My reading habits during my gap year are anything but regular. I will either go an entire week doing nothing but reading, only turning on the tv to have an episode of Derry Girls on in the background as I fall asleep, or I won’t pick up my Kindle for a whole week. There really is no in between. In one of my reading spurts, I managed to finish Go Set a Watchman. Temporally, this book is a sequel, but it is officially considered a prequel to the famous To Kill a Mockingbird. You can read my blog post on Harper Lee’s first book here. I remember when Go Set a Watchman was released. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any time to read for pleasure because I was so busy with school. However, I have been using my gap year as the most selfish year of my life and doing things just because I want to and not because someone else expects me to do something. For me, a large part of that is books and choosing for myself what I am going to read…which brings me to this!
Much like it’s predecessor, Go Set a Watchman is a fantastic read that I would highly recommend to anyone after they read To Kill a Mockingbird. Without the background of To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman would likely be difficult to get into, for I personally feel that you are more invested in the characters while reading To Kill a Mockingbird than while reading Go Set a Watchman. It is the character building of To Kill a Mockingbird, where we learn to love Scout, Atticus, Jem, and Dill, that drives the reader through Go Set a Watchman. After all, the desire to know what happens to your favorite characters is a powerful force that propels any reader through a book.
The portion of the story that is of greatest concern is the discussion between Atticus and Scout, simultaneously a discussion of the current events in Maycomb, Scout’s coming into adulthood, and their personal philosophies. The biggest shock to everyone when the book was released had to with Atticus’ involvement in a racially charged citizens’ council in Maycomb. Scout was disgusted by her father’s involvement, and this set the wheels in motion for Scout’s inner turmoil throughout the book. Essentially, she struggles to make sense of the man who raised her and the man she saw at that citizens’ council meeting, for she finds the two figures inherently contradictory. During their discussion, fight, or whatever the reader would want to call it, the distinctions between Atticus and Scout are at their most apparent. However, the biggest milestone Scout hit during this encounter was that she finally humanized her father instead of holding him up on an almost godly perfect pedestal. As children, we see our parents as the end-all-be-all of morality, for they are our first teachers in life. As we get older, we start to understand that our parents are just as human as we are and have faults just like any other person. It can be a difficult pill to swallow, but I feel that it was especially difficult for Scout because of her age. Scout is in her mid-twenties during the events of Go Set a Watchman. In my opinion, she is rather old for a revelation of this nature, which likely does not help in her digestion of such an earth shattering notion.
After doing a bit of research, it seems that Go Set a Watchman was almost released instead of To Kill a Mockingbird. After reading both books, there are a lot of parallels between the two stories. The first one being that they both focus on Scout’s childhood disillusionment and growing up, learning about the world and her place in it. Only the two stories tell two separate instances of that in her life. One as a child and one as a young adult. In my opinion, these make them great companion novels, for the transition from childhood to adulthood is as universal of a human experience as ever.
Next on my reading docket, I will likely read some of my childhood favorites for the sake of nostalgia. As the weather starts to warm up, I usually prefer a quick summer read, and now is as good as any time to go back and revisit some old favorites. I’m not sure if I will include them on the blog or not, as they are rather silly and frivolous, but I have plenty of great fashion looks to share and won’t be without content for the blog.
xx
Emily
