Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

Review by Gerti

I recently finished re-reading Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” in order to get a feel for those iconic characters again before reading her latest, “Go Set a Watchman”. That recent book shocked all those who thought Harper Lee had only one book in her, even if it was a classic of American literature! However, since its publication, GSAW has been criticized endlessly because its author took a hallowed figure in American lit, Atticus Finch, and “made him a racist.”

The original book was set in 1935, and involved two children, Scout and Jem Finch, who grew up with their widowed Southern attorney father. In the original text, he does what few southerners do at that time in history, defend a black man against charges that he raped a white woman. Atticus doesn’t win his case, but even being the man’s attorney means he faces criticism and even death threats from his less Christian neighbors. In short, Atticus emerges as a hero, even if he accomplishes little, as the man he defends ends up dying in jail during an escape attempt. But in several scenes of TKAM, the black community shows respect for Mr. Finch for trying to help, and all the while, the Finch kids grow up – horrified to learn that the world is not fair, and that justice does not always prevail.

Fast forward about 20 years, where Scout has grown up and moved to New York. She now calls herself by her real name, Jean Louise, even though she preferred her tomboyish nickname growing up in Macomb, Alabama. Her brother Jem has died, and Lee explains that it was the weak heart he inherited from their mother than did him in. Father Atticus has aged and become very arthritic, but his sister Alexandra is living in the house and helping him. But it is a new house – the house Scout grew up in was turned into an ice cream parlor and parking lot.

A man named Henry Clinton, or Harry, has become her father’s assistant, and Scout’s boyfriend. He wants to marry her, but just as the last book discussed the struggles Scout had fitting into the mold of a proper Southern girl child, she now has trouble becoming a southern woman, and can’t seem to agree to marry him and move back to town. Several scenes illustrate how different she is from both the older generation of ladies in Macomb, like her aunt, as well as the younger generation of women. She is unique and has nothing in common with either set.

Atticus does take part in a local meeting that includes a white supremacist speaker, but as her father points out, that man is allowed to speak because he asked to. Atticus tries to explain to Scout why he is acting as he is, but she is outraged and refuses to listen to him. The point of the novel for me is stated most clearly by its title, as Scout learns that every man must set a watchman for his own actions, and this spiritual guide alone keeps one true to his own moral code. We can’t tell others what they should feel, no matter what our relationship to them is. This book is not a great classic like TKAM and even drags in places, but it still has some great writing that made Lee famous decades ago. RIP Ms. Lee.