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 5, Chapters 13-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Jean Louise returns home, still pained by her changed relationship with Calpurnia, only to discover her Aunt Alexandra horrified that Jean Louise has visited the woman who raised her. Aunt Alexandra expounds upon the vague dangers presented by the African American population, using a racial slur that Jean Louise has never heard from a member of her family. She expresses that she would be less shocked to be violently attacked by her aunt than she is to hear her use such a word.
Jean Louise does not have time to recover from this turn of events before Aunt Alexandra hosts a coffee gathering with the local women. Jean Louise feels immensely out of place with all of them and confused as to how they can believe the things they do having grown up in the same town and with many of the same experiences as her. She mentally compares Maycomb to New York, imagining defending her family and upbringing to the city she now resides in. Ultimately, she decides that it is much more likely that she has missed the obvious build-up to these events and opinions in the lives of her loved ones than that they have all changed at the same time. In considering Mr. Stone’s reading of the Bible verse calling for a watchman, Jean Louise wishes that she had her own to see and explain the truth of people’s hearts to her since she is apparently incompetent at these tasks.
Chapter 14 Summary
Jean Louise visits her Uncle Jack in the hopes that he will be able to explain the changes in the beliefs of the people around her. To her frustration, he speaks in metaphor and analogy. He explains that the Civil War was ostensibly about slavery, but truly about the fear of an entire generation of individuals losing their way of life and, in a sense, their identity. He likens the development of Maycomb to the historical political development of England, stating that the Industrial Revolution has come and that Maycomb is not prepared for it and is trying, in vain, to preserve its sense of self. Jean Louise does not fully understand the comparisons and asks him to talk plainly, missing her uncle’s sadness over her misunderstanding of the situation. He makes her promise to come to him when her heart is broken. She does not notice Uncle Jack’s seriousness or see him pick up the telephone after she leaves.
Part 5, Chapters 13-14 Analysis
Part 5 continues to emphasize Jean Louise’s blindness, not only to race, but also to the differences between actions and the motivations behind them. Historically, she has seen correlations between actions and beliefs and failed to consider other explanations. Uncle Jack’s lament emphasizes this tendency: “That’s because you haven’t looked […] You’ve never opened your eyes” (190).
Uncle Jack’s analysis of the situation in Maycomb explains the build-up to the current crisis in race relations. He claims that the descendants of those who fought for the South in the Civil War are now faced with the idea that they there are no true differences between themselves and their fellow man. They cling to the idea that they are superior because it gives them their sense of identity and worth: “No war was ever fought for so many different reasons meeting in one reason clear as crystal. They fought to preserve their identity. Their political identity, their personal identity” (196). This struggle parallels Jean Louise’s own personal difficulties. She is desperately trying to cling to the past in the hopes that she will not be forced to adapt her views—on the world, herself, and, most of all, her father—to the changes around her. In this way, Jean Louise is similar to the recalcitrant South that now disgusts her. Much like the South, Jean Louise will also be forced to acknowledge the change that is occurring and respond to it in order to move forward.
Uncle Jack’s explanation also foreshadows Jean Louise’s ultimate understanding of the dynamics at play in her family and her hometown. For as much as she is horrified by the racist ideology of her family and potential husband, this is not the true struggle she is dealing with—it is only the catalyst. Uncle Jack tries to point this out and invites her to come to the same conclusion: “What was incidental to the issue in our War between the States is incidental to the issue in the war we’re in now, and is incidental to the issue in your own private war. Now think it over and tell me what you think I mean” (201). Jean Louise’s real struggle is not with the fact that her loved ones are racist, but with the fact that her views of herself and the world are not accurate. She is now faced with the task of accepting that her father is not perfect and they are not always in complete agreement. This leads to the most difficult issue in her “war”: finding an identity that is separate from her false perception of her father’s moral fiber. Uncle Jack expresses this idea in stating that when he looks at her, he sees “two things,” presumably both Jean Louise and her father. Unfortunately, Jean Louise is unable to understand what her uncle is trying to tell her, leading to the climax of the story in the next section.
