Analysis Of Go Set A Watchman By Harper Lee
In the book, Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, the author portrays Jean Louise Finch as a 25 year old woman, who is struggling with returning to her hometown and her family and leaving her past or continuing to live in New York. This book was a sequel to Harper Lee’s To kill a Mockingbird in which Scout (Jean Louise) is a 9 year old girl growing up in Maycomb. I didn’t like this book for many reasons.
One thing I didn’t like was how the flashbacks were placed into the book. Lee would just write a flashback as a chapter with no prior information leading up to it. One example was Jean Louise going to the school dance with Hank, when she was in 6th grade. At the dance, Jean Louise made a big commotion about losing her falsies and this is not like
the Scout we know. Another thing I didn’t like was that there was a lack of an interesting plot. The story was about her coming home to Maycomb for 2 weeks then leaving. I couldn’t get interested in any of the characters or events. There were many arguments in the two weeks but nothing major happened except Jean Louise getting punched by her Uncle. Another thing I didn’t like was, Lee just took out Jem and Dill because it would have been too much work to keep them in the story. In the first couple of pages, we learn that Jem was walking in front of the courthouse and had a heart attack and died. Later in the book, we learned that Dill had joined the military and went overseas and never came back. I think Jem and Dill really helped shape who Scout was, so I wasn’t happy that they weren’t included in the whole story.
I don’t think Go Set a Watchman was a well-written book. The book seemed confusing to me because I think there was no plot at all. I kept waiting for something big to happen to effect the story but it never did. Also, since Lee took out Jem and Dill, it didn’t seem like she fully invested her time into this book. If you had the choice to read, To Kill a Mockingbird or Go Set a Watchman, I would highly recommend To Kill a Mockingbird.
One thing I didn’t like was how the flashbacks were placed into the book. Lee would just write a flashback as a chapter with no prior information leading up to it. One example was Jean Louise going to the school dance with Hank, when she was in 6th grade. At the dance, Jean Louise made a big commotion about losing her falsies and this is not like
the Scout we know. Another thing I didn’t like was that there was a lack of an interesting plot. The story was about her coming home to Maycomb for 2 weeks then leaving. I couldn’t get interested in any of the characters or events. There were many arguments in the two weeks but nothing major happened except Jean Louise getting punched by her Uncle. Another thing I didn’t like was, Lee just took out Jem and Dill because it would have been too much work to keep them in the story. In the first couple of pages, we learn that Jem was walking in front of the courthouse and had a heart attack and died. Later in the book, we learned that Dill had joined the military and went overseas and never came back. I think Jem and Dill really helped shape who Scout was, so I wasn’t happy that they weren’t included in the whole story.
I don’t think Go Set a Watchman was a well-written book. The book seemed confusing to me because I think there was no plot at all. I kept waiting for something big to happen to effect the story but it never did. Also, since Lee took out Jem and Dill, it didn’t seem like she fully invested her time into this book. If you had the choice to read, To Kill a Mockingbird or Go Set a Watchman, I would highly recommend To Kill a Mockingbird.