Atticus Finch’s Societal Changes and the Racial Dynamics of Southern America: A Comparative Study of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1501.28Keywords:
Harper Lee, Shift of Views, racism, genetic structuralism, southern America in mid-20th centuryAbstract
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee published in 1960 is still considered to be one of the most effective criticisms of racial prejudice depicting Atticus Finch as an example of a righteous person. However, the subsequent Go Set a Watchman (2015) has a different Atticus who seems to have changed his stand on race issues. This research employs Lucien Goldmann’s genetic structuralism with comparative analysis to trace the development of Atticus Finch’s approach to racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and Go Set a Watchman (2015). This research examines the major social changes in the mid-20th century American South through Atticus' transformation from a hero for racial justice to a segregationist and racist. It explores how social pressures and personal struggles influence people's beliefs. This research further examines Jean Louise Finch's disenchantment with her father's changing views on race that portrays the generational and moral conflicts triggered by social transformation. The findings of this research are anticipated to offer profound understanding of how literature can mirror societal changes and offer valuable prescription for how the relation between history and literature can be understood.
References
Asha, A. J. (2022). A sociology of literature study: Acts of anti-racism as reflected in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird (1960). Master thesis. Makassar: Hasanuddin University.
Asha, A. J., & Rahman, F. R. (2022). Social condition of Southern America in the 1930s as reflected in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). Journal of Advanced Education and Sciences, 2(2), 04-08.
Brinkley, D. (2000). The unfinished nation: A concise history of the American people. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Fauziyati, K., & Sulistyaningsih. (2020). An analysis of stylistic in After Dark by Haruki Murakami. JournEEL (Journal of English Education and Literature), 2(1), 47–53. https://doi.org/10.51836/journeel.v2i1.82
Goldmann, L. (1981). Method in the sociology of literature. Translated by William Boelhower. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Junaid, S., Dalyan, M., Rasyid, M. A. N., & Yamiin, M. A. (2024). Unveiling the Structural Layers: An Interpretation of Kath Walker's' A Song of Hope. Journal of Ecohumanism, 3(3), 781-797.
Kakutani, M. (2015). Review: Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman (2015) gives Atticus Finch a dark side. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/books/review-harper-lees-go-set-a-watchman-gives-atticus-finch-a-dark-side.html. Accessed on May 27, 2024.
Klarman, M. (2004). From Jim Crow to civil rights: The Supreme Court and the struggle for racial equality. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lee, H. (1960). To Kill a Mockingbird. Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott & Co.
Lee, H. (2015). Go Set a Watchman. Florida: Raptis Rare Books.
Murphy, M. (2015). Harper Lee: From Mockingbird to Watchman. New York: HarperCollins.
Nocera, J. (2015, July 14). The Harper Lee Go Set a Watchman (2015) fraud. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/14/opinion/joe-nocera-the-harper-lee-go-set-a-watchman-fraud.html. Accessed on May 27, 2024.
Nugraha, W. A., Kurnia, F. D., & Mustofa, A. (2020). Personality development analysis of Jean Louise Jean Louise in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and Go Set a Watchman (2015). International Journal for Educational and Vocational Studies, 2(1), 60-68. https://doi.org/10.29103/ijevs.v2i1.1978
Nugraha, W. A., Kurnia, F. D., & Mustofa, A. (2020). The moral value of Jean Louise Jean Louise in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird (1960) and Go Set a Watchman (2015). Jurnal Education and Development, Institut Pendidikan Tapanuli Selatan, 8(1), 193. E. ISSN 2614-6061, P. ISSN 2527-4295.
Patterson, J. T. (1996). Grand expectations: The United States, 1945-1974. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Rahman, F., & Amir, P. (2019). Trends in Reading Literary Fiction in Print and Cyber Media by Undergraduate Students of Hasanuddin University. International Journal of Education and Practice, 7(2), 66-77.
Rahman, F., & Pattu, A. (2022). The analysis on racism in 12 Years a Slave movie. Jurnal Ilmu Budaya, 10(1), 79-87.
Rahman, F., & Weda, S. (2018). Students’ perceptions in appreciating English literary works through critical comment: A case study at Hasanuddin University and Universitas Negeri Makassar. Asian EFL Journal, 20(3), 149-172.
Rivkin, J., & Ryan, M. (Eds.). (2017). Literary theory: An anthology. John Wiley & Sons.
Sanmartín, C. B. (2018). Champion of tolerance or inveterate bigot?: A study of Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird (1960) and Go Set a Watchman (2015). Minerva Repositorio Institucional DA USC, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. http://hdl.handle.net/10347/23790 Accessed on August 03, 2024.
Sahib, H., Rahman, F., Duli, A., & Asba, A. R. (2019, May). Customary Forest Conservation through Informal Knowledge System of Ammatowa Community. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 270, No. 1, p. 012042). IOP Publishing.
Sari, P., Palangngan, S. T., Mulyaningsih, E., & Rahman, F. (2019, October). Environmental expression using discourse analysis. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 343, No. 1, p. 012149). IOP Publishing.
Smedley, A. (2021). Racism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/racism. Accessed on 12 August 2024.
Soudien, C. (2015). A brief engagement with some conceptual challenges in the discussion about ‘race’ and racism. Power and Education, 7(2), 143-154.
Suma, M., Rahman, F., Dalyan, M., Andini, C., & Wajadi, A. M. F. (2024). Cultural Aspects of Character Education found in Comic "Pelayaran Ke Dusung": An Ecranization through the Application of Augmented Reality. Journal of Ecohumanism, 3(4), 739-753.
Wellek, R., & Warren, A. (2014). Theory of literature (3rd ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Youssef, S. M. (2018). From To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) to Go Set a Watchman (2015): Harper Lee and triumph of pragmatism. CDELT Occasional Papers, 64(1), 409-425. https://doi.org/10.21608/opde.2018.95983
