When Harper Lee released her new book Go Set a Watchman, it caused quite a stir among readers. Until recently, To Kill a Mockingbird was the only novel Harper Lee published and it had been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for its massive impact in American literature. Lee swore that she would not publish another book but had broken that mantra when she officially announced the release of Watchman.
Fans of Lee’s previous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, questioned the authenticity of the new book as it featured the same characters but narrated them in different lights. Readers questioned whether it was actually written by Lee herself when one of the characters, Atticus Finch, the supposedly anti-racist hero of the previous novel, became a malicious racist in the new book. Readers grew suspicious about the manuscript if it was genuinely written by Lee and if so, did she sincerely intend to publish it?
The United States has held high regards for Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird for years, using it as the most effective teaching tool in English to educate students about the complicated topic of social injustice. Now, with the release of Watchman, readers will have to make a decision to either disregard the new book or pretend the previous one never existed.
Here are some of the mixed reactions through tweeter:
Watch the critics clobber GO SET A WATCHMAN. “Thou shalt not monkey with our scared literary cows.” For the rest of us: you go, girl!
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 11, 2015
Harper Lee was “thrilled” when she was given a copy of “Go Set A Watchman” in Monroeville,AL last week. Check out my piece tomorrow @Yahoo!
— Katie Couric (@katiecouric) July 8, 2015
Great piece by @katiecouric on #HarperLee‘s new novel #GoSetAWatchman…
