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Originally Posted by voracious71
I finished it a couple of days ago. I was expecting the scenes to be more controversial actually. The Atticus of GSAW was representative of how many Americans felt about race issues. And that holds true even today. Treats individuals of a differing race humanely and kindly, yet worries about them as a group. Also worries about his "way of life" going by the wayside. Atticus in this novel reminded me of many people I know.
I think this makes a bigger impact today, because we have already experienced the civil rights movement and people's thoughts and opinions are up for scrutiny in a way I don't think they were back then. I don't think GSAW and Atticus would have been half as "controversial" at that time. I'm sure Jean Louise would have been the controversial one.
Flashes of TKAM were evident. I agree that Jean Louise's childhood flashbacks were by far the strongest parts of the novel.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BenG
Yes, the Atticus of the new book is not incompatible with the character from TKAM.
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I certainly can understand why TKM was such a success. Overall it just tells a more uplifting story and sticking to Scout's childhood memories and hero worship depiction of Atticus has a lot to do with that. Also the use of Scout's first person point of view in TKM works so much better than the third person narrative of GSW.
I also agree with the character of Atticus in the two novels being consistent. In TKM we are presented with an Atticus whose sense of justice drives him to try and prevent the conviction of an innocent man. TKM really says nothing much about how Atticus views the system of racial apartheid that put the conviction of Tom Robinson in the range of probable to certain. His views revealed in GSW and that will make admirers of both Atticus Finch in the novel and Atticus Finch as portrayed in the film squirm a little. Of more interest is what GSM reveals about Jean Louise [Scout] Finch's racial views as an adult when one reads through to the very last page. I was reminded of the old Jesuit saying: "Give me a child until he (she) is seven and I will give you the man (woman)."