Literary Devices in Go Set a Watchman
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
You Can Never Go Home AgainA bunch of things changed in the two years between Harper Lee's writing Go Set a Watchman and writing To Kill a Mockingbird, but Maycomb, Alabama isn't one of them. In fa...
Narrator Point of View
Maybe it's because Go Set a Watchman is an unedited first draft of a first novel, but the narrative voice is inconsistent at best—and sometimes super-duper confusing. As soon as the train leaves...
Genre
Judgment DayIf you think To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story (we did), this book might change your perspective. With regard to this genre, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman are...
Tone
Jean Louise is pretty much the person you would expect Scout Finch to grow up to be: smart, snarky, and unafraid to speak her mind. She has refined her dry, sarcastic humor, which is best in eviden...
Writing Style
The narrative technique and the tone are both under the umbrella of the book's writing style. And, since this is basically an unedited manuscript, what we have here is pure, unadulterated, Harper L...
What's Up With the Title?
The Watchman of the title isn't a big blue guy who likes to walk around naked. Unfortunately.Jean Louise's watchman comes from a Biblical verse: Isaiah 21:6. In the book, the preacher, Mr. Stone s...
What's Up With the Ending?
Kill myself. Kill him. I had to kill him to live. (18.94) This is Jean Louise's confession. Go Set a Watchman ends in murder/suicide. ...But don't call the police. It's a metaphorical murder/suicid...
Tough-o-Meter
We pegged To Kill a Mockingbird at Sea Level. But it's been a while since Mockingbird… both in the real world and in Scout's world. She's grown up (she's almost twenty years older), and her vocab...
Plot Analysis
Sweet Home AlabamaBeginning with Jean Louise's return home, the first seven chapters are our exposition. There is little hint as to what might happen on this visit home, but it's obviously going t...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
It's difficult to peg this experimental draft into one of the Seven Basic Plots. It reads like a Voyage Story, a story of Rebirth, a little bit of a Tragedy, and maybe even a Monster story (when A...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
The curtain rises with Jean Louise on a train going home. Ah, to go home! What a fabulous feeling. But, as she explores her hometown, she starts to learn unexpected things, and she wonders if her...
Trivia
You know the name Harper Lee, but what about Therese von Hohoff Torrey? Also known as Tay Hohoff, the woman whose name is a mouthful helped streamline and refine Harper Lee's writing between her in...
Steaminess Rating
Little Scout is all grown up, and with age comes innuendo. She and Henry engage in some hardcore flirting and a scandalous swim, one the town rumor mill grinds into a salacious tale of skinny-dippi...
Allusions
We know To Kill a Mockingbird isn't technically an allusion since Watchman came first, but we couldn't not mention it. So...we're mentioning it.William Blake, "Introduction to the Songs of Innocenc...