Obvious spoilers. Scout was born in 1926 in To Kill a Mockingbird, she is 26 in Go Set a Watchman, so it is set in 1952.
I am unsure about the end of the novel. What makes her change her mind?
I have just started it, and will be returning to this thread
I wondered the same thing. I don’t understabd the ending at all.
I suppose we had better get this out of the way, or into the open. I am afraid it will anger many people, but I got the impression that everyone, including Calpurnia’s family in this book is racist by 21st century standards.
So, does a watchman get set?
Her first novel had a totally misleading title.
I suppose so. “Every man’s island, every man’s watchman is his conscience.”
My opinion is that it’s worth reading as a literary novelty, but as a standalone book it is overwritten, messy, and ultimately unsatisfying.
I admit, the book has some wonderful moments - the standout is the “Coffee”…I found the pastiche of conversations utterly charming and very illuminating of the world she has rejected by escaping to NY. So well done; you can see the writer Lee becomes there.
The work with the uncle was just so obscure and hard to follow. And not simply because of the obscure historical and literary references. And yes the ending was crazy-abrupt. Atticus was horrible, racist and then as soon as Jean Louise realizes she can have her own opinions separate to her father, all is suddenly well? Just…no.
In the end I’m glad I read it so that I know what everyone is talking about but I’ll never read it again.
I went and re-read TKaM first before reading TSaW, On reading the latter I do not see it as really inhabiting the same world as TKaM does. It was just the beginning of creating that world and a first stab at sketching out some characters. It’s an alternate reality.
It is interesting in several ways and I am glad to have read it, but it is not a very good book. Not sure I’d call it a novelty. More of an insight into process and an appreciation to how much our society has changed.
Interesting in seeing how Lee was guided by a very capable editor to take some germs of good ideas and grow a very good book from them. How she was coached into developing her skills with some clear … “more like these passages, less of this sort of stuff …” Interesting to hear Lee have even Scout express some of which is ugly to today’s ears and know that Scout would likely be defending the Confederate flag today.
But glad it was a quick read so that I can go on to other books I might enjoy for their own sakes.
What makes her change her mind … she had sense knocked into her. Yeah pretty dumb. But again, pretty insightful of an editor to read this and recognize what could be coaxed out of its author.
But by G-d, the woman can write!
But Brown vs. Board of Education was decided in 1954, so wouldn’t it have to be at least 1954?
Is that the Supreme Court decision they were unhappy with? Dates between the two books don’t necessarily correspond, so two years seems good.
Based on reviews I’ve read, I think it is Brown.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the ending myself.
I could relate to Scout’s feelings of disillusionment–it was hard to read a lot of that. Particularly from Scout herself. She’s spouts off about states’ rights herself quite a bit, and her comment about “Negroes” driving was a bit painful. As was Uncle Jack’s “You’re bigoted against bigots, Scout, you’re the real bigot” bit.
It is very much a tale of the South in the 1950s, written sixty years ago.
What made *To Kill a Mockingbird *so popular was that Atticus was not a normal guy from that place and time, although he was successful in the rape trial mentioned in Go Tell a Watchman, presumably the same situation as in Mockingbird.
Not much of a tale of the South so much as an apologia for Southern segregationist ways of the time. If I was one of those who had loved TKaM I’d not be so upset about this book’s initial sketch of Atticus as a racist but of what it tells us of what Harper Lee was actually thinking at the time. I get the impression that Lee would have voted for Wallace.
Yeah this book is partly the story of a young woman’s belatedly coming to grips with separating her own sense of right and wrong from the long time hero worship she had of her father (setting her own watchman). And partly some vignettes of Southern life from a particular White female’s perspective at different stages from childhood to young adulthood. But mostly this was Lee using Jean Louise as a means of defending segregationism as something the South was entitled to do as a matter of tradition and a defense of it since, from even Jean Louise’s POV, Blacks were not ready as a people to be full citizens. To Lee’s mouthpieces they should be treated kindly not because they are White’s equals but out of noblesse oblige: taking advantage of their inferiority would be unethical.
We seem to have her Lippincott editor Tay Hohoff to thank for guiding Lee away from that and leaving us with the naive younger Scout’s perspective of her father’s motives and the hope that Scout’s own perspectives of race relations and justice would continue to mature.
Which suggests a question - given TKaM existing in the world, how could this book be changed to make it a more worthwhile read? Could Hohoff magically still alive and at the top of her game help a just as magically still vibrant Lee transform this dreck into a worthwhile sequal?
My take is that the flashbacks would have to be from after the events of TKaM only (like her first period and confusion about how pregnancy works and the falsies bit) and would have to have some on what happened to Mr. Arthur Radley. Some that shows that world from the POV of the Black characters somehow … even if it required losing the consistent Jean Louise POV. Pushing Uncle Jack back to an out of town presence. More bits like the coffee. Having her coming to grips with what her town and her father really are be more about her growth on her terms, maybe with some guidance from a tired and now bitter Calpurnia or a world-weary Dill also back in town or even an aged Link Deas, but not by Uncle Jack physically striking her and taking the you’re a bigot for not accepting bigotry line of attack.
I agree with everything you said, except I think it’s a pretty good book. Not a great book, like To Kill a Mockingbird, but compelling and readable on its own and absolutely fascinating in the context of what it became.
I do think, though, that had Harper Lee published this book back when she wrote it, it would have disappeared into remainder bins and we would never have heard of her.
Interesting, too, how many of the arguments and defensiveness of the book’s characters feel very familiar–the petulant “Stop telling us what to do, it’s our heritage” and “If you criticize us, you’re bigots!” for instance are ones I’ve seen on these very boards.
They also mention the Bus Boycott, which began in December 1955, pushing it up to 1956.
As for the novel on its own, I’ll admit that I liked it much better than I expected and liked parts of it better than the original, though it desperately needed editing.
Much more later.
I finished the book, and enjoyed it. I am still thinking about the ending.
Scout was understandably upset to think that Atticus would associate with the racist element. Also, it is easy to look at a story set in the past and try to judge it by today’s morality.
Racism is not dead. It still exists in our society, and it also comes from both sides of the divide. That being said, we have come a long way from the Jim Crow days. We have a ways to go, but I think we are making steady progress.
The issue, as it is portrayed in this novel, seems to agree with what I remember and have read about those days. There was mistrust and anger from both sides. The bus boycott and the Brown vs Board of Education decision did not change attitudes over night. The divide was deep and had been in place a long time. Progress was often in inches rather than miles.
For Scout to see Atticus and Calpurnia on opposite sides here was upsetting, but the end result was a much better understanding of both her father and herself. Atticus Finch has defined the word “Character” for many of us. To finally see him as a human being with human failings is maybe a healthy thing for all of us.