Atticus Finch is a RACIST: Harper Lee's new Mockingbird 'sequel' Go Set A Watchman is set to shock millions as it's revealed hero is a bigot who attends KKK meetings in later life

  • Go Set A Watchman offers a startling take on an American literary saint, Atticus Finch
  • The new novel, set in the 1950s - 20 years after To Kill a Mockingbird - finds Atticus hostile to the growing civil rights movement
  • Publisher HarperCollins said the novel 'explores racism and changing attitudes in the South' in a 'bold and unflinching way'
  • Watchman, written before Mockingbird, is only Lee's second book and will be published on Tuesday

Atticus Finch, the much-loved fictional white lawyer who defended a black man in a town blighted by prejudice, has been portrayed as a racist in the highly anticipated second novel by Harper Lee.

In one scene in Go Set A Watchman, Finch condemns the NAACP as opportunists and troublemakers and labels blacks as too 'backward' to 'share fully in the responsibilities of citizenship'.

'Would you want your state governments run by people who don't know how to run 'em?' argues the man portrayed by Oscar-winner Gregory Peck in the 1962 film adaptation of Mockingbird.

'They've made terrific progress in adapting themselves to white ways, but they're far from it yet.' 

Scroll down for video 

Much loved: Actor Gregory Peck playing attorney Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill A Mockingbird

Much loved: Actor Gregory Peck playing attorney Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee's unexpected new novel offers an unexpected and startling take on an American literary saint, Atticus Finch
Watchman was written before the 89-year-old's celebrated To Kill A Mockingbird and is only her second book

Watchman was written before To Kill A Mockingbird but is set two decades afterwards

Harper Lee, 89, is shown the front cover of her new book by filmmaker Mary McDonagh Murphy on June 30

Harper Lee, 89, is shown the front cover of her new book by filmmaker Mary McDonagh Murphy on June 30

The change in the American literary saint will horrify the millions of fans of Harper's first novel To Kill A Mockingbird.

In that book, set in the 1930s - 20 years before Watchman - he is a principled enlightened Alabama lawyer. But in Watchman in the 1950s he is hostile to the growing civil rights movement.

His daughter Scout returns from living in New York City to discover that her father once attended a Ku Klux Klan meeting and is angered by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to desegregate schools. 

Publisher HarperCollins, anticipating concerns that Atticus's harsh talk will disillusion readers, issued a statement late Friday saying: 'The question of Atticus's racism is one of the most important and critical elements in this novel, and it should be considered in the context of the book's broader moral themes.

'Go Set A Watchman explores racism and changing attitudes in the South during the 1950s in a bold and unflinching way.

'At its heart, it is the coming-of-age story of a young woman who struggles to reconcile the saintly figure of her beloved father with her own more enlightened views. 

'In Go Set a Watchman, Scout takes center stage as we witness her anger toward and stand against prejudice and social injustice.' 

Harper Lee (pictured in 2007) had often said that a second novel would never happen

Harper Lee (pictured in 2007) had often said that a second novel would never happen

Alabama officials, responding to at least one complaint of possible elder abuse, even visited with Lee at her nursing home in Monroeville (above) and concluded she was capable of making decisions about the book

Alabama officials, responding to at least one complaint of possible elder abuse, even visited with Lee at her nursing home in Monroeville (above) and concluded she was capable of making decisions about the book

Watchman was written before Mockingbird and is only Lee's second book. The 89-year-old's attorney, Tonja Carter, said she stumbled upon the unpublished manuscript last year. 

It will be published on Tuesday but The Associated Press has access to an early copy.

Rarely has news of a novel been so celebrated and so dreaded since HarperCollins shocked the world in February by announcing that a second Harper Lee novel was coming - an event her fans had long given up on and Lee had said wouldn't happen.

HarperCollins has reported that pre-orders for Watchman are the highest in company history, while Amazon.com has announced that pre-orders are the strongest since the last Harry Potter story, which came out in 2007.

But questions have been raised all along about the quality of the book, completed when Lee was a young and unpublished writer and received coolly by publishers, and whether Lee was fully aware of the planned release. 

Alabama officials, responding to at least one complaint of possible elder abuse, even visited with Lee at her nursing home in Monroeville and concluded she was indeed capable of making decisions about the book.

The portrait of Atticus, a supposed liberal revealing crude prejudices, will likely re-energize an old debate about Mockingbird, which has long been admired more by whites than by blacks. 

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and widely praised as a sensitive portrait of racial tension as seen through the eyes of a child in 1930s Alabama, it also has been criticized as sentimental and paternalistic.

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this year, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called it a 'white savior' narrative, 'one of those' that reduced blacks to onlookers in their own struggles for equal rights.

 

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now