Go Set a Watchman Chapter 9 Summary

  • "Integrity, humor, and patience were the three words for Atticus Finch" (9.1).
  • And now Jean Louise has to deal with a fourth: "racist."
  • Jean Louise's mind is all over the place, remembering her dead mother (whom she never really knew), her cook Calpurnia, and how Atticus read to her and her brother every night.
  • She thinks "Atticus killed several birds with one stone when he read to his children" (9.5). Uh, we hope they weren't mockingbirds...
  • Now her whole world is wrecked.
  • She used to think, "What would Atticus do?" (9.14) We bet she looked rad in that WWAD bracelet, actually.
  • But now she doesn't know what to think.
  • She used to feel sorry for people who didn't like their parents, but now she realizes she had been "complacent in her smug world" (9.16).
  • Oops. It says "snug world."
  • Sorry, Shmoopers. Freudian slip.