LanDroid wrote:I had a freshman English professor who read novels as a puzzle or a problem to be solved, looking for clues that unlock hidden meaning. Early on in this book, we already have two clues to investigate. One is the title, which comes from the Bible.


Quote:
For this hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
Isaiah 21:6 KJV



It is probably way too early to solve that mystery, but something to keep an eye on.

Penelope wrote: The above makes me think of the last verse of the Bob Dylan song, All Along the Watchtower:

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

I am feeling that Harper Lee is declaring what she seeth. But she held out and did not want it to be said too soon.

Dylan was directly referencing Isaiah. In Isaiah the watchman sees a lion.
One reviewer I read suggests the watchman is conscience. Harper is taking the idea of seer beyond reporter or even moral judge,I think. Babylon will surely fall.
The seer has prescience and sees this house of cards will be blown down, perhaps in divine judgement.
I'll have to read on to find out how she employs this, but the biblical allusion is to that beyond the natural.

Still on the first chapter. Jean seems to be a technophobe. There's progress with trains planes and automobiles. But planes can be flown by reckless pilots through tornadoes,trains can sway unnervingly and fully automatic cars technology might just fail and then what can you do?
The car is Henry's servant but these things carry us and we are at their mercy. Henry has faith in General Motors even with his life.
Jean has an inner restlessness and cant quite settle for the norms of Maycomb. It's a backwater forgotten by the rest of the world and oblivious to anything outside it's island.
She lives in New York and while t.v. aerials complement natures flowers as opiate for the poor blacks, in reality time has stood still in Maycomb for a very long time.
Atticus is admirable, uncomplaining and generous.
Henry's dad abandoned him at birth and his mother worked night and day to feed and educate him,but in the end barely had enough to pay for her funeral.In Maycomb life is tough even for some whites.

Henry gets away from authorities when he's twelve but when old enough joins the army,fights in it's war and afterwards becomes an expert on the laws of the authorities,and functions as lawyer in that system.
Themes emerge of authorities,which her cousin attacks and is incarcerated benignly but forcibly by family,and necessarily as a consequence.
Things are as they are with the legal system and authorities maintaining the structures of their society as they have been and seemingly are meant to be. The whites in power with the blacks serving them while doomed to drudgery and poverty in the natural order of things.
Perhaps the narrative is too much moulded by the themes and not quite flowing naturally with the sudden death of Atticus' son and the fatherless Henry being effectively adopted as replacement,for example.
Seems like her brother gets bumped off for thematic convenience.
Jean won't be marrying Henry as she can't just slip into that world naturally and sees it as a prison of sorts,and isn't quite in love either with Henry or the life of Maycomb.
It was her first novel and is still enjoyable in many ways. I'm curious about how the theme of mechanisms fits in as it goes on. Some sort of metaphor?

Thanks Flann. A very good summary. I am in Part 2 first or second chapter. I tend to recap each time I return to the book.

Jean feels a bit guilty at not returning to care for Atticus and is grateful to her aggravating aunt for doing that. I think that is a common dilemma with aged parents and siblings. I notice Clinton isn't expected to help with Atticus even though virtually adopted. Is it because he's a male? His association with the aunt is very polite and formal whereas Jean 's attitude is much more familiar and abrasive.


I imagine the aunt having been a Southern Belle in her youth.

Penelope wrote:Jean feels a bit guilty at not returning to care for Atticus and is grateful to her aggravating aunt for doing that. I think that is a common dilemma with aged parents and siblings. I notice Clinton isn't expected to help with Atticus even though virtually adopted. Is it because he's a male? His association with the aunt is very polite and formal whereas Jean 's attitude is much more familiar and abrasive.

There are societal 'norms' of what is expected of who it seems in various cultures and times. Henry is described as Atticus' legs and eyes and takes on a helpful role in a general way. It's true though as you say Penelope, that it often seems expected of daughters rather than sons to be the carers.
There's some current news about a U.S. bookstore offering refunds to any disappointed readers ,with the explanation that it was just a first draft and a bit like Joyce's Stephen Hero to his later Portrait of the Artist.
The Guardian linked a blog of writer Ursula K Le Guin's with a thoughtful reflection on the controversy and what it's really like to live in such a society.
Le Guin thinks Watchman should have been her first novel rather that TKAM and that she needed editorial encouragement to work on it rather than the simpler one. Le Guin articulates the complexities of family ties and loyalties without denying the realities of injustice and bigotry.
It might be of interest to some of us reading the book. You have to scroll down to the end of the blog to find it.
www.ursulakleguin.com/blog2015.html#New

Well, I have read the first three chapters and found them rather boring. The writing is easy to read, but, so far, I don't think it's “brilliant”. Jean Louise is supposed to be a very independent, mature 26-year old, living alone in NY. She makes people around her furious (Henry and aunt). She is unsentimental, sarcastic, rude and crude to the people around her and is still behaving like a petulant child. That may have been cute in a young girl, but a 26 year old woman, I feel, should be more refined. But that's a study of a character, of a woman, that I may or may not like as I keep reading.

I think the character description of aunt Alexandra is great. I can see that woman and feel how infuriating she can be as a “disapprover”, I've known one or two in my own life.

I find Jean Louise's vocabulary contrasting with her supposedly newly acquired and independent life in NY, for instance the use of words “Aunty” and “yessum”...and perhaps that's done to give it a Southern flavor to the book.

Reading on...

Am I the only one who, when reading the first chapter of GSAW and the ride on the train reflecting, feel like I was reading Thomas Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again?" That was published in 1940. I'd have to read it again to see if the story line is similar. FYI gang, I may be the only one posting here who lived through the Jim Crow before and after era. Granted it was in Kansas, but Jim Crow was alive and well i.e., Brown vs Topeka (Kansas) Board of Education. 1964 It is not history for me it is memory.

Lawrence:
Am I the only one who, when reading the first chapter of GSAW and the ride on the train reflecting, feel like I was reading Thomas Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again?"

I had the same sentiment in my mind as I read the book, I'd add Joe Conrad's Heart of Darkness as well. These feelings of mine toward GSAW, are likely generated from knowing the story line of the first book, and a logical extension of the natural line of story telling. I didn't expect a pretty picture.

Apparently, a bookshop in Michigan is offering people their money back, saying that GSAW, should be viewed as an academic insight into the development of the author rather than a 'nice summer novel'.

Well, I think this is a publicity stunt because I've read some novels very much worse. Some I think they should pay me to read them. So far, I find it quite an honest and interesting study of human nature. I don't think it's primary theme is racism like TKAM. Maybe that is what people are finding disappointing.

I don't find it boring at all Chrystalline. Just a bit awkwardly worded and I am getting used to the style.

The New York Times has called it 'a lumpy tale'. I think that's a bit harsh to say the least.

Having just read chapters 2 and 3 I have to say I enjoyed them.
The meandering "Ode to Billie Joe" small town news and gossip was a relief after the tightly structured first chapter. It's funny and entertaining.

"Grandpa died last week and now he's buried in the rocks,
But everyone still talks about how badly they were shocked.
But me,I expected it to happen.I knew he'd lost control,
When he built a fire on main street and shot it full of holes." Dylan; Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again.

I think Jean Louise has to evaluate things and keeps rubbing up against the way Maycomb society expects conformity to local traditions and values.
Her clashes with aunt Alexandra highlight this. Her Aunt makes her feel terrible about not coming home to care for her Dad And it's made more painful by Alexandra actually doing it instead.
Why is Alexandra doing this? Because it's what society expects or because she actually cares about her brother? Probably a mixture of both.
Jean is painfully aware that she actually does get on their nerves,which is why she's not coming home unless Atticus asks her,which she knows he won't.
Jean actually enjoys in retaliation, bringing up the idea of marrying Henry knowing it's pushing Alexandra's buttons,and that she will go on a rant about "born white trash."
It's still infuriating to her to hear Henry rubbished in this way so there are no winners.
Atticus just patiently keeps out of it but tries to say something positive about Alexandra to take the heat out of the hostilities.
Alexandra will never change and you just have to get used to that,and not take it to heart.
I suppose there's an element of imperfect humanity about it all, but it's easy to de-humanise even the de-humanisers.

I have often thought that if I ever try to write a novel I would use the DSM V manual to describe my characters. Every body is mentally ill except you and me and I'm not so sure about you.