Go Set a Watchman Resonates With Me

I pre-ordered Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee some time ago. It arrived Tuesday evening. I read it yesterday, in one sitting. I've also read many, many reviews and commentaries. Here are my Thursday morning thoughts:

Although GSaW was actually written before To Kill a Mockingbird most reviewers have spoken about it as a sequel since it deals with events that occur decades later. They seem to feel betrayed by the fact that the Atticus Finch they had so revered is shown to be a racist. I'm really puzzled by this reaction. Style and point of view aside I would expect that readers -- people I hold in the highest esteem and who, because they are readers after all -- would be among the first to understand the concepts of cognitive dissonance and character complexity.

Frankly, I fell in love with the old Atticus Finch right along with everyone else. But I also recognized the fact that as a character, as a human being, he was a fiction. He had depth but no breadth. Maybe I knew that because when I was the same age as Scout was during that trial, in my eyes my father was just like Atticus. He was no lawyer and no champion of civil rights. But he appeared to me as the kindest, most tolerant and benevolent man I knew. He didn't degrade people. He was as friendly with janitors and parking lot valets and waitresses as he was with the millionaire that owned the company he worked for. He treated all people, regardless of race or social situation, equally well. By his actions he taught me tolerance and respect and open-mindedness.

It wasn't until years later that I learned he had much more complex views of the world. He was also a racist. I learned that the hard way, by dating a Black man. My father raged and ranted. We went round and round, me in tears, he in stroke-level fury. I confronted him with his own lessons, his own example that he had so clearly set for me as a child. I told him, "This is what you taught me; to take each human being as a respected individual." I was confused, angry, hurt beyond words.

It wasn't until years later, after I had my own children, that I finally got what happened. You see, I wanted to be a better person for my children. So I worked very hard to improve myself in ways that would influence them, help them strive to become better people than their imperfect mother. I wasn't being fake. I truly worked at being and doing my best, at modeling the kind of behavior that I had so admired in my father. Then it dawned on me that it was highly likely that's how my dad felt. He wasn't being insincere. He was just modeling his best behavior so that I would grow up to be a better person than he.

Also, my childhood memory likely filtered out the instances when my dad was not perfect. Just as Scout most likely did. Her first person point of view in To Kill a Mockingbird was filtered through a lens that was rooting for Atticus to be a pillar of tolerance. I got that. Maybe not the first time I read the novel but I sure got it when I re-read it later in life. Because point of view – perspective/voice – is everything.

Even though Go Set a Watchman is also from Jean Louise's (Scout's) point of view it is from a different perspective, in a different voice. Not first person but third. Not as personal. Not as obfuscated by filters. Maybe not more objective but more removed, universal. Maybe even more reliable. Certainly more realistic. So Atticus is a much more complex person, a richer (if less likeable) character from a literary standpoint. He is a moral pillar with feet of clay. Hmm.

So did I like Go Set a Watchman? I repeat, hmm. Because I tried – with moderate success – to forget I had read the other book I actually thought it was a fairly good debut. Not as powerful as TKaM but as a bildungsroman it has merit. Take away the highly charged racial aspect and I would think that a lot of young adults might recognize Scout's feelings in seeing her parent as a multi-dimensional, if flawed, adult.

-- Donna Chavez