Separation of fact and fiction

LIKE many others I saw the excellent production of “To Kill a Mocking Bird” in April at the Theatre Royal. Although vaguely familiar with the story I had not actually read Harper Lee’s novel, so I obtained a copy and did. Many of us think the story is about racial prejudice in the Southern United States, and we see it both through Gregory Peck’s performance as Atticus in the movie, and the prism of later events such as the Civil Rights movement.

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee at Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. Picture: Martin Shields, Herald & Times

In fact, the story is more complicated than that and looks at the complicated relationships between neighbours and families in a close-knit Alabama community. The famous trial only takes up a small part of the book, much of which is devoted to the position of poor white families, the supposed “white trash” and how the more respectable families tried to distance themselves from them.

The hero of “Mocking Bird”, the lawyer Atticus Finch, has a rather patrician air about him, rather like a good natured landowner in 19th Century England, concerned that the more fortunate should care for those who were not so lucky in the community. The book is set in the 1930s, when Alabama was predominantly an agricultural community. Most of the black people worked on the land.

I have made it my business now to read “Go Set a Watchman”. It was published last month amidst much ballyhoo. It was written by Harper Lee before Mocking Bird, and describes how Atticus’ daughter, Jean Louise, returns to Maycomb in the 1950s when the civil rights movement was beginning. The publishers at the time advised Harper Lee to write about Jean Louise’s childhood which is referred to in flashbacks in the first novel. The result was “To Kill a Mocking Bird” which became a best seller.

Now the original novel has been published it has received a mixed reception. The general consensus seems to be that it disappoints. I am not sure I agree. The plot is fairly sparse, but Lee describes situations and events very well. Above all she creates a picture of what a particular place and time was like. The main character, Jean Louise, known as Scout, is a bit of a pain, but I do not think the book is really about her. In some ways she is simply the narrative voice. It subtly describes how Maycomb Alabama has changed from a predominantly rural to a more urban community. Many of the black population now work in factories, or have left for the North. They no longer accept a subservient position. Those who feel most threatened are the poor whites.

The climax of the book is Jean Louise’s rage when she finds her father, whom she has hero-worshipped, appearing to consort with white segregationists. She can remember when he defended a black man, as described in “Mocking Bird”, on a rape charge, a risky and unpopular thing to do.

Atticus’ brother, and Atticus himself, subsequently try to explain the situation. Things are not quite what they seem. I do not want to reveal the book’s conclusion, but I feel it goes a long way to explain the distrust in America of Washington which is now bubbling up again with the presidential elections.

Many of us in this country find it very hard to understand the attitude of Republicans in America who seem to distrust anything which is imposed by the Federal Government. Some Republican presidential nominees, for example, have instituted health programmes in their own states when governors but are now opposing the Federal Healthcare programme. The attitude seems to be “We don’t want it imposed, but if we do it ourselves it is all right.” Part of the dispute about Civil Rights was about State versus Federal rights. In this country we have no equivalent of “states’ rights”. The Government can do what it likes.

Is that a good or a bad thing? Should the Southern American states have been allowed to end segregation in their own way and own time? “Go Set a Watchman” is not really a political book, but it makes some shrewd observations about American society, and asks some awkward questions about what devolution actually means. I do advise you to read it.