Will the real Atticus Finch please stand up? He stood up on July 11, 1960 when Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird and he has not sat back down since, even with the publication this month of Go Set a Watchman. Many book reviewers of Go Set a Watchman have echoed the thought that “This is a story of the toppling of idols; its major theme is disillusion” because Jean Louise’s Atticus is the darkness to the light of Scout’s Atticus. However, because Go Set a Watchman was the first draft of Mockingbird, the Atticus of Watchman came before the Atticus of Mockingbird. This is important because the context of the two novels is what makes me fill with hope and keeps my idol on a pedestal even as he becomes more human; the context reminds me of the saying that darkness is not the opposite of light but simply the absence of light. The callous bigotry (the dark) of Jean Louise’s Atticus was simply missing the compassionate understanding (the light) that flowed from Harper Lee’s pen into Scout’s Atticus. Atticus represents, in raw form, how compassion can evolve.

While compassion is certainly about kindness, it is also about anger and callousness. Compassion is not the absence of anger, callousness, indifference or even hate but a way of thinking and acting that overcomes them all. Just as courage does not occur in the absence of fear or conformity but in the moment of overcoming each of them, compassion’s strength arises in conquering ruthlessness and indifference. Compassion is the courage to be kind. With the release of Go Set a Watchman we now can see the depths through which Atticus’ ‘courage to be kind’ had to evolve from. If Atticus can transform from a racist hypocrite to a compassionate hero, we all can become better people; we all can write a narrative for our own lives that is filled with compassion and kindness. No longer is Atticus “a god” or heroic figure out of reach for us mere human beings to model, but he is one of us with all his imperfections. He is still the same hero that many of us have idolized for decades but now his character is more of a human hero … a hero that we all can choose to be.

There aren’t two Atticus Finches, there is the one and only Atticus. There are many first drafts in life and Harper Lee’s Atticus represents how we shouldn’t let them define who we become but we must acknowledge that they do make us who we are. Our strengths and weaknesses as individuals help to define the character of our communities. We choose to be divided or united.

How do we make the world a better place if we don’t acknowledge our weaknesses and foibles just as much as we celebrate our strengths? Atticus is based on Harper Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman Lee, a man who “was a Deep South Southerner” and segregationist until middle-age. Mr. Lee evolved into an advocate for integration in the last half of his life so much so that his words of “Equal rights for all, special privileges for none” became one of Atticus and Scout’s most famous quotes in Mockingbird. Atticus is the literary parallel of Amasa. Just as the first draft of Atticus in Watchman does not define who he becomes in Mockingbird, Amasa’s first part of life did not define who he became in his daughter’s eyes (I and my fellow Atticus idol worshippers are grateful for that). Watchman is simply the first draft of Mockingbird and not the toppling of Atticus.

Atticus has been standing for our moral conscience for 55 years and now is certainly not the time for him to sit down or topple over. We need him to walk … to walk beyond Maycomb and into the Springfields, the Charlestons and the Baltimores of our country.

Dr. Chris Kukk

Chris is Professor of Political Science at Western Connecticut State University, a Fulbright Scholar, Director of the Kathwari Honors Program, and founding Director of the Center for Compassion, Creativity & Innovation. He is also the author of "The Compassionate Achiever: How Helping Others Fuels Success" (HarperOne, 2017).