Read and decide for yourself.....

I see why so many people are upset.  It's exactly as we've been warned:  Atticus in GO SET A

WATCHMAN is NOT the "hero" we all love and know so fondly from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  But I think the uproar about that fact is misplaced.  GO SET A WATCHMAN still shows us the world of Maycombe through the eyes of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, but now she's a grown woman who went to a women's college and has been living in New York City for several years.  It's when she comes home for a visit that her eyes are opened to the true truth of who her beloved dad REALLY is and poor Atticus falls hard from the pedastal Jean Louise has had him on.  It is clear that Atticus has always been "this way" (read the book), but Jean Louise's impression of him is the same one we all have of him from reading TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  And since that book is written through Scout's perspective, it makes perfect sense that we have the same impression of her dad:  that he is THE MOST AMAZING man on the face of the planet and we all wish that not only our dads, but all of our men were exactly like him.  But Atticus does what Atticus needs to do for justice to be served--for the truth to be told.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  In the process, Scout sees her father as a forward-thinking man who loves and respects negroes as no one else in her life (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD).  As Jean Louise realizes that her father is just like all the other men in Maycombe--they do what must be done, her image of her "perfect" father crumbles and shatters into a million pieces.  She does not handle it very well.

But isn't it that way with all of us?  I know that when I was a young girl, my dad was THE SMARTEST, most amazing man on the planet.  There wasn't anything he couldn't do.  He was for me, like Atticus is for Scout in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, my hero.  I compared all other men in my world to my dad and almost every other man never even came close to measuring up to the amazingness of the man who is my Dad.  I still see my dad as one of the most amazing men on the planet, but--like Scout, I began to see his weaknesses as I've grown older.

For example, most of you who know my family know that we are people of faith.  We have always gone to church almost every time the doors are open.  We aren't just people of faith talking-the-talk; my parents, especially, have always walked-the-walk.  I have always been so proud to say that my parents are truly GOOD, God-fearing, Bible-believing, faith-filled Christians who others can look up to as examples.  My parents built the dome home that they live in.  Dad is always doing things around the house--there is always something that needs doing.  I remember this one time when he had to dig a ditch, he rented a ditch-digger.  When he was finished, he had to put it on the trailer behind his truck so he could take it back to the store.  On that particular day, it was just him and me at home, so he had me help him.  I was NO help whatsoever, even though I really tried.  I'm not a very strong girl (in spite of being "big"--"big" doesn't mean strong, you know), so when he tried to put that ditch-digger on the trailer by sheer strength, it was all on him with me just being a prop, touching the digger so dad could feel like he had help.  Frustrated, Dad finally tried turning the thing on to get it to move easier.  Yep.  It went alright.  The whole thing went into the trailer and continued right into the tailgate of Dad's gorgeous red truck.

I'm telling you the honest truth--up until that very moment, I had never in my young life (I was about 14 or 15 at the time) heard one foul word, not one swear or cuss word come out of my Daddy's mouth.  I sure did that day.  Yes, the ditch-digger had hit me in the armpit hard enough to leave a bruise, but what hurt even more was the fact that in that moment, I realized that my Perfect Daddy wasn't Perfect.

I was crushed--just as Jean Louise is in GO SET A WATCHMAN.  I was devastated and horrified--just as Jean Louise is in GO SET A WATCHMAN.  It's a truth that no girl wants to admit about her Perfect Daddy especially those of us are Daddy's Girls.  Unlike Jean Louise, I didn't rave at my dad.  I remember being disappointed, certainly, but I also remember realizing that while my dad wasn't Perfect, he was and always would be MY DADDY and I loved him.  I respected him; I still do.

So for those of you who are nervous about reading GO SET A WATCHMAN because you have heard that Atticus is portrayed as a bigot, the story is about so much more than that:  it's about a girl's hero-worship coming to a place of seeing her dad as human rather than as super-human.  For us as readers, yes it's difficult seeing Atticus in this light, but as Jean Louise learns through this experience, it doesn't change how we feel about our loved one--it opens our eyes, takes the blinders off, helps us no longer see through rose-colored glasses.  (Seeing is a major theme throughout the book, in case you haven't caught that yet, BTW.)

I, for one, am very glad this book has been published.  I can't imagine that it really and truly was published without Harper Lee's permission.  She would have had to sign a contract, right?  I think that if Harper Lee was hesitant about seeing this book in print, it comes from the same place as Jean Louise's fear of seeing her dad "less-than"--Harper Lee certainly is smart enough to know that her audience would not like seeing our perfect hero Atticus Finch portrayed as "less-than."  But truth is truth whether we like it or not.

I recommend the book.  I also recommend that you formulate your own opinion of it and all the controversy surrounding it......but you can't really have an opinion worth sharing if you don't know ALL the facts and getting all the facts means that you have to read the book!  :)

**Update:  I did not realize when I wrote this earlier this week (July 15) that Harper Lee has had health issues where she is not fully aware of her surroundings--coherent, which means that she would NOT have been fully aware of what has been going on with her un-published works in recent years.  If she did not want GO SET A WATCHMAN, published, in reading it, I mean no disrespect to her or to what she has stood for in American history and for American Literature in the 20th/21st Centuries.  I respect Harper Lee greatly and I feel that TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is one of THE GREATEST books of all time--it should be required reading for EVERY student.  Honestly, I don't think any young person should be allowed to walk across a graduation stage unless he/she has read TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  I'm truly sorry, Harper Lee, if my purchasing and reading GO SET A WATCHMAN demonstrates disrespect in any way; I certainly don't mean it that way.