Harper Lee: Go Set a Watchman, conclusion

Harper Lee:  Go Set a Watchman
 

Several days ago I finished Go Set a Watchman, and I can see why some would call it a mess, probably because it can't be resolved with To Kill a Mockingbird.  But, in my opinion, that's the reader's problem, not the novel's problem or failing.

Jean Louise has three confrontations: one with her Uncle Jack, one with her father, and one with Henry,  her possible/potential fiance.  It was not an easy process overall, for Jean Louise had grown up in the South, and she does share many of the political beliefs regarding States Rights and also the people's rights to live their lives as they wish, free from government interference (mostly Federal Government interference for nobody seems to be concerned about State Government interference which is just as intrusive, if not more so).  


I find the resolution to be very satisfying, because it's the resolution the novel has been pointing to from the beginning.  That is, the resolution is satisfying if one realizes that the novel is about Jean Louise and not about Atticus or Maycomb or civil rights or any of the great issues of the day.  They are there, they are important, they provide the texture to the times Jean Louis lives in and the demands made upon her as a person, but they are not what the novel is about.  I will repeat: the novel is about Jean Louise.

I have also come to the conclusion that To Kill a Mockingbird is a myth, a myth created by Jean Louise about her own childhood, the Myth of a Golden Age, long past.  Jean Louise believes in that myth, and so one day she discovers that she couldn't remain in that myth.  The real world is waiting and she must act. Perhaps the myth is related to that bit of conventional wisdom that one can't go "home" again because sometimes that "home" has changed and sometimes because that "home" never existed.

If you find my comments short, brief,  and less than satisfying--Good.  Go read Go Set a Watchman and then come back and argue with me. 


I stated earlier that I thought that Go Set a Watchman could turn out to be one of the ten best novels that I read in 2015, and now, after having finishing the novel, I still believe the same.   Moreover, it deserves to be read again.