This will be an unusual post for me, since this blog is usually about teaching, learning, #edtech and curriculum, but I felt compelled to write about Harper Lee's "new" book Go Set a Watchman. Here's the disclaimer....I haven't actually read the book. I tried to. I pre-oredered it from Amazon months ago. I started reading it the day it arrived in my mailbox. Then, I stopped, barely past the first dozen pages. I just couldn't bring myself to tarnish my love and memory of To Kill a Mockingbird with these words. I also realized that the message of TKAM, that of justice, of commitment to what's right and for standing up for one's beliefs - the importance of the now famous quote "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." (Lee). These are the lessons from Harper Lee's seminal work. And those are exactly the lessons that the new book threatens to destroy. By transforming Atticus Finch into a segregationist, America loses the hero of equality and justice that we still need the most. The issues of racism and segregation are all too apparent in the United States of 2015 - we need heroes like the Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird to show us the way, we don't need yet another reason to lose faith in humanity.
As a former English teacher I can see the merit of showing the evolution of Lee's writing to students - the purposeful choices that an author makes during the writing process (credit to Sandy Beguin for a brief but meaningful conversation about this). The fact that Go Set a Watchman was actually written BEFORE To Kill a Mockingbird speaks volumes as to the powerful decision to publish only the latter at the time. However, I completely agree with EW's review here that states that money is the driving factor here - more like exploitation. I can not and will not allow my own memories of To Kill a Mockingbird and the transformative power that it held for myself and my former students to be ruined by this new work, and the sad thing is, I don't think it was ever meant to see the light of day. What do you think of the new book? Have you read it? Will you?
Really enjoyed reading your post, Jill! There is definitely so much chatter about Go Set A Watchman. You got me thinking though. I haven't read GSAW, either. What I started thinking about though after reading your post was that since GSAW was written before TKAM, and in TKAM Atticus is a character who is respected and looked up to "the hero of equality and justice" ..what if TKAM is the book that shows a person can change. From what I'm reading about Atticus' character, via reviews and posts in GSAW, he definitely is not the person we knew him as in TKAM. I get this. And when racism is in place, this is not something to take lightly. But, can this maybe be turned into a lesson showing that people can change? What was in GSAW evolved into something greater as we see in TKAM. People make mistake buy they can sometimes work at being better and in changing for the better. I don't know...I could be off or missing something though, especially again since I haven't read GSAW. Your post made me wonder about things. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteSee? I knew I was missing something. GSAW was written before TKAM but takes place after. So my thoughts on the character changing don't actually work here. Maybe it has more to do with the author evolving. I appreciate your post and getting me to think about this, Jill! :)
DeleteThanks for your thoughts, Maria. I think that the more likely scenario is that Harper Lee is the one who evolved and changed from when she wrote GSAW to TKAM. The newer publication is set "later in time" in terms of the setting of the two novels, which makes the evolution of Atticus a bit backwards-which is, I suppose, why it's bothersome- because he goes from being a champion of justice when Scout and Jem are children, to a racist segregationist when Scout is in her 20's. I do like the idea of the author evolving, though :)
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