Atticus Finch--Now and forever a hero. |
Most of us have a manuscript or two under the
bed or on a dusty shelf somewhere that should never see the light of day. Maybe
it’s the first novel we ever attempted, before we knew how to properly
construct a plot. Maybe it’s a romance with a hero and heroine that just didn’t
have any chemistry. Maybe it’s that SF/fantasy epic with so much worldbuilding
it collapsed of its own weight.
For whatever reason, those stories never made
it and now rightfully reside in the graveyard of lessons learned, never to be
resurrected.
But, of course, our names are not Harper Lee,
and we didn’t write one of the Great American Novels in To Kill a Mockingbird. Up until this week, Ms. Lee, of Monroeville,
Alabama, was known to have written one book and one book only, a beautiful,
inspiring tale of a small-town hero standing strong against mob mentality, of
racism and fairness, of a little girl’s precocious understanding of events that
shook her world.
Having grown up in the South in the 50s and
60s, with a passionate belief in civil rights, I found both inspiration and
vindication in this book when I read it as a young teenager. The impact doubled
when I saw the classic movie with Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch—I’ve
had a major crush on Peck ever since. He was everything a hero should be, in my
mind. Not swaggering, just upright. Not shouting, just speaking the truth in
that deep baritone. Doing what was right despite the danger. Then going home to
tuck his kids in at night.
In the midst of the civil rights struggle of
the 60s, what Atticus Finch did in that book set in the 30s took on massive significance. It was not easy to stand with the black
community in those days. You could lose your friends, your social standing,
your job, your home. In extreme cases you could lose your life, as several
civil rights workers did. But marching in Selma or riding the buses in the Freedom
Rides or signing up voters in Mississippi was the right thing to do. And for me, since I was too young to do those
things, just defending them to my racist classmates and family was the right
thing to do, too, though I’m not sure I changed many hearts.
So now after all these years, we learn that
Harper Lee has written another book. Go
Set a Watchman was released this week to much fanfare—public readings,
celebrations in her hometown, champagne at publisher HarperCollins. And the big
reveal? Turns out Atticus Finch was not a hero after all. Underneath it all he
was just as racist as his neighbors. In this new book he shows his true colors
as a member of the Ku Klux Klan and an active opponent of desegregation. Say it
ain’t so.
Well, it ain’t necessarily so, as it turns
out. This book is not new, but rather is the rejected first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, one of those
dusty manuscripts that has been hiding under a bed for 55 years. When Ms. Lee
took it to New York years ago in search of publication, she was advised to go
back and focus on the story we’ve come to love—Scout’s memories of her father
and the trial that gripped the town. Thank God she did. The rest was quite
properly discarded.
The manuscript only came to light at all
because Ms. Lee may now be suffering from dementia and is not in control of her
faculties. (You may notice there have been no interviews with Ms. Lee, and no
recent photographs.) The sister who protected her in her decline died recently,
opening the way to exploitation by those who want to “build her estate” by any
means possible. So something that should have been forgotten has been dredged
up and served to a public that would love to have a new work from this
beloved author.
But not this. Never this. Consider that the
Atticus Finch we know from To Kill a
Mockingbird would never have been capable of doing what he did if he had
been a racist. He might have done his best to defend a client, but he would not
have visited the client’s home, supported his family, gained the trust and
respect of the black community. In a town the size of Maycomb, everything is
known of everybody. His connections to the KKK would also have been known, and
his true sentiments would have prevented him from going the extra mile, if only
because he would have been reluctant to cut himself off from his white
neighbors.
No.
You will never make me believe Atticus Finch was a racist. I don’t care whether
Harper Lee’s own father was a racist or became one under the pressure of
desegregation. That is irrelevant. Atticus is a fictional character, a great and lasting one. His legacy deserves
to remain unspoiled.
I won’t be buying a copy of the “new” book. I
won’t be reading it. I protest, in the best spirit of the 60s. And I’m going now to burn every moldy
manuscript and first draft I have hiding around the house. Just in case.
Cheers, Donna
Thank you for this. I have been so frustrated with discussions about this book referring to it as a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. Your descriptions of the influences of the book and movie in your life really resonate with me. Thank you for putting this in a more accurate perspective.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joyce. This one is personal for me, as you can tell. And I know I'm not the only one.
ReplyDeleteVery, very well said. This "new" work is simply market exploitation and I find it utterly deplorable. Someone somewhere suggested it was a big business effort to come up with a book to rival "Grey". I think that's probably right. I get this sleazy image of a cigar-chomping, overweight fellow in an Armani suit leaning over a tiny lady with dementia. Not a good look.
ReplyDelete