At Lit Hub, Kate Jenkins discusses Southern literature’s clumsy history in dealing with race, and theorizes that, in light of Go Set A Watchman, Harper Lee may have actually been much more ahead of her time than we thought:
Did Harper Lee ever consider Atticus a hero? Pre-Go Set a Watchman criticisms of Atticus generally considered it a foregone conclusion that Lee’s intentions were to hold Atticus up as a defender of justice. But the biting sarcasm and angst of Go Set a Watchman put all of that into doubt…Go Set a Watchman led me to wonder if Lee wasn’t, in fact, a relic of antiquated progressivism, but a satirist so subtle that the moral of the story went right over our heads.
