“Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman, is his conscience. There is no such thing as a collective conscious.”
I was craving familiar text this week, so I dived back into the world of Jean-Louise Finch and re-read Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman. It was exactly the read I needed. Having always been fixated on To Kill A Mockingbird, I grabbed this sequel virtually on the day of release and devoured it in one afternoon. The second time around it took me a matter of hours.
Go Set A Watchman follows Jean-Louise Finch and her visit back to Maycomb, Alabama, and watches her get wrapped up in a race row, whilst sparing with her father Atticus. To avoid giving anymore of the plot away, I'll insert the Random House hardback 'blurb' here:
Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch – ‘Scout’ – returns home from New York City to visit her ageing father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past – a journey that can be guided only by one’s own conscience.
The main message of this novel is so simple yet so evocative: everyone must set their own moral compass and answer to their own conscious. Flawed characters, shocking events, and the humdrum of Southern life really hammer this message home.
Whenever I need to be set back upon the right course, I simply read the last chapter. It reminds me of my responsibility to myself, the community and the wider world. After reading Go Set A Watchman, I felt so grateful that Harper Lee had allowed the world to read Scout's next chapter. Soon after, Harper Lee died. Maycomb was left behind for good, but never forgotten.
Beth x
