Get Thee to a Watchman, or “Go Set a Watchman” by Harper Lee

This is probably the book that everyone’s heard the most about for the past year, since it is by the author who also wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Interestingly enough, she wrote this one first, but was then persuaded by her publisher to write about Scout’s childhood instead. Which makes sense since the events of “To Kill a Mockingbird” lead undeniably to “Go Set a Watchman”.

I’m going to start by covering all of the hype and its effect on my reading experience, since there has been so darn much of it. Skip about halfway down if all you want is the book itself.

Funnily enough, it doesn’t feel like this book was written first to me. I felt like this was an author revisiting characters years later, since there’s so many flashbacks to Scout’s childhood and so many characters who get cameos simply because they were in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. And I don’t really love stuff like that since it makes it more dependent on the previous novel instead of standing firmly on its own.

So yeah, as a result you should really read “To Kill a Mockingbird” before “Go Set a Watchman” or you will be very confused indeed.

That aside, probably the other main thing most people heard about it is that Atticus is not as pure as he seems in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Which leaves people disappointed. But if that’s the general reaction to that information, then I would say that the book is a success. All of the fans of “To Kill a Mockingbird” are essentially Scout, as in they are young and have unlimited faith in Atticus to always do the right thing. And over the course of the novel that illusion falls apart piece by piece, until you realize that he is only a man.

So, of course, it’s a classic coming-of-age story. You realize that your gods are really only men.

The unique thing about this novel is that the generation reading it today read “To Kill a Mockingbird” probably in middle school, and now they’re grown up and in college. In which case, they are almost exactly in the same situation as Scout, which is pretty cool.

To get on to the novel as a whole, (spoiler alert yo) it starts with Scout (or Jean Louise as she goes by now, but I’m going to call her Scout because I can) returning to Maycomb for two weeks from her home in New York. Several changes have taken place since we last saw her, first of all, Jem has been dead for about 6 months. I was pretty upset about this, but it does clear the stage for just Scout and Atticus to have it out. Scout is also now dating Henry, who surprisingly enough is not from “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Oh and the old home has now become an ice cream place. Breaking with the past does not come subtly.

The main discussion of the novel is when Scout catches both Henry and Atticus in a citizens’ council meeting listening to some old racist spewing stuff about keeping segregation alive. Scout is disgusted to find them in such company and leaves and boots up her breakfast.

What is essentially going on here is later explained by her uncle (a recurring character from “To Kill a Mockingbird” and full of literary references if you like that sort of thing (I do)). (Spoiler alert fo realz now) Scout has essentially welded her conscience to that of her father. She expected him to always do the right thing and all that stuff I’ve mentioned above. So the revelation that he’s sitting around with racists tears her apart. In the end though, she manages to stand up for what she believes and in doing so creates her own identity and her own person.

Naturally, a recurring image is he watchman himself. He’s first mentioned in church where the preacher says that everyone needs to set a watchman to make sure that they are doing the right thing. Scout imagines setting a watchman on the whole town since she feels so alienated now. Then Dr. Finch uses it again when he’s explaining Atticus to Scout. It’s a pretty clear symbol, not much to do about that.

I threw this in earlier, but there are a whole bunch of literary references in the book. Scout expects Atticus to turn into Dorian Grey at one point (from “The Picture of Dorian Grey” where Dorian has a picture of himself as a young and fabulous young man and then tries to destroy is when it’s no longer true to him but the servants find the painting intact and Dorian old and dead) since her image of him has broken from the reality that she sees. Dr. Finch also throws in a ton of references to literature and to history, no real point in pulling them apart here, just have fun with those on your own.

Yeah it’s a decent book. There isn’t much to it though, all the symbols are pretty clear (even to the characters themselves) and there is much less action than the legal drama of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. If you’re a fan of “To Kill a Mockingbird” then go nuts, but otherwise ehh. All the hype is really just riding on the tail of “To Kill a Mockingbird” anyways.