English teachers and people everywhere who are obsessed with Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird are going crazy hearing news of a new novel from Lee being published. After 55 years of people having read To Kill a Mockingbird in school or just out of fascination, Lee is publishing a sequel called Go Set a Watchman. According to Lee, this new novel is set in the 1950s, 20 years after the ending of To Kill a Mockingbird, placing Scout in New York on a trip to go home to see her father Atticus in Maycomb County, Alabama.
All of this commotion began when Lee’s lawyer, Ms. Carter, was reading through legal work for her client and found what she thought was just another copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. Upon further reading, the story line sounded different with much older characters and different settings. Ms. Carter then asked Lee what it was and if it was finished. Lee responded by saying of course it was complete and that it was the parent of To Kill a Mockingbird. The recovered manuscript started a fierce debate about whether Lee ever wanted to publish it in the first place and if so then why did she wait so long.
Many sceptics are wondering if this new book could ever live up to Harper Lee’s first book. Others are wondering if Harper Lee even wants this new book to be published considering how long it was hidden from the public. Several people are trying to say that Lee never wanted the book published and that she is too senile now to know what she would have wanted then. Others argue that she obviously has the right to change her mind throughout the years and that even though she is now in an assisted- living center, she is still capable of making her own choices and doing what she wants. After hearing all the arguments about her second book, Lee reported that she was “extremely hurt and humiliated” at the thought that she had been duped. In the end, Harper Lee’s book is being published and is due to be released in July of this year.