Go Set A Watchbird Case Study

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Recommended: Blindness in literature

Ms. Nelle Lee is the author of “To kill a Mockingbird” which is a very famous 20th century novel. Recently “Go Set a Watchman” which is a sequel to her previous book was controversially published. Lee is very old and in bad health. Some people believe she never wanted “Go set a Watchman” published. Other people thought that she did want this book published. One of these people is her lawyer Tonja Carter. Carter is the spokesperson for Ms. Lee since Lee is mostly deaf and blind. The people who believe Lee did not want this book published believe Carter is manipulating her in order to make more money off the new book. To answer the question of “Should the publisher have published the book?” I will rely on Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.’s Defining Moments …show more content…

I will be relying on this framework to answer the question above. I believe “Go Set a Watchman” should not have been published because Badaracco’s framework for an ethical decision suggests against it. Although one step of the framework suggests to publish the book the majority suggests not to publish the book. “Go Set a Watchman” should be published because of the net-net consequences principle. According to Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. net-net consequences involves listing the winners and losers, then picking a plan that does the most good and least harm. Relating this to publishing the book I will first explain the winners. The first winner is Ms. Lee. “Lee, in a statement released by Carter, said she was “happy as hell” that is was finally being published” (Tucker, 2015). This shows that Lee is very happy and wanted the book published. The next …show more content…

According to Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. there are certain groups and individuals that have rights that we cannot violate. I believe Lee is in one of these groups because her health is declining and she may be vulnerable to coaxing. Before Lee’s health started to decline she promised she would never publish a book again. “Lee had long vowed she would never publish again” (Tucker, 2015). Since before her declining health she vowed she would never publish again, it would be against her personal rights to publish the book. Many of Lee’s friends have noticed a major decline in her health and memory. “They say they have witnessed a stark mental decline in their friend and report that her short-term memory is erratic” (Tucker, 2015). This shows that Lee’s mental state is diminishing. One of Lee’s friends also said, “I went to see her the next week, telling her how excited everyone was that she came. And she said, “Oh, but I didn’t go to that” (Tucker, 2015). This quote was talking about when Lee randomly showed up to a writers symposium. This shows that Lee is not aware of what she is doing sometimes so it would be unethical to publish the book because that is not what she really wants. If she didn’t want to publish the book for many years it would not make sense for her to want to publish it now that her health is declining. Therefore I believe “Go Set

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