Go Set a Watchman and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for" (To Kill a Mockingbird).

I had not planned on reading Go Set a Watchman. I actually didn't pre-order my book until the day before it came out because I wasn't sure if I wanted to read something that had been shelved for 50 years and mysteriously "okayed" to be published by an author who was pretty adamant about not publishing again. But, curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to purchase it amidst all the controversy and early reviews. I also decided to reread To Kill a Mockingbird, as it had been a few years since reading it and the details were fuzzy (you can see this post for an earlier review). I don't cherish TKAM as a childhood favorite, which is why I think I had an easier time reading GSAW. While I did love Atticus as a character, I didn't have the heartfelt adoration and respect for him that so many others do/did.

During my reread of TKAM, I noticed a few things that I wanted to mention here, and that first quote above is along those same lines. Since I was reading it the day before I was going to settle in with GSAW, I paid particular attention to Atticus, the trial, and his relationship with Scout. And while it's still obvious that there is hero-worship on part of Scout, I did pick up on a few things I wanted to mention: 1. Atticus didn't volunteer to be Tom Robinson's defense attorney-the case was assigned to him, 2. In the closing argument of the trial, Atticus does little to talk about the crime or the matter of race-instead he pays particular attention the idea of justice and what that means as a jury, 3. Tom Robinson is found guilty and dies only a few weeks after the end of the trial when he tries to escape. His story in TKAM is wrapped up quickly and Scout doesn't dwell on it all that much.

These things stuck out to me because as I started to read GSAW, there were inconsistencies, and had I not JUST read TKAM, I might not have paid attention. First, in GSAW, they discuss the victim of the famous trial as being a 14 year old, but in TKAM, she's 19. There's also the matter that Henry Clinton talks about Atticus winning an acquittal for his client in that same case, when we know that Tom Robinson was found guilty and later died. There is also mention that Atticus took the case as Tom was a relative of Calpurnia, where that wasn't mentioned in TKAM at all. And while I know that doesn't detract from much from the main ideas in either novel, it does signal to me that perhaps there was reason why Lee didn't publish this second volume earlier. According to all reports and articles, GSAW is supposed to be the book that Lee wrote first, and after showing it to her editor, she was encouraged to focus on the childhood of Scout and Jem. And somewhere in there, Lee changed a few details. That unsettles me....if this was a true sequel, those details should match and an author and an editor would pick up on those things.

Anyway, the book was published and it stands as it is, and as readers, we have to understand all those circumstances surrounding it, and acknowledge that things might not be what we want them to be. There are passages in GSAW that are word for word in TKAM. Some characters are drastically different. Some are the same. But it's still Maycomb, and Scout is still Jean Louise Finch.

“Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman, is his conscience. There is no such thing as a collective conscious" (Go Set a Watchman). 

As for the book itself, it takes place roughly 20 years after the events in TKAM. It opens with Jean Louise coming home to Maycomb by train. She lives in New York City and returns for a couple weeks each year to visit with family. On this trip, she returns to a man that she maybe loves, but will never marry-Henry Clinton, or Hank, who works for Atticus and is a rising star in Maycomb. We are also reintroduced to Aunt Alexandra, who is still as sassy and overbearing as in TKAM. One of the highlights of the novel is when Jean Louise says, "Aunty, why don't you go pee in your hat?"

Really, the best pieces are those where we see glimpses of Scout from TKAM. There are quite a few flashbacks to her childhood, which includes pieces of young Jem, Dill, and Hank. These moments offer the few lighthearted passages, and it's obvious why TKAM was so successful, just based on those passages. They are filled with childhood glee and ridiculousness that we all remember from our own childhoods.

However, as the book progresses, it spins to a more serious note when Jean Louise follows her father and Henry to a Citizens' Council meeting and learns that they are both participating in what she sees as racist and immoral behavior. When she leaves, she is so overcome that she becomes physically ill...

“It happened so quickly that her stomach was still heaving. She breathed deeply to quieten it, but it would not stay still. She felt herself turning green with nausea, and she put her head down; try as she might she could not think, she only knew, and what she knew was this:
The one human being she had ever fully and wholeheartedly trusted had failed her; the only man she had ever known to whom she could point and say with expert knowledge, “He is a gentleman, in his heart he is a gentleman,” had betrayed her, publicly, grossly, and shamelessly" (Go Set a Watchman).

The remaining 150 pages or so of the book focus on the conflict within Scout concerning her relationship with her father and the new light she sees him in. This is the unsettling portion of the book, as Scout begins to see that not only is her father not the man she remembers and adores, but the people around her are the same. She, instead, is color-blind.

"Blind, that's what I am. I never opened my eyes. I never thought to look into people's heart's, I looked only in their faces" (Go Set a Watchman).

She searches out the people closest to her and lashes out. There are a few conversations with her uncle, Dr. Finch, as she tries to come to terms with this new knowledge and he attempts to calm her. He tells her more than once that Atticus has always been the same, but now that she has grown into her own person, she is just breaking with that childhood vision.

And that is what upsets readers. I think that for many, who grew up loving and adoring Atticus Finch as a role model and mentor, as the justice-seeking father, their own visions of Atticus in that light have popped. Because we all have childhood interpretations of the people closest to us. I know that when I was young, I shared many of the same political beliefs as my parents-because they were my parents. They were always right and heroic and good all the time. It is only as I have grown older, become an adult in my own right, and began to break that connection that I see that there are gray areas. There are areas where my parents and I do not see eye to eye, where I might shame them because of my beliefs and vice versa. I think that struggle is something many of us go through.

There comes a point in all of our lives where we break from our parents and we see them for who they truly are-human.

That is the disturbing aspect in GSAW. Atticus is no longer romanticized by Scout's childhood observations and understanding of his character. Instead, we, as adults, and Jean Louise, as an adult, see the truth in who he is. And while she fights Atticus, screams at him, and attempts to force her opinions at him, he is who he is. 

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it" (To Kill a Mockingbird).

For Jean Louise, it's a coming of age. She learns that she must have her own beliefs, her own way of seeing the world. She must finally learn to live according to her own values because Atticus isn't who she believed him to be.

That is the challenge in this book. That things are not what they seem to be. That there might be another perspective, another voice to listen to, a challenge to look past what we think we see and believe and listen to everything that is alluded to. That is not easy. And in this current time, where we are having the same conversations about race, privilege, and prejudice, it is even more important to understand what I believe to be the importance about Jean Louise's realization: There will always be those who don't see things in the same way we do. We might hate them for it, think they are misguided, ignorant, or uncaring, but there are emotions beneath the surface that tell more of the story. We need to always listen, to stand up for our own beliefs, and try to better the world around us, but it is never easy.

"The time your friends need you is when they're wrong, Jean Louise. They don't need you when they're right" (Go Set a Watchman).

Book 96: Finished.

"Atticus said to Jem one day, "I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. "Your father’s right," she said. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."

*sigh* There was something so beautifully heartwarming and lovely about Lee's one and only published novel. It had been over a decade since I read it, and while some details came back to me as I read it, I had forgotten how truly wonderful it is.

At first glance, it seems so simple. The first half of the novel shows us just who the characters are. We play along with Jem and Scout as they explore their neighborhood. We too fear the Radley house. We go with Scout to school and suffer with her when her teacher tells her not to read anymore at home. I just loved this line about that in particular,

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

Oh Scout, I feel you on that. When things are threatened to be taken away, we all pitch a fit and hold on tighter, don't we? I do have to say, shame on any teacher who discourages kids from reading. You should be tarred and feathered. Moving on...

What I really loved about the beginning of the novel is that we understood just who the characters were. Jem was the older and more mature brother, who knew best and attempted to keep Scout in line. I was reminded often of my own brothers, who once they hit a certain age, didn't want to play with their little sister any longer. But Jem was smart, and you could see his transformation as he began to truly understand the importance of what his father was doing in court. It clicked with him.

As for Scout, while she knew that her father was sticking up for good, she still seemed to look at everything with such a childlike innocence. Atticus never hid things from her, but you get the idea that Scout didn't quite grip the full severity until very late in the book. I think that kids, in general, don't see the big picture. They are too focused on what is happening right now, and mainly, to them. I know that when I was younger, I was very concerned about how things would change ME, not the world around me.

"Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts."

But, hands down, the best and most well-constructed character is Atticus Finch. How I admire him for standing up for he believed to be right. Atticus is the kind of man who does not stray from something just because it is hard, and that is something he passed along to both of his children. You can see it in Scout and Jem when they stand up to the crowd of men in front of the jail.

I also love the little Atticusisms throughout the novel, as he passes down words of wisdom to his children. Because Atticus doesn't want his children to just survive in the status quo, he wants them to fight and understand that things can (and should) change at some point.

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."

Atticus is a wise, wise man. Of course he has his flaws. He even owned up to Scout that he perhaps didn't listen to her thoughts before punishing her when she fights her cousin. It takes courage on the part of an adult to admit a mistake to a child. As adults, don't we feel that pressure to always be right? I certainly think so. This is what makes Atticus such a great character. As a reader, you think he is perfect, even though he isn't. He's just so real.

"When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion faster than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em."

I love Lee's novel. I really want to start over again, so I can admire how she slowly draws her reader in, slowly getting them to feel comfortable with life in such a small town. It is simply a work of genius and I loved every page of it. And I hope you will grab it off your shelf if you have it, or go find a copy somewhere, because it is just a marvelous, warm book full of the wonder and strangeness of childhood.

Book 96: Childhood.

"You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fightin' with your head for a change."

Before beginning this, I knew I had read it, but only remembered the basics. After the first few chapters, it all came flooding back! How could I have forgotten?

I am through the first half of the book and thoroughly enjoying this read. Scout and Jem are amazing children characters. I love that Lee chose to tell the tale from Scout's view. I know that I am moving into the racism/court case part of the novel and having Scout as our narrator leading into it was the perfect choice.

I think that knowing the perspective of your story helps its success. This book, and the deep subjects it discusses, would be far different had Jem narrated, or Atticus (their father).

One of the things that I most love about Scout is her true child-like nature. Lee does a great job of giving her a child's voice and we see the world through her eyes. The escapades she pulls with Jem and Dill as they play throughout the summer had me cracking up. Only children would find climbing into an old tire and wheeling down the road fun (it would make me sick nowadays). I love that because she doesn't know any better, they invent a game surrounding the Radleys and the mystery surrounding the family. It is painful to know, as an adult, what the neighbors must be thinking, but that is the fun of being a kid in the summer.

There are two scenes that stick out more than any other. The first is when Jem argues with the older woman down the street about what Atticus is doing. And while what she says is hurtful, Atticus is right in sending Jem down to make things right. I know that had I been in Jem's shoes, I would have been just as mad to sit and read to a cranky old lady in the afternoons. Scout captures that emotion perfectly and since we are seeing Jem's punishment through her eyes, we learn the lesson along with the kids.

The other scene is one that I didn't remember from my first reading. The Finch family goes to visit Atticus' sister. It is there that Scout gets into it with her cousin and hits him for saying something about Atticus. Her hurt feelings in defending her father and the misunderstanding about why she hit him are something that hit home with me. How often did we feel misunderstood as children and as teens? I can remember some moments where I felt like the adults around me didn't give me the chance to speak up. I felt for Scout in that moment.

I think now, as an adult, I need to be more mindful of what the kids in my life are telling me. Like Scout's experience, there could be something more I don't know and need to.

But more than anything, this first half of the book, and Scout's tales of their shenanigans, brought back memories of my own childhood and some of the silly games I used to play with my friends and older brothers (my sister was born when I was 6, so I have memories of playing with her a little later on). And its funny, I was also stuck remembering some of my other favorite book memories (The Little House books came to mind).

Childhood truly is a wonderful thing, and I am glad to be experiencing that of Scout and Jem. I know moving forward that things will get darker for them as the trial begins. But as the saying goes...

"You have to grow up sometime."

Book 96: To Kill a Mockingbird and Book Stats.

Title: To Kill a Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee (1926- )

First Published: 1960

My Edition: Grand Central Publishing (pictured at left)

Pages: 376

Other Works Include: No other published works...

I was inspired to move this one from the bookshelf to the nightstand a few weeks ago when I was still teaching. I was covering a class for another teacher and they were reading a chapter of this novel in the session I was covering. The ninth graders asked me if I liked the book, and while I knew I read it as a ninth grader as well, the details were incredibly fuzzy. It was that same day I moved the book to the "get to it soon" pile on the nightstand.

I do remember reading this one, but I am sad that I don't remember more than a few names and events. And since I often see this one listed as many bloggers' favorite classic, I feel like I need a refresher. To say I am excited is an understatement. I wonder how the memories will come rushing back after over 10-11 years of not reading this title.

I am also curious about the author and the fact that this is her only novel. All of my research has shown me that she is still around (she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bush in 2007), but hasn't published any other official writing. Curious, isn't it? To write such an outstanding, loved, and influential novel and never publish again? She also seems to be a bit of recluse, like Salinger was. But I am intrigued and anxious to revisit Atticus, Boo, Jem, and Scout-names I remember, but whose story I have forgotten.

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