The novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, is a staple in every student’s high school English curriculum. It is a book that was published in 1960, as the Civil Rights Movement was underway, and has ended up both being one of America’s greatest classics and has made America’s top list of banned books four times, with the most recent time being in 2020–not that long ago!
Though it is a banned book, To Kill A Mockingbird is an excellent novel that everyone should read at least once in their lifetime. I recently read it in my 9th grade English class this past April, and I was so hooked on the book that I finished it in one night. My love for the original classic motivated me to read Harper Lee’s sequel to the novel, Go Set A Watchman, which was published in 2015. Though it is a controversial book, I personally loved it, and wanted to share it with you all. If you have not read the original To Kill A Mockingbird, don’t read this review and go and read To Kill A Mockingbird right now! You won’t be sorry! (also, both To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman are YA, so make sure you are aware of that before reading)
Ok! Let’s get into this review!
Scout, who now goes by her given name, Jean Louise Finch, is twenty-six years old. She is returning home to Maycomb County from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus Finch.
Many changes have occurred in Maycomb since we last left Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird. Family members have passed on, friends have moved across the world, but some characters remain. Though the reader hopes that these characters remain with the same demeanor they had in the previous novel, the most important character does not.
Upon Jean Louise’s homecoming, she is shocked to learn that her father, who has taught her everything she has ever known about her values of morality, fairness, kindness, compassion, and integrity, has turned into a racist and biased man. Atticus has been Scout’s “watchman” throughout her twenty six years, a term that comes from a Bible verse mentioned in the novel that symbolizes a moral compass, of sorts.
But as Jean Louise sees that her own views of racism and hatred have become increasingly different from her fathers, she will have to learn how to be her own watchman instead of relying on those around her, especially Atticus, to show the way to being human.
Yes, this book is controversial. Readers don’t like it when a beloved and saintly role model turns into an uncharacteristically racist and bigoted man. But when we look at this novel, we can see that Lee meant for us to see a message much deeper than that one: how a young woman will, one day, have to be able to realize her own independent opinions and ideas, and be able to defend those opinions and ideas to those who disagree with her, even if those people are the ones she loves the most.
– in my opinion, a great sequel!
Happy Reading!
Neerja