"Go Set A Watchman" - Today Is The Release Date

July 14th 2015, the release date for Harper Lee's second book "Go Set a Watchman". It is now available online and in stores. The question is, are you planning on buying it, at least reading it, or skipping it entirely?

I originally had planned on reading it, despite the allegations and cries of foul play surrounding this book. Curiosity got the better of me. However, now that the date has approached some new facts are beginning to come to light that had previously not surfaced.

Atticus Finch, the beloved symbol of all that is good and righteous in a sometimes cruel world is now being portrayed as a racist. Atticus Finch, the Atticus Finch, a racist? Some are claiming that Atticus Finch never gave the expression of being otherwise in "To Kill a Mocking Bird" but I beg to deffer. A man does not simply put his reputation on the line, puts his life in danger, risks mockery and ridicule by his peers and neighbors alike, in order to defend a black man when he easily could of turned away rather then do what was the right thing to do. I never saw racism in Atticus Finch, quite the opposite actually.

"Go Set a Watchman" was Harper Lee's first work, the one that was refused by publishers and then later even rejected by Harper Lee herself. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is the work that she then produced. I feel that the characters that were created in "Go Set a Watchman" are no longer the characters that were later remade in "To Kill a Mockingbird". She may have portrayed Atticus Finch as a racist the first time around, but later recreated him. "Go Set a Watchman" comes across as a unpolished manuscript that was never meant to be published, because quite frankly it no longer contains the characters that we see in "To Kill a Mockingbird".

I have not read this book, just reflecting on what I have read about it. If this truly does reflect "Go Set a Watchman" then I no longer have the desire to read it. It would tarnish and taint my love for "To Kill a Mockingbird", and forever change my outlook on Atticus Finch.