(Spoiler Alert: Contains plot spoilers from Go, Set a Watchman)
No one likes growing up. I think if growing up has taught me one thing, itâs that. Growing up isnât about the height increasing (especially if youâre vertically challenged, like me), itâs not about increasing waistlines or having sex, though I suppose such things count. I think itâs really a little bit about shattered illusions and learning that life isnât perfect.
And if thereâs one book that can do that to you, itâs Go, Set a Watchman.
Iâve read numerous reviews recently about how the book just isnât Mockingbird; that death is preferable to reading about a racist Atticus Finch; that itâs impossible to quite recover from the death of Jem. And I donât really agree. Thereâs this part in the book when Uncle Jack tells Scout that it was important for her to see the other side of Atticus otherwise sheâd never see him as human and always as God. I think the same held for me.
For me, Atticus was the ideal man. Mockingbird is what reminded me of being 16 and studying Elective English; Scout and Jem had my perfect childhood-they reminded me a little bit of my brother and I. And if I could, Iâd always hold on to the belief that Atticus was perfect-that fairness, justice and integrity were all that he embodied. In my head, Jem would be alive and perfect and protective and stubborn and Scout would end up married to Dill. As it turned out, none of that happened.
And I think thatâs Ok. I think itâs OK, and important, for me to realize that perfection doesnât really exist. Like Scout, it hurt me too, when I heard Atticus say things that he did in the book but I suppose I needed to stop being a child someday. Would it be different if Watchman had released before Mockingbird, like it was meant to? Yes. Because as a book, Watchman is not as powerful as Mockingbird-I donât know whether itâs just the perspective of an adult narrator, or the lack of the trial scene here but I donât think Atticus, Jem and Scout would have meant so much to me without Mockingbird. And therefore, I donât think Watchman would have made so much of an impact without it.
So yes, in spite of everything, Iâm glad I read Watchman. And I still think that my life and my childhood would have been incomplete without Mockingbird. And in my heart, Jem will always be alive. But thatâs the thing about good literature. It makes and breaks worlds for you. And in spite of all the heartbreak, and the fact that he did turn out to be a mere mortal, Iâm so glad I met Atticus Finch and his children.
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