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 3, Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Aunt Alexandra wakes Jean Louise, reporting that the local gossip has told the whole town that she saw Jean Louise and Hank swimming in the river at one in the morning—naked. Despite her claims that learning of this indiscretion will kill Atticus, Jean Louise’s father only exhibits wry amusement at the situation. Aunt Alexandra is also none-too-pleased by Jean Louise’s suggestion that she must now marry Hank to save the family name. The group goes to church, where Jean Louise encounters her Uncle Jack, a doctor who retired to indulge his love of Victorian literature once he had made enough money.
Chapter 7 Summary
Jean Louise is surprised to learn that the local music director, Mr. Herbert, has changed the way the hymns are sung. The minister does not notice because he is tone deaf. The minister, Mr. Stone, begins his sermon by reading a passage from Isaiah: “For thus hath the Lord said unto me, / Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.”
Afterward, Uncle Jack confronts Mr. Herbert, who claims he is following the directives of a music instructor from New Jersey. Uncle Jack argues with the man regarding the inconsistencies in the music instructor’s arguments. Mr. Hebert agrees to put the songs back the way they were.
Chapter 8 Summary
Jean Louise discovers a pamphlet entitled “The Black Plague” in her father’s home and is disgusted to learn that it is racist propaganda. To her shock, when she asks her aunt what it is, Aunt Alexandra not only expresses agreement with the sentiments it espouses, but also notes that it was handed out at the Maycomb County Citizens’ Council, an organization of which Atticus is a board member and Hank is an active member. Horrified, Jean Louise goes to the courthouse and witnesses a meeting. Mr. O’Hanlon, a white man, pontificates on the dangers of failing to preserve segregation as the Southern way of life, spouting racist ideology that leaves Jean Louise with a churning gut and sweaty hands. Worst of all, Jean Louise notes the broad society of Maycomb at the meeting, condoning the hate speech through their silent complicity—including her father and her suitor.
She flees the courtroom and finds herself making her way to her old house. Since it is now an ice cream shop, she absentmindedly orders some ice cream and sits to think. No matter what she does, she can only come to one conclusion:
The one human being she had ever fully and wholeheartedly trusted had failed her; the only man she had ever known to whom she could point and say with expert knowledge, ‘He is a gentleman, in his heart he is a gentleman,’ had betrayed her, publicly, grossly, and shamelessly (113).
Chapter 9 Summary
Atticus Finch is described as a man with great “integrity, humor, and patience” (114). Jean Louise has always considered him to be a remarkable father, one who always had time for her, supported her, and had her best interests at heart. The narrator reveals that Jean Louise has not realized that her father is her moral compass; the voice of her conscience is the voice of her father. She has remained ignorant to her idealization and “worship” of him as the best of men and her primary role model.
Chapter 10 Summary
Jean Louise returns home in a daze. Aunt Alexandra chides her for her behavior and clothing but is startled to realize where she has been. Jean Louise admits that she was at the meeting, sitting in the balcony where no one could see her. She tells her aunt to tell Hank that she was “indisposed” when he came to pick her up for their date that evening. Exhausted and pained by the events of the day, Jean Louise takes to her bed and falls asleep immediately. The narrator states that the difficulties to come could have been prevented by the realization that she has spent her life color blind.
Part 3, Chapters 6-10 Analysis
Part 3 constitutes the rising action of the story. It gives context and lays the groundwork for the building conflict between Jean Louise and Atticus. This section also has significant foreshadowing, both in the story itself and through the narration. For instance, Jean Louise is surprised to learn that the local music director has altered the melody of the hymns, but the minister does not notice because he is tone deaf. This anecdote reflects Jean Louise’s inability to recognize the discrepancy between what she expects of her father’s behavior/beliefs and their reality. The narrator also foreshadows the difficulties to come by stating that Jean Louise could prevent them if she realized that she is color blind—and has been her whole life.
The schism between Jean Louise’s perceptions and reality as they relate to her loved ones, particularly her father, constitutes the primary conflict of the story. It is only at the age of 26 that she realizes that there is a significant difference between her idealized version of her father and the man himself. As a result, she has built her moral reasoning and identity around this misperception. The narrator points this out directly, stating that Jean Louise has not noticed that her conscience is her father’s voice and characterizing her veneration of him as worshipful. This commentary foreshadows the ultimate description of her relationship with her father as the devotion that a person has to a god rather than a relationship between two humans, with all the expectations of failings thereof and the discomfort that comes with resolving this unhealthy aspect of their relationship. This internal crisis is the main plot of the story. However, it does not reach its climax until Jean Louise later confronts her father.
