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 4, Chapters 11-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
The narrator tells a story from Jean Louise’s childhood. In sixth grade, Jean Louise’s school sees an influx of students from another school that burned down. As a result, Jean Louise mixes with older students. After she helps a boy get a good grade, he kisses her with tongue. She is startled by the interaction but dismisses it as a mistake until she hears the older girls talking. They vaguely and incorrectly explain reproduction, causing Jean Louise to believe that she is now pregnant. She is horrified at the prospect of being shipped off to Mobile with the town’s other family disgraces and, worse, bringing shame to her family. She resolves to kill herself the day before the baby arrives. Months later, she starts the seventh grade.
One day after school, she climbs the water tower, planning to kill herself by jumping from it. Hank Clinton pulls her down, first believing that she was only recklessly playing in a poorly chosen location. When he understands the truth, he takes her to Calpurnia. Jean Louise tearfully explains her situation only for Calpurnia to explain the truth—that she is not and could not be pregnant from a French kiss. Afterward, while she is relieved that she is not pregnant, she is embarrassed that she was so badly mistaken and nearly killed herself over a misunderstanding. When Jem appears in her room later that night, she fears that he will mock her, but instead, he tells her that she can always come to him if there is something going on with her that she cannot tell Atticus.
Chapter 12 Summary
In the present, Jean Louise wakes up, still in shock from the night before. She actively puts the revelation of her family’s racism out of her mind and tries to go about her day. Despite everything, she is surprised at how normally everyone else behaves and cannot bring herself to look at her father. She wonders how he could have changed so much without her noticing and is angered by his general nonchalance. Later, Hank arrives and explains to Atticus that Calpurnia’s grandson, Frank, has driven while intoxicated and killed an elderly man. He wants Atticus as his lawyer. Hank says he told the sheriff that Atticus would not take the case, but Atticus answers that he will. Jean Louise is heartened to see her father acting like the man she once idolized, until he explains that he thinks it is best to be his lawyer and plead guilty rather than refuse him a lawyer, risking the NAACP coming and taking the case. Jean Louise is further horrified to see how everyone but her agrees about the evils and dangers of the NAACP.
Jean Louise goes to the grocery store. She feels a sense of comfort and nostalgia as the owner, Mr. Fred, welcomes her and talks with her just as he always has. As she is getting back into the car, she once again bumps her head and reflects she will never get used to it.
After dropping off the groceries, Jean Louise visits Calpurnia but is further saddened by her welcome because “Calpurnia was wearing her company manners” (159). She is upset that Calpurnia treats her like a white stranger, rather than the child she raised. When Jean Louise asks why Calpurnia will not let her in and what she is doing to her, Calpurnia asks, “What are you all doing to us?” (160). As she leaves, heartbroken, Jean Louise asks one last question—whether Calpurnia hated the Finches during the many years she worked for them. Calpurnia shakes her head.
Part 4, Chapters 11-12 Analysis
Jean Louise struggles with disillusionment as the story builds toward its climax. She is forced to acknowledge that her beliefs and expectations about her father’s morals are not accurate. While she repeatedly tries to avoid this realization through denial, the events of this section force her to acknowledge the reality in front of her. The pivotal moment is when she witnesses her father initially appear to live up to her expectations by agreeing to represent an African American, only to discover that his reasoning indicates a viewpoint opposite to the one she believed he held. From this moment on, Jean Louise can no longer deny that her father holds anti-Black beliefs, but she must also accept that this is not a new development: The actions in his past, which she ascribed to a belief in racial equality, are now cast in a new light. Her realization leads her to question her entire perception of reality and what it means for her identity to have been raised by—and idolized—a racist.
The story from Jean Louise’s childhood shows an overreaction to her own ignorance and her commitment to her family. She was willing to kill herself to avoid bringing shame on her family members, but she was not willing to talk to them in the first place. This story parallels her experiences in the present. Jean Louise is horrified and ashamed of her family’s behavior and her inability to perceive their racist points of view until being confronted with them directly. Her extreme reaction to believing she is pregnant (i.e. a suicide attempt) foreshadows Jean Louise’s willingness in Part 7 to leave her family behind forever.
Part 4 also provides a more direct and personal window into race relations in the 1950s. Jean Louise’s recollections cast Calpurnia as a mother figure whose race was viewed as largely incidental. Calpurnia’s tough love, guidance, and advice shaped Jean Louise into the woman that she became, but Jean Louise took very little notice of what Calpurnia’s life was like as a result of her race. Jean Louise’s memories of Calpurnia’s “company manners” show the strategy that she chose for presenting herself around white strangers—making herself small and harmless and using fractured speech rather than her native, fluent English. While Jean Louise notices this behavior as a child, she dismisses it as a strange behavioral quirk rather than seeing it as a survival mechanism. Calpurnia modifies her presentation of herself to appear non-threatening and ignorant, hopefully making the white strangers comfortable with her presence by validating their condescending views and expectations of African Americans.
In a time when lynchings were commonplace, this strategy is armor for Calpurnia. It also demonstrates the concept of “us and them.” When at home with the Finches, Calpurnia is able to be herself despite the fact that the family is white. This is because, on some level, Calpurnia knows that she is safe with them. However, she is unable to extend that trust to white people she does not know. As a child, Jean Louise is considered a part of Calpurnia’s “us,” but as an adult, she is horrified to learn that she has become part of the oppressive, white “them” to the woman who raised her.
In Part 4, Jean Louise’s relationships with her role models are shown to be severely damaged by the racial conflict associated with the civil rights movement. Atticus has fallen from his pedestal as a result of his racially prejudiced beliefs. Aunt Alexandra, while a foil for Jean Louise, is also an important quasi-maternal figure, one whose relationship to Jean Louise is damaged by the revelation of her racist views. Despite her presumably opposite viewpoints, Calpurnia is also distanced from Jean Louise. Losing all her role models, save her Uncle Jack, has a deep impact on Jean Louise’s perception of the world and her place in it. The harsh divide between what she thought were close, unshakable bonds and the reality of the frayed, even severed connections leads her to question whether she ever truly understood the world around her. This is evidenced by her questioning Calpurnia as to whether she hated the Finches, something she would have previously considered unthinkable. These events build the book’s themes of isolation and displacement.
Jean Louise is also deeply frustrated that the world and people around her do not reflect her inner turmoil. Hank, Atticus, Aunt Alexandra, and even Calpurnia see the increase of racial tension as normal because it has become commonplace to them, whereas Jean Louise is discovering it for the first time. Their lack of reaction frustrates Jean Louise and further shows the disparity between her beliefs about her life and the world versus reality.
