MENGEKSPLORASI PERGESERAN PANDANGAN TERHADAP RASISME: ANALISIS KOMPARATIF NOVEL-NOVEL HARPER LEE TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1960) DAN GO SET A WATCHMAN (2015) = EXPLORING THE SHIFT OF VIEWS ON RACISM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HARPER LEE’S NOVELS TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1960) AND GO SET A WATCHMAN (2015)

AHMAD JAELANI ASHA. Exploring The Shift of views on Racism: A Comparative Analysis of Harper Lee’s Novels To Kill A Mockingbird (1960) And Go Set A Watchman (2015) (supervised by Fathu Rahman, M. Amir P, and Herawaty Abbas) This study compares Harper Lee’s portrayals of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and Go Set a Watchman (2015) to trace shifts in racial attitude and character development, arguing these differences mirror broader mid-20th-century Southern tensions. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, the research conducts a comparative analysis of the primary texts alongside Harper Lee’s biography and other supporting sources. Findings reveal obvious divergence: 1) To Kill a Mockingbird, set in the 1930s, presents Atticus as a moral exemplar who models justice and empathy amid pervasive racism; 2) Go Set a Watchman, set in the 1950s, complicates that image by depicting him expressing segregationist and anti-federal sentiments. The change in Scout’s perspective from an innocent child’s narration in Mockingbird to an adult’s disillusioned viewpoint in Watchman intensifies the rupture between idealism and reality. Rather than treating the discrepancy as mere inconsistency, the study situates Atticus’s shifting portrayal within ideological conflicts of Southern class consciousness, regional anxieties about federal intervention, and the era’s racial politics. It also highlights external influences, Harper Lee’s personal ambivalence and editorial shaping that contributed to the contrasting depictions. Whereas Mockingbird constructs a hopeful, didactic vision of moral clarity, Watchman exposes internal contradictions in paternalistic Southern liberalism. The study concludes that Atticus’s transformed image reflects both changing social currents and complex authorial and editorial dynamics, offering a lens through which to read mid-century Southern identity and literary revision.