48 pages • 1 hour read
Harper LeeGo Set A Watchman
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 4-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Jean Louise recounts the history of Maycomb as she and Hank venture to a local restaurant for their date. The owner of the local tavern reportedly bribed the surveyors to make sure that his tavern was the official center of the county, rather than useless swamp land. Later, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt insisted on paving the area around the schoolhouse, resulting in injuries to the children. Jean Louise considers that moment the town’s first brush with the concept of states’ rights. She also recounts how, after World War II, the returning men were bursting with energy to modernize and make a productive living, a different way of life than the town’s status quo at the time. They added neon signs and whitewashed the old timber. The restaurant is one such building, and Jean Louise does not care for it. She acknowledges her opinion as being conservative and generally anti-change and thinks about how the world of Maycomb has passed her by. She suggests to Hank that they go to the river, an activity Hank notes changes her countenance and personality significantly, making her like her “old self.”
At dinner, Jean Louise pontificates on her beliefs regarding the relationships between men and women. She sides with Freud, believing that women want fathers more than husbands. She goes on to say that men are too tired from work to express any interest in their women, making the women resentful and angry. The men then find mistresses, whom they use as psychiatrists—opportunities to talk about themselves—and then return to their wives, where the cycle begins anew. When Hank calls Jean Louise unusually cynical, she apologizes and says that she’s concerned about marrying the wrong type of man for her and becoming a “screaming shrew” as a result.
Chapter 5 Summary
Jean Louise gets into the car with Hank, hitting her head against its top in the process. Hank suggests that this happened because she’s been living in the city so long she’s not used to riding in cars.
Jean Louise appreciates that Hank does not push her to return to Maycomb and marry him, unaware that her father has given him advice not to do so. Despite their unique situation, Hank is assured that he is her “true owner.” Jean Louise remembers playing with Jem and their friend Dill during the hot summers when Hank returned to Mississippi. Several of her recollections feature Calpurnia, who cooked for the family and helped raise Jean Louise and Jem. When there was company at the house, Jean Louise recalls, Calpurnia used her “company manners,” intentionally using broken English and acting haughtily.
Hank takes Jean Louise to the “Landing,” which is now a hunting lodge and casino. Previously, Atticus’s grandfather owned the land, which was later used for large group events, including jousting. Jean Louise is irritated to learn that the Finch family sold the last of it. She acknowledges that she would not have protested but is only frustrated at not having been informed. Jean Louise struggles with the obvious changes to Maycomb over time. Hank observes that, at some point, she will have to choose between Maycomb and New York. Jean Louise muses that she would choose Finch’s Landing over New York, but not Maycomb.
Hank informs Jean Louise that he intends to run for the state legislature. The two jostle, trying to throw each other in the river. Hank succeeds, but Jean Louise pulls him in after her. When they make it to the car, another car flies by. Hank informs her that the local African American youth “assert themselves” by driving recklessly, and without licenses and insurance.
Part 2, Chapters 4-5 Analysis
Part 2 establishes more of the basis for the upcoming conflict, highlighting Jean Louise’s discomfort with change. In her own words, “I just don’t like my world disturbed without some warning” (75). Maycomb has changed since World War II and even more since she moved away. She is discomfited by these changes, wishing that Maycomb would stay the same town of her childhood. This resistance in clear in her internal reflection that she would marry Hank if it meant moving to Finch’s Landing—the only spot that has remained largely unchanged from her childhood days—but not to Maycomb. Finch’s Landing represents the joys of her childhood, spent with her brother, Jem, and friends Dill and Hank. She is bothered by the idea of Maycomb continuing on without her. This discomfort parallels the feelings of the white South, which does not appreciate the speed at which the rest of the country is moving with regard to racial integration.
This section also emphasizes Jean Louise’s indecision. Part of her indecisiveness is attributed to the fact that she cannot abide the social aspects of Maycomb but still yearns to go home to the setting of her childhood. Relatedly, Jean Louise pushes Hank, stating that he has not made her a proper offer of marriage, but never actually becomes engaged to him. Given her outspoken nature, if she was certain she wanted to marry him, it is likely that she would simply inform him of that intention as he has made it clear that he wants to marry her. Her failure to do so, therefore, implies a lack of certainty on her part.
Part 2 also begins to establish Jean Louise’s situational blindness. Her lack of awareness that her father has given her beau advice on how to court her foreshadows the other aspects of her blindness, which lead to the ultimate conflict of the book.
Finally, Part 2 begins to address the growing racial tension in Maycomb. Jean Louise reminisces about Calpurnia’s treatment of the white guests in their home, foreshadowing Calpurnia’s rejection of Jean Louise through this same treatment and giving context which explains why this rejection will ultimately be so devastating.
