Thoughts on Go Set a Watchman

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brother put it this way, and I quite agree with him, “We should not think of GSAW as a sequel to TKAM, but rather the unpublished notes of Harper Lee.”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.”