Go Set a Watchman Chapter 4 Summary

  • This chapter begins Part II.
  • While eating fried shrimp, Jean Louise is reminded of a game called Hot Grease in the Kitchen when she smells...hot grease from the kitchen.
  • But Henry doesn't remember the game.
  • So Jean Louise suggests they go to the river.
  • Okay?
  • For some reason, this raises a conversation of what women want from a relationship.
  • One of the things she says is to "make them feel helpless" (4.22). We're not sure if she's being sarcastic or not.
  • Henry says women want "a father instead of a husband" (4.25), and Jean Louise agrees.
  • She says she learned all this while living in New York doing… well, she never says exactly what she does there.
  • Finally, Henry asks why Jean Louise never finishes her second cup of coffee after supper.
  • She's surprised. "Why had he waited fifteen years to tell her?" (4.36) This problem nearly tore society apart all the way through the 1970s.