Killing the Mockingbird: Go Set a Watchman rewrites the heroic Atticus Finch

Chris Graham

The Atticus Finch who stood on the right side of justice and history in To Kill a Mockingbird is also the Atticus Finch in Go Set a Watchman who reveals himself as a segregationist, reactionary extremist, a eugenicist. You almost want to wish that the lost manuscript from Harper Lee had never been found. I say almost, because I think it’s better for the telling of To Kill a Mockingbird that it was found, in several ways.