Two weeks ago I wrote that I was glad that Go Set A Watchman was published, although I had not yet read the book. I had read a number of reviews stating that maybe the book by Harper Lee should not have been published, and To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic published 55 years ago, should stand as her only published work.
I just finished reading Go Set a Watchman and I feel strongly that the book should have been published. It is an excellent book on its own. Go Set a Watchman is set in 1955, at the time it was written. Jean Louise returns to Maycomb, Alabama from New York to visit her family. She has always flown, but this year she takes the train, partly because she doesn't want her father to drive to the airport. It will be much easier for her father to pick her up at the train station, instead of the airport. Atticus has rheumatoid arthritis and it is hard for him to drive and get around. We see Atticus' physical frailty at the beginning of the book, and by the end, we see his emotional and spiritual frailties.
Jean Louise has a difficult time when she returns home. The South has changed. More importantly, she sees the flaws in the family and friends she grew up with and thought she knew well. She sees prejudice in the South that she didn't understand before. Jean Louise deals with her discomfort by remembering times and events in her past when she felt happy and safe. Thus, the novel gives flashbacks to Jean Louise' childhood.
Harper Lee wrote this novel in the mid 1950's, at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.
I think her novel was ahead of its time for the South. The author, and therefore Jean Louise, understand the discrimination of and prejudice against the black population that many southerners consider the norm. When the book was accepted by a publisher in 1957, Harper Lee was told to rewrite it in Scout's past, from her point of view. Thus, To Kill a Mockingbird was written, which became a bestseller and has become a classic. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the 1930's.
I am speculating that a book set in the South during the 1930's was easier for the public to accept in the 1950's than a book set in the current turbulent times in the South.
Why did Harper Lee chose to publish Go Set A Watchman after all these years? We will probably never know the answer to that question. Why did she not publish it sooner? Perhaps she felt that this book could never reach the popularity and acclaim of To Kill a Mockingbird, especially after it was made into a Academy Award winning movie. Perhaps she didn't want to change the image of Atticus Finch who became a classic American icon, especially after he was played by Gregory Peck in the movie. Go Set a Watchman shows Atticus as a complete human being with strengths and faults.
I am glad the it was published this year. It will change the teaching of To Kill a Mockingbird and the understanding of Jean Louise and Atticus.
Read the book and let me know what you think!
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