This blog post will contain spoilers for both Go Set a Watchman and To Kill a Mockingbird.
I would like to begin by saying that To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite novels. I love To Kill a Mockingbird. I have read
it probably 7 or 8 times, and I have taught it 6 times. I know the book well
and can quote sections of it. This love for To
Kill a Mockingbird (which from here on out will be referred to as TKAM)
most certainly plays into my interpretation of Go Set a Watchman (which from here on out will be referred to as
GSAW). I have now read GSAW twice in an effort to get a full picture of the
book and to understand its nuances.
To begin, some people are so outraged with the content of
the book that they are demanding refunds. This, to me, is ridiculous. It might
not be a perfect sequel, and it might have been a publicity stunt. But as a
person with literary interests, I like to see how GSAW evolved into TKAM. My
brother put it this way, and I quite agree with him, “We should not think of
GSAW as a sequel to TKAM, but rather the unpublished notes of Harper Lee.” When
viewing it from this perspective, I can see how Harper Lee took one idea from
her original text and turned it into one of the greatest pieces of American Literature.
GSAW is about Jeanne Louise “Scout” Finch going from her New
York home back to Maycomb for her annual two-week visit. Scout has trouble
reconciling what she sees in Maycomb and more importantly in her father,
Atticus Finch, with what she believes is right. Scout asks important questions
of growing up such as where is home and how do you reconcile the home of your
childhood with adulthood. I could relate to many of the questions that Scout
asked.
GSAW has some of the charm of TKAM in the anecdotes from
Scout’s childhood. The twenty-six-year-old character of Scout is just as
lovable as the six-year-old character in TKAM. Scout still gets herself into
scraps and scandals such as swimming with her beau late at night. And Scout
still does not dress the part of the lady. Scout is still Scout. She is the
most consistent character between the two books.
While Scout’s character is well developed, the other
characters are not so. One of the reasons why I love TKAM is because of the
character development. The book is bursting with round characters, and even
characters who only get a chapter, such as Mrs. Dubose and Dalphus Raymond,
play a significant part in developing the themes of the novel. On the other
hand, GSAW has much fewer characters, and many of the beloved characters from
TKAM do not play a major role in the book. Some are not even mentioned The
minor characters are more flat. The reason for this is perhaps the length
difference of about 100 pages, and the time-span difference; TKAM takes place
over the period of about 3 years while GSAW takes place over the period of
about 3 days. Along these lines, the plot of TKAM is far more complex. Yes, it
is about the trial of Tom Robinson, but it also about Boo Radley, growing up,
class struggles, racial struggles, family struggles and much more. GSAW is
about a few of these things, but once again it is not as well developed.
As I mentioned earlier, there are many anecdotes from
Scout’s childhood throughout the novel. Maybe I did not read them deeply enough,
but I failed to see the point. I understand the point that was trying to be
made: Scout can’t live in the present Maycomb she sees; she can only live in
her memories of the past. However, this point could have been made with far
fewer tangents. This might makes it sound like I did not like them. On the
contrary, Harper Lee is an excellent writer, so I found these anecdotes
entertaining and enjoyable. I am just saying that they lacked purpose.
Now for the topic that everyone is talking about. Is Atticus
a racist? How does that change our reading of TKAM? Before I really address
these two questions, I must point out that there are plot inconsistencies with
TKAM. Two big ones stood out to me in particular. One is that Atticus has
another sister named Caroline. There is a Caroline in TKAM, but she is Scout’s
first grade teacher not her Aunt. This one is minor compared to the second. Though
the name Tom Robinson does not appear in the book, Scout does think back to the
Tom Robinson trial in GSAW, but several important details are changed. 1) Tom
Robinson did not lose his arm in a sawmill accident. His hand was maimed in a
cotton gin. He had two arms, but his left arm was unusable. 2) Mayella was not
14; she was 18 (I believe). 3) Tom Robinson did not have any relations with
Mayella. 4) Atticus did not win an acquittal for Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was
found guilty even though proof of his innocence was quite clear.
Now these inconsistencies might not seem significant, but I
would like to make the argument that if there are inconsistencies of plot then
there could also be inconsistencies of character as well.
Then we need to go back to the original questions. First, is
Atticus a racist? Atticus did go to a KKK meeting once “to find out exactly
what men in town were behind the masks.” I don’t think this makes Atticus a
racist given the time and the cultural context. I don’t think that going to the
Citizen’s Council meeting inherently makes Atticus a racist. I do, however,
believe that the way he talks about the backwardness of the African American
population is racist, and it is the more dangerous type of racism. It is a
superiority complex, and as Scout puts it in the book, it is “denying that they
are human.” Now, we need to discuss how does that change our reading of TKAM? I
am not sure that it has to change our reading of TKAM given the other
inconsistencies in the book. This might sound like a cop-out, but since other
plot points do not perfectly align, we have to take GSAW with a grain of salt.
I could end my argument there, but I would further argue
that this shock at Atticus’ racism and the wrestling with what to do with it is
the very point of the novel. Lovers
of TKAM are just like Scout Finch who have come home to find their father is
not the icon that we have made him out to be. He is a human. As Uncle Jack puts
it, “[…] when you were grown, totally unknown to yourself, you confused your
father with God. You never saw him as a man with a heart, and a man’s failings
[…].” Perhaps we as a society have done the same for our beloved fictional
character Atticus Finch. He is a man, and he makes mistakes. His mistakes don’t
undermine the truth he teaches in To Kill
a Mockingbird, “You never really understand a person
until you consider things from his point of view [. . .] until you climb into
his skin and walk around in it.”
