Is Atticus Racist?

After reading the last seven chapters of Go Set A Watchman, I’ve come to the conclusion that I prefer this novel over To Kill A Mockingbird  because in GSAWM it focuses more on the development of the protagonist and is told in real-time. Also, it uses in-depth flashbacks to further enhance character development. I also found that this novel allows the readers to interpret events differently, which allows them to have a completely unique outcome of the final event. I’m not an avid reader, I read 1-2 books a year outside  English class so, I found those things to be unique and enjoyable and I would recommend this novel.

Before I jump into my interpretation of Atticus in this section, I would like to discuss the time I found the novel to be a bit confusing. The main time that I had pretty much no clue to what was being said was when uncle Jack, was talking to Scout in chapter 14. So, I feel the confusion was placed intentionally by Harper Lee because throughout the novel Jack is referred to  as an oddball, and “crazy” so, it’s not to far-off from what we expect him to be like.  It would also  make perfect sense because Jack is a part of this whole scheme to help Scout become her own person and he doesn’t want to hand Scout the solution, Jack wants Scout to achieve it on her own.  Also, in this section the protagonist Scout was in the same boat as me unable to comprehend what is being said so logically it makes sense to have the confusion embedded by the author.

Now to what a lot of people hated about this novel, Atticus being racist. I personally believe that Atticus is not racist (shocker me going against what most people believe) and here is why. In chapter 17, Actticus says some pretty racist thing about black people and this obviously gets Scout worked up and this is where we truly see her character develop, but I feel like that was Atticus’s goal all along.  Atticus got Scout to stand her ground by letting her break her “icons one by one” (266)  which allowed her to “reduce him [Atticus] to the status of a human.”(266) Scout turned Atticus into this god where Scout would believe what Atticus believed and her thoughts were very much based off his. Mentioned previously in the novel Atticus sent Scout to New York to be able to take care of herself and so Scout could be able to form her own views and by having her “god” (Atticus) be distant. So, Atticus spewing all these racist opinions at Scout was the icing on the cake for Scout to be her own person. Also, within the argument Scout asks “why did you all let him [Mr. O’Hanlon] get up there?”(250) and Atticus replays with “Because he wanted to.” (250) This to me shows that Atticus doesn’t believe in what O’Hanlon is saying because if Atticus was racist he most likely would have said that he wanted O’Hanlon to speak. To add on, the “Because he wanted to.” (250)  could be seen as Atticus hinting to Scout that he is just allowing her to break away from him. The final point I’m going to mention about Atticus not being racist occurs on page 265 it’s when Scout is talking to her uncle Jack.  Jack says, “You had to kill yourself, or he had to kill you to get you functioning as a separate entity.” (265) scout responds saying it sounds like you’ve known this forever and Jack  says, “I have. So’s your father.” (265)  This elaborates on Atticus knowing that Scout wasn’t her own entity and the only way Atticus would be able to create the separation would be to knock himself down to the human level where Scout has never seen Atticus until the end of the novel. Atticus was able to do this because he made Scout believe he was racist. That is why I personally believe Atticus isn’t racist.