Max de Freitas asked this question about
Go Set a Watchman:
Was it really written by Harper Lee? Readers might be able to tell. Either way, it will make millions for her lawyer and the publisher.
Dianne Erickson
This answer contains spoilers�
(view spoiler)[How is it an "early draft" of one of the greatest American novels? Watchman is a mockery of Mockingbird. If we look at Watchman as though Mockingbird never existed, it contains: underdeveloped characters of a dead brother, Jem, and missing friend, Dill; nothing particularly heroic or interesting about Atticus, which makes Scout's realization that her father is not an icon mystifying because there is nothing remarkable about this Atticus; nothing convincing about the bonding between Calpurnia and Scout, and a revelation that somehow Uncle Jack was in love with Scout's dead mother, to which Scout responds, "Uncle Jack, I'm so ashamed of myself. I don't know what to do. Me yelling around like that--oh, I could kill myself!" p274. Where did this come from? This is just plain bad writing.
Racist stereotypes are prominently featured in Watchman. Atticus and Scout agree that the "Negro Population" is "backward ... unable to share fully in the responsibilities of citizenship." p242. Atticus and Henry criticize the NAACP attorneys for "demand[ing] Negros on the juries" in felony cases; subpoenaing the jury commissioners, asking judges to step down, raising issues for appeals, and trying to get the cases into federal court. p149. Scout is amazed by this, as she had thought the NAACP was forbidden to do business in Alabama. p149. Atticus and Henry believe it would be better for the "boy" to plead guilty rather than fall into the wrong hands of the NAACP-paid "colored" lawyers ... "standing around like buzzards down here." pp148-149. In the underdeveloped story behind the charge, the defendant, Frank, is on the waiting list for the Tuskegee Institute and a talented plumber. p. 157. Frank, while driving his car, unfortunately hits the town drunk, who is wandering into the road. p. 148. Scout is offended that after Atticus got five divorces for Zeebo (who runs around on his wife, Helen), Calpurnia's 'tribe" would "sit in the kitchen and talk NAACP." p150. Atticus is apparently willing to destroy Frank's future with a guilty plea so that the aggressive attorneys of the NAACP cannot save Frank's promising future. Scout is color-blind because she doesn't notice that a "great big fat Negro man's been sitting beside me on a bus until I get up to leave. You just don't notice it," she says in what is just absurd--she has just described him as a "great big fat Negro man." p181. Of course, she noticed him. She simply prides herself on her ability to continue sitting with the man, while in New York, making her feel superior to her dim-witted white Southern acquaintances. The weird psycho-babble explanation that Atticus presented offensive racist ideas so Scout would reduce him to "the status of a human being" is not credible, shows Atticus himself to have a huge ego, and suggests there is something wrong with parent as role model. p266. The speeches Atticus makes at the end seem like a racist and mercifully shortened version of John Galt.
This is a terrible book, and if she wrote it, Harper Lee should have torn it to shreds a long time ago. Its main benefit is to inspire a re-reading of To Kill a Mockingbird. In contrast, this is the admirable Atticus Finch in Mockingbird: "Miss Jean Louise?" I looked up. They were standing. All around us and in the balcony on the opposite wall, the Negros were getting to their feet. Reverend Sykes voice was a distant as Judge Taylor's: "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin." p224, Lippincott, c1960.--What a far cry from the Watchman Atticus scheming to keep the zealous "colored" lawyers out of the courtroom.
Watchman cannot be the parent of Mockingbird. I cannot see an editor around 1960 even encouraging Harper Lee to keep writing after she allegedly submitted this book. If I were told that someone else grabbed some loose notes belonging to Harper Lee, called it a manuscript, ran it to a publisher with an unscrupulous ghost-writer, who did not bother to get the details right on the trial of Tom Robinson, I would believe it. There is a bizarre focus on legal details, including a description of the difficulties in understanding Alabama pleadings. p53. That a lawyer is wrapped up in the discovery of this manuscript only inspires conspiracy theorists to question whether Ms. Lee wrote this book, which is selling because of the large name "Harper Lee" on the top. Otherwise, it would be a mediocre self-published book that would be found outrageous for its just about unchallenged racist views, its undeveloped and stereotypical characters, and its disjointed story.
Finally, why is it acceptable in this day and age, to publish something this racist--just because someone "found" a manuscript and attributed it to an aging and beloved author? The dialogue is inflammatory and offensive.
The only justice would be to donate one hundred percent of the profits to the NAACP. These lawyers are Watchman's true heroes.
(hide spoiler)]
Racist stereotypes are prominently featured in Watchman. Atticus and Scout agree that the "Negro Population" is "backward ... unable to share fully in the responsibilities of citizenship." p242. Atticus and Henry criticize the NAACP attorneys for "demand[ing] Negros on the juries" in felony cases; subpoenaing the jury commissioners, asking judges to step down, raising issues for appeals, and trying to get the cases into federal court. p149. Scout is amazed by this, as she had thought the NAACP was forbidden to do business in Alabama. p149. Atticus and Henry believe it would be better for the "boy" to plead guilty rather than fall into the wrong hands of the NAACP-paid "colored" lawyers ... "standing around like buzzards down here." pp148-149. In the underdeveloped story behind the charge, the defendant, Frank, is on the waiting list for the Tuskegee Institute and a talented plumber. p. 157. Frank, while driving his car, unfortunately hits the town drunk, who is wandering into the road. p. 148. Scout is offended that after Atticus got five divorces for Zeebo (who runs around on his wife, Helen), Calpurnia's 'tribe" would "sit in the kitchen and talk NAACP." p150. Atticus is apparently willing to destroy Frank's future with a guilty plea so that the aggressive attorneys of the NAACP cannot save Frank's promising future. Scout is color-blind because she doesn't notice that a "great big fat Negro man's been sitting beside me on a bus until I get up to leave. You just don't notice it," she says in what is just absurd--she has just described him as a "great big fat Negro man." p181. Of course, she noticed him. She simply prides herself on her ability to continue sitting with the man, while in New York, making her feel superior to her dim-witted white Southern acquaintances. The weird psycho-babble explanation that Atticus presented offensive racist ideas so Scout would reduce him to "the status of a human being" is not credible, shows Atticus himself to have a huge ego, and suggests there is something wrong with parent as role model. p266. The speeches Atticus makes at the end seem like a racist and mercifully shortened version of John Galt.
This is a terrible book, and if she wrote it, Harper Lee should have torn it to shreds a long time ago. Its main benefit is to inspire a re-reading of To Kill a Mockingbird. In contrast, this is the admirable Atticus Finch in Mockingbird: "Miss Jean Louise?" I looked up. They were standing. All around us and in the balcony on the opposite wall, the Negros were getting to their feet. Reverend Sykes voice was a distant as Judge Taylor's: "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin." p224, Lippincott, c1960.--What a far cry from the Watchman Atticus scheming to keep the zealous "colored" lawyers out of the courtroom.
Watchman cannot be the parent of Mockingbird. I cannot see an editor around 1960 even encouraging Harper Lee to keep writing after she allegedly submitted this book. If I were told that someone else grabbed some loose notes belonging to Harper Lee, called it a manuscript, ran it to a publisher with an unscrupulous ghost-writer, who did not bother to get the details right on the trial of Tom Robinson, I would believe it. There is a bizarre focus on legal details, including a description of the difficulties in understanding Alabama pleadings. p53. That a lawyer is wrapped up in the discovery of this manuscript only inspires conspiracy theorists to question whether Ms. Lee wrote this book, which is selling because of the large name "Harper Lee" on the top. Otherwise, it would be a mediocre self-published book that would be found outrageous for its just about unchallenged racist views, its undeveloped and stereotypical characters, and its disjointed story.
Finally, why is it acceptable in this day and age, to publish something this racist--just because someone "found" a manuscript and attributed it to an aging and beloved author? The dialogue is inflammatory and offensive.
The only justice would be to donate one hundred percent of the profits to the NAACP. These lawyers are Watchman's true heroes.
(hide spoiler)]
by
Harper Lee
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