestions about changing times and the polarizing effects of the civil rights movement seem insufficient when it comes to explaining such a radical change, and the reader, like Scout, cannot help feeling baffled and distressed,” the review says.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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