A Watchman for Scout

Who was Scout's Watchman?

As a recap, Harper Lee gave us a beloved novel full of childhood innocence in a beautiful Alabama setting in the midst of a racially stirred Southern United States: To Kill a Mockingbird. Jean Louise Finch, known as Scout, was a troublesome tomboy who idealized her father  as he defended a Negro man, Tom Robinson, in court on a rape case. The novel had a striking ending which I will not spoil for those who have not read it, and has captivated the hearts of students and adults worldwide as being an American classic. Harper Lee, two decades later, releases the sequel, Go Set a Watchman. Not only is the publication years later, the plot takes place when Scout is twenty-six years old, living in New York, and visiting her family in Maycomb County as her annual custom. Several things faltered in the sequel that might have given hardcore Mockingbird fans a difficult time. For one, Jem Finch no longer appears attributed to a very unexpected heart attack he had years before. Another is that the wild-eyed summer child, Dill, also does not appear but is only briefly mentioned in flashbacks or in a scene where Jean Louise talks about how his life turned out. Instead, heightened characters turn out to be Jean Louise's aunt Alexandra, Dr. Finch (her uncle who moved back to Alabama) and Henry Clinton (don't even get me started on this Hank fellow right now). Now, I honestly believe that the unfolding of Atticus Finch's character was very well done, hats off to Lee in this respect. It is a heart-wrenching development, especially for those who named their sons Atticus in the heat of Mockingbird's release. Wherein we saw a noble character fearsome of God, loving to his children and slow to anger, Go Set a Watchman gives us the same man but exposes his racial views in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. Jean Louise is disillusioned further by the fact that Calpurnia, their previous black cook, has grown cold-hearted and resentful towards her family. The climax of the entire novel is towards the very end of the novel, and is jammed between one or two chapters, give or take. The monologues are very impacting and show Jean Louise's say-no-to-racism attitude, yet one does not understand the meaning of Dr. Finch's watchman quote until one stops to analyze the very last part of the novel. Dr. Finch stops beating around the bush with his literary anecdotes and quotations and finally admits to Jean Louise the truth of her anger: the separation between her mind and her father's. Rewind to Mockingbird and the beginning of Watchman where her father's shadow continues to be her own, his thoughts are her thoughts. The betrayal she feels is not from her father's but from her own conscience. Dr. Finch sums it up when saying, "Every man's island, Jean Louise, every man's watchman, is his conscience." And additionally, the watchman reference comes from a sermon Scout heard as a child in Isaiah 21:6. "For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth."  Now how does the term, watchman, correlate with its appearances in Scout's life and what she feels at the moment of her disillusionment? It is merely to reiterate the separation between her conscience and her father's; It is simply to set apart her beliefs from Atticus'. There is a very worthy moment where her father has pride in her, for standing up for what she thinks. Whether or not, there was a very ironic, soul-crushing paradox between Atticus and continued marginalization of Negroes against Scout's equities for all belief, is for the reader to see or ignore. Scout's watchman is herself, as hard as it was for her to realize. (I will leave it up for other reviews to debate on the whole marriage to Hank business, because to me it was downright pitiful.) I highly recommend the book for those who loved Mockingbird, like it or not, you will never outlive the curiosity of seeing Scout Finch grow up to be as close to a lady as she'll ever get.