RIP Harper Lee

[AlreadyGone95]

Author Harper Lee has died at the age of 89. She's known for the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, which is one of the best well known books, and is one of my personal favorite all time books. Mockingbird remained the only book Lee ever wrote until last year, when she published a sequel to it, called Go Set A Watchman.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/02/harper_lee_dead_at_age_of_89_t_1.html

[tequila mockingbird]

Well, doggone it! :worried: Obviously, I love TKAM too. Hence the name. RIP Nelle Harper Lee.

[NightMistBlue]

AG, did you read Watchman? I haven't yet, but I read it was a prequel or maybe an alternate version of the same story? Not really sure (obviously).

[buffyfan145]

I'm so sad about this too. I loved "To Kill a Mockingbird" when I read it in high school and then watched the film, and it's still one of my favorite novels. It was very inspiring for me as around that time I started to finally write my own stories, so it's always been a big influence to me becoming an author as well. I haven't read the sequel mostly since I'd heard reviews both from critics and other fans of "Mockingbird" that say it changes some things story wise. I do know Harper wrote "Watchman" first but decided not to publish it and wrote "Mockingbird" instead, but "Watchman" is still considered a sequel as it focuses on an adult Scout.

[AlreadyGone95]

AG, did you read Watchman? I haven't yet, but I read it was a prequel or maybe an alternate version of the same story? Not really sure (obviously).

Not yet. I'm so scattered brain. I remember telling myself to read it when it came out, but I got busy with other books. I will check it out from the library next week, though. From what I understand and can remember, Lee wrote Watchman before Mockingbird, but then scratched it, and it remained unpublished for well over half a century.

Here's the plot synopsis from Wikipedia:


Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, now 26, returns from New York to the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, on her annual two-week visit. She is met by her childhood sweetheart and suitor, Henry "Hank" Clinton, who works for her father, Atticus, a lawyer and former state legislator. Jack, her father's brother, a retired doctor, is her mentor. Their sister, Aunt Alexandra, runs the house since Calpurnia's retirement. The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) are introduced as sources of controversy in the community.

Returning from a trip to Finch's Landing, Jean Louise and Henry are passed by a car of black men travelling dangerously at high speed. Henry mentions that the black people in the county now have money for cars but neglect to get licenses and insurance. The next day is spent dealing with the minor scandal a swim the previous evening has caused, and there are sequences during Jean Louise's youth, spent with Charles Baker "Dill" Harris, and her older brother Jeremy "Jem" Finch, who has since died of a heart condition which also killed her mother.

After finding a pamphlet titled "The Black Plague" among her father's papers, Jean Louise follows him to a Citizens' Council meeting where Atticus introduces a man who delivers a racist speech. Jean Louise watches in secret from the balcony and is horrified. She is unable to forgive him for betraying her and flees from the hall.

After having a dream about her old family black maid Calpurnia, whom she sees as a mother figure, Jean Louise has breakfast with her father. They soon learn that Calpurnia's grandson killed a drunk pedestrian the previous night while speeding in his car. Atticus agrees to take the case in order to stop the NAACP from getting involved. Jean Louise visits Calpurnia and is treated politely but coldly, causing her to leave, devastated.

At lunch with her Uncle Jack, Jean Louise questions why Atticus was at the meeting. Jack says that Atticus hasn't suddenly become racist but is trying to slow federal government intervention into state politics. Her uncle lectures her on the complexity of history, race, and politics in the South, trying to get Jean Louise to come to a conclusion, which she struggles to grasp. She has a flashback to when she was a teenager and recalls an incident where Atticus planted the seed for an idea in Henry's brain, then let him come to the right conclusion on his own.

While having coffee with Henry, Jean Louise tells him she doesn't love him and will never marry him. She expresses her disgust at seeing him and her father at the council meeting. Henry explains that sometimes people have to do things they don't want to do. She screams that she could never live with a hypocrite, only to notice that Atticus is standing behind them, smiling.

During a discussion with his daughter, Atticus argues that the blacks of the South are not ready for full civil rights, and the Supreme Court's decision was unconstitutional and irresponsible. Although Jean Louise agrees that the South is not ready to be fully integrated, she says the court was pushed into a corner by the NAACP and had to act. She is confused and devastated by her father's positions as they are contrary to everything he has ever taught her.

She returns to the family home furious and packs her things. As she is about to leave town, her uncle comes home. She angrily complains to him, and her uncle slaps her across the face. He tells her to think of all the things that have happened over the past two days and how she has processed them. When she says she can now stand them, he tells her it is bearable because she is her own person. He says that at one point she had fastened her conscience to her father's, assuming that her answers would always be his answers. Her uncle tells her that Atticus was letting her break her idols so that she could reduce him to the status of a human being.

Jean Louise returns to the office and makes a date with Henry for the evening. She reflects that Maycomb has taught him things she had never known and rendered her useless to him except as his oldest friend. She goes to apologize to Atticus, but he tells her how proud of her he is. He hoped that she would stand for what she thinks is right. She reflects that she didn't want her world disturbed but that she tried to crush the man who is trying to preserve it for her. She tells him that she thinks she loves him very much. As she follows him to the car, she silently welcomes him to the human race, seeing him as just a man for the first time.

And the Wikipedia link for further information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Set_a_Watchman

[sodascouts]

Another legend gone.

I took the "scout" part of sodascouts from the protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird. I loved that book.

R.I.P.

[AlreadyGone95]

Mockingbird hit home for me, having been raised in southwest Georgia. I know people who were alive at the time of the setting of the book. I've heard similar stories that actually happened. My grandmother told me that a well off old white man killed a young black guy for no reason other than he could and that he'd had too much to drink. I first read the book a few years ago, and it instantly became a favorite of mine. It really opened my eyes to how hard and unfair life was to rural southern black people before 1964. Their plight is almost unimaginable in today's world, at least in the first world countries. I love the fact that the narrator is a young girl.

[Witchy Woman]

Another legend gone.

I took the "scout" part of sodascouts from the protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird. I loved that book.

R.I.P.

And I'm glad I was smart enough to figure out where the "soda" came from :)

[NightMistBlue]

Psst.. I'm not smart enough to figure out how she came up with Soda. Is it another literary reference - maybe to The Outsiders?

[sodascouts]

Yes, The Outsiders. The secret is out!

Plus, I drink way too much soda.

[L101]

Love how you got your name Soda :grin:

I've read Go Set A Watchman and I didn't really like it. It took some of the magic away from TKAM and I wasn't impressed by that. I love TKAM and the film of it is one of two B&W films that I will watch (the other is Some Like It Hot :smile:)

I would suggest reading it if you want the full circle of Scouts life, but don't if you want to keep the magic of TKAM...

RIP Harper Lee

[NightMistBlue]

No judgement here. I'm a Diet Coke fiend.

I don't think I will read Watchman. Even the synopsis that AG was kind enough to share was upsetting!

[sodascouts]

Yeah. All of my friends who read Watchman didn't like it. As much as I enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird, I'm skipping Watchman. Plus, the circumstances of its release are suspect.

[AlreadyGone95]

Well, I bit the bullet yesterday, and checked Go Set a Watchman out of one of my local libraries. I have to finish another book first before I read it. I'll probably quickly reread Mockingbird as refresher first.