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Atticus Finch is a Racist Segregationist in Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman"
Posted on 7/12/15 at 4:39 pm
Posted on 7/12/15 at 4:39 pm
quote:
Shockingly, in Ms. Lee’s long-awaited novel, “Go Set a Watchman” (due out Tuesday), 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 theaters? Do you want them in our world?”
In “Mockingbird,” a book once described by Oprah Winfrey as “our national novel,” Atticus praised American courts as “the great levelers,” dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal. In “Watchman,” set in the 1950s in the era of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, he denounces the Supreme Court, says he wants his home state “to be left alone to keep house without advice from the N.A.A.C.P.” and describes N.A.A.C.P.-paid lawyers as “standing around like buzzards.”
In “Mockingbird,” Atticus was a role model for his children, Scout and Jem — their North Star, their hero, the most potent moral force in their lives. In “Watchman,” he becomes the source of grievous pain and disillusionment for the 26-year-old Scout (or Jean Louise, as she’s now known).
While written in the third person, “Watchman” reflects a grown-up Scout’s point of view: The novel is the story of how she returns home to Maycomb, Ala., for a visit — from New York City, where she has been living — and tries to grapple with her dismaying realization that Atticus and her longtime boyfriend, Henry Clinton, both have abhorrent views on race and segregation.
The depiction of Atticus in “Watchman” makes for disturbing reading, and for “Mockingbird” fans, it’s especially disorienting. Scout is shocked to find, during her trip home, that her beloved father, who taught her everything she knows about fairness and compassion, has been affiliating with raving anti-integration, anti-black crazies, and the reader shares her horror and confusion. 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.
LINK
Posted on 7/12/15 at 4:42 pm to Bench McElroy
That is very disappointing.
ETA: it doesn't make much sense for his character.
ETA: it doesn't make much sense for his character.
This post was edited on 7/12/15 at 4:45 pm
Posted on 7/12/15 at 4:43 pm to Bench McElroy
Ugh. Please make it stop.
My Facebook is inundated with race right now. I had no idea white supremacy took a blow when Serena won Wimbledon. Like, so what about the other 15 years she has dominated tennis?
My Facebook is inundated with race right now. I had no idea white supremacy took a blow when Serena won Wimbledon. Like, so what about the other 15 years she has dominated tennis?
Posted on 7/12/15 at 4:57 pm to Bench McElroy
Liberal Orthodoxy demands Liberal Orthodoxy.
Therefore...
Atticus must be essentially racist even if he was earlier of capable of flashes of moral clarity. New York is where one goes to attain such moral clarity of course. Seen through the lens of Correct Liberal Think, she can now SEE. Almost like religion. I'm sure at some point Barry Goldwater will make an appearance and conduct a human sacrifice of a black child and Scout will organize the first Lesbian Dance Therapy Class in Alabama history.
frick this stupid Liberal Fundamentalist culture.
Therefore...
Atticus must be essentially racist even if he was earlier of capable of flashes of moral clarity. New York is where one goes to attain such moral clarity of course. Seen through the lens of Correct Liberal Think, she can now SEE. Almost like religion. I'm sure at some point Barry Goldwater will make an appearance and conduct a human sacrifice of a black child and Scout will organize the first Lesbian Dance Therapy Class in Alabama history.
frick this stupid Liberal Fundamentalist culture.
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:01 pm to Lsupimp
quote:
Liberal Orthodoxy demands Liberal Orthodoxy.
Therefore...
Atticus must be essentially racist even if he was earlier of capable of flashes of moral clarity. New York is where one goes to attain such moral clarity of course. Seen through the lens of Correct Liberal Think, she can now SEE. Almost like religion. I'm sure at some point Barry Goldwater will make an appearance and conduct a human sacrifice of a black child and Scout will organize the first Lesbian Dance Therapy Class in Alabama history.
frick this stupid Liberal Fundamentalist culture.
LINK
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:06 pm to Bench McElroy
Yall do realize she wrote this book before To Kill a Mockingbird, right? It just has never been published until now.
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:08 pm to Bench McElroy
At least everyone can see how retarded that bitch was without Truman writing her novels for her.
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:11 pm to Bench McElroy
Who cares? She didn't even write mockingbird
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:14 pm to REG861
I thought it had been rewritten years later. Is this her original manuscript sans updating?
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:15 pm to Tiger Ryno
quote:
Who cares? She didn't even write mockingbird
This seems only to further the rumor that Capote wrote it.
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:19 pm to Breesus
I heard it was found in a safe deposit box 5 years ago and that many think it was an update of an earlier manuscript she gave her publisher. At least that's what I thought I heard on BBC at like 3 am as I drifted in and out of consciousness.
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:20 pm to Breesus
It's going to be a best seller no matter what, but maybe it was never published because she knew it really wasn't any good.
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:21 pm to Guess
quote:
maybe it was never published because she knew it really wasn't any good.
Yeah. I bet Capote told her not to publish it
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:30 pm to Lsupimp
Not sure about any of that. I do know she wrote at least a version in the fifties. I doubt she rewrote the whole thing to make Atticus racist in the last couple of years. Still, the whole publication history is extremely shady. I don't plan on reading it personally.
Posted on 7/12/15 at 5:30 pm to Lsupimp
quote:
I heard it was found in a safe deposit box 5 years ago and that many think it was an update of an earlier manuscript she gave her publisher. At least that's what I thought I heard on BBC at like 3 am as I drifted in and out of consciousness.
This book was written first, then she decided to retell the story with Atticus as the hero. People are upset, but it's a completely alternate story, not a sequel or prequel to Mockingbird.
Posted on 7/12/15 at 6:10 pm to SW2SCLA
quote:
Outstanding timing for this
For sure. $$$$$$$$$
Posted on 7/12/15 at 6:16 pm to SabiDojo
quote:
For sure. $$$$$$$$$
Yeah. For her attorney who sent a 50+ year old manuscript to her publisher against her will.
Posted on 7/12/15 at 7:05 pm to Evolved Simian
quote:
This book was written first, then she decided to retell the story with Atticus as the hero. People are upset, but it's a completely alternate story, not a sequel or prequel to Mockingbird.
The publisher didn't like the initial book so she wrote "To Kill A Mockingbird" which took place earlier.
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