Go Set A Watchman ~ Harper Lee

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch - "Scout" - returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past - a journey that can only be guided by one's own conscience.

Book Review:

I read Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, last year, during my Junior Year of High School. Now normally, this would have been read during middle school, but we never got around to it. Thankfully, reading it in Junior Year, at 16 years old, makes the experience so much better, I think. I was able to really understand the age of society that she was living in, the issues that arose, and so on. After finishing To Kill a Mockingbird I read an article in my local newspaper (because those still exist) that told me about Harper Lee's soon to be novel Go Set a Watchman. I was so excited for it and it did not disappoint.

I do understand why many were upset about parts of the novel. It does bring a completely new personality to the beloved character Atticus Finch, Scout's dad. But in all fairness, Scout, our narrator, is twenty years older than she was in the original novel, she notices and understands so much more than she would have originally. 

As in the first novel, racial conflict is a huge issue. To Kill a Mockingbird, was set in the 1930s, making this novel set in the 1950s. That was a huge time period of racism, the midst of the Civil Rights movement, the KKK, the NAACP, and the list goes on. The novel also does an amazing job at portraying the family dynamics of a southern, tight-knit, Christian family at the time. 

Book Discussion: SPOILERS:

There was one thing that really hit me, that really upset me; Jem's death. I loved he and Scout's relationship during the first novel and couldn't wait to see how it developed into their adulthood. So learning that he died at a young age, of the same issue that their mom died of, made me really upset. 

I loved how Scout's personality was practically the same as the first novel. And that she still idolized her father, even though that was kind of the downfall for part of the book. Her father's thoughts on the African Americans really was a shock to me. From the first novel, it's not what I would have expected, and I understand why the realization upset Scout the way it did. 

Another thing that really angered me was about the ending. In the book, Scout goes to see Calpurnia once, and she is rude and nasty to Scout. I loved that Cal was always there for Scout and the fact that this issue wasn't resolved in the end irritated me. 

Favorite Quote: 

"Remember this also: it’s always easy to look back and see what we were, yesterday, ten years ago. It is hard to see what we are. If you can master that trick, you’ll get along."