Like most, I first read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in school. I was around 12 years old, and to me, racism was a thing of the past. I learned what it was in history textbooks, and I certainly saw none around me as far as I was concerned. I wasn't quite foolish enough to think that the Civil Rights period was the be all-end all climax of racial prejudice, but I was embarrassingly close to that state of mind.
Again, like most, I considered Atticus Finch to be the walking (albeit fictional) definition of a hero. His courtroom speech in defense of the wrongly accused Tom Robinson, in addition to his character as a wise and loving father, has inspired thousands since 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was published. In the name of integrity, patience, and kindness, parents have named children after him, he has inspired lawyers everywhere both emotionally and physically through campus statues. He is the namesake of the Atticus Circle, a group encouraging people who identify as straight to fight for LGBTQ rights. Needless to say, Atticus Finch has stood has an indisputable role model for courage, integrity, and love for years.
Today, I read avidly as Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch returns to her childhood home in Maycomb, Alabama as a 26 year old, and, in a way, I returned to my younger self as a 19 year old. I knew before I started reading that in 'Go Set a Watchman', one of my childhood heroes would collapse to racism, the very thing he stood as an antithesis to in Lee's previous publication. I wasn't even sure why I was reading it-it seemed to me that this book would confirm that all hope is lost, that we as a society have lost one of the greatest protagonist's of literature, and that falling for his character in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was foolish.
Upon reading 'Go Set a Watchman', I reacted to seeing Atticus at a KKK meeting and hearing him argue against the NAACP in the same way adult Scout did; I was angry, and even hurt, because although he wasn't my father, Atticus had always been a part of my moral compass the same way he was Scout's. Now, although the depth of his racism remains unclear to me, Atticus is loudly comfortable with using people, an entire race of people, as a means to an end, in a manner terrible enough that Scout compares him to Hitler, saying "You're no damn better. You just try to kill their souls instead of their bodies." As I read it, the book broke my heart.
By the end of the book, Scout is able to come to terms with who her father is, and more importantly, who she is. She realizes, through talking to her uncle, that finally disagreeing with her father has given her the freedom of and the responsibility to be her own person, rather than constantly relying on Atticus's moral code and wisdom. Her realization was painful, as was mine when I read it, but harshly necessary.
I have long since my first reading of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' recognized my own privileged ignorance in thinking of racism as a thing of the past. In the same way that the Charleston church shooting has added to the horrifyingly long list of racism-fueled hate crimes in the past few decades, the collapse of Atticus Finch's perfection removes that steady comfort that there will always be a strong response to racism.
The removal of that comfort is something that many in this country, once including my 12 year old self, drastically need. 'Go Set a Watchman' may take place in a particularly remote Southern town, but sadly, it is echoed throughout the nation.
I am not advocating for the destruction of statues dedicated toward Atticus, but rather encouraging others to face their reality the way I tried to along with Scout. It will always be more pleasant, if you have the privileged option to like I did, to live in comfortable ignorance. But, as the Atticus from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' taught us, true courage is standing for justice and equality no matter what, even if it costs us our own ignorant bliss. Additionally, the fatherly figure of Atticus is not completely destroyed, as he remains proud of Scout for advocating for her beliefs through standing up to him, showing that our hero has not turned completely evil but rather revealed the complexity of his character.
America needs 'Go Set a Watchman' just as it needed 'To Kill a Mockingbird' years ago. The battle we were fighting then is nowhere near over, as Lee puts it in 'Go Set a Watchman', it "began two hundred years ago and was played out in a proud society the bloodiest war and harshest peace in modern history could not destroy, returning, to be played out again".
We don't have Atticus Finch as an unswayable force of rational justice and equality, but if we are able to come to the realization that Scout did, unpleasant as it is, we can have ourselves.
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