ANALYSIS

While Jean Louise processes the emotional and psychological turmoil that recent events in Maycomb have caused her, she recalls events in her childhood that also stirred emotional and psychological anxiety. The awkwardness of adolescence and the disillusionment involved in transforming from a child into a woman seem particularly applicable to her current experience.

As Jean Louise transitions from being a girl into being a woman, Henry’s role changes in her life. When Jean Louise was a child, Henry was Jem’s friend, but now, as Jean Louise enters adolescence, she begins to have a different set of feelings towards him. The dance represents the first time that Henry and Jean Louise begin to realize that they might have potential to be a couple, not just Jem’s best friend and Jem’s little sister.

Transitioning into womanhood wasn’t easy for Jean Louise. She buys the fake bosoms out of nervousness. Jean Louise wants the bosoms to put into her dress so that she can feel less like a child who is going to the dance as Jem’s little sister, and more like a girl who is attractive and desirable in her own right. Jean Louise panics not only about her appearance but about what she will do at the dance itself. Here, Uncle Jack plays the role of secondary father, as he does throughout her life. Where Atticus provides a moral example and model for Jean Louise to depend upon, and Calpurnia provides the pragmatic, day-to-day care, Uncle Jack helps solve aesthetic crises.

As a child, Jean Louise was always a tomboy, not thinking twice about being different than the boys. Now, as she’s growing up, Jean Louise is becoming self-conscious about her body. Whether or not the fake breasts make Jean Louise look noticeably different, or if they primarily lift her confidence level, she is able to enjoy herself and attract positive attention at the dance. When then bosoms fall out, Jean Louise feels ashamed and embarrassed that Henry has seen, but her vulnerability makes Henry want to protect her, not laugh at her.

Although the movie Spartacus wasn’t released until 1960, after Harper Lee wrote Go Set a Watchman, the scene in which every girl at school claims the false bosoms for her own is very reminiscent to the scene in Spartacus in which every slave claims to be Spartacus to protect the actual Spartacus’s identity. This scene is also reminiscent of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, which were very much in the political background as Harper Lee wrote this novel. During the nineteen-fifties, Senator Joseph McCarthy attacked members of the Communist Party, and so supporters and people in solidarity with the accused would declare that they were Communists as well.

All of the students rally together to support what they perceive of as injustice. As Jean Louise has seen in the Maycomb County Citizens’ Council meeting, the community has the capacity to come together in times of mutual hatred and distrust. However, Maycomb residents also have the ability to help each other in times of need. The town sticks together and helps out its own, which can be a bad thing when combined with bigotry, but it can also be a wonderful thing when combined with gallantry.

In the past, Henry and Atticus had always been there for Jean Louise and had protected her from the rest of the world. Jean Louise’s recollection of her adolescence demonstrates how she grew to perceive both of them as benevolent, rock-solid forces in her life.

In the incident of the false bosoms, Henry appears to be the one who saves the day. He has the brainwave about how he and Jean Louise can get out of trouble, and he convinces the rest of the girls in high school to claim the bosoms for their own. Henry orchestrates the whole incident so that the world remains safe for Jean Louise, and she can maintain both her innocence and her dignity. However, as it turns out, Atticus was the one who initially came up with the idea and sparked Henry’s plan. All along, Atticus ultimately is there to protect Jean Louise in every aspect of her life. Jean Louise knows that she can always rely on Atticus, no matter what, and this belief is continually reaffirmed throughout her girlhood and adolescence. Even as Henry begins to enter her life in a different role, Atticus is still her anchor.

The scene in which Atticus plants the seed for Henry to think of the idea that will help Jean Louise is reminiscent of the scene in which Uncle Jack tries to plant the seeds of an idea in Jean Louise’s head. Atticus is successful, since Henry picks up the brainwave. He comes up with and enacts the plot on his own, but Atticus is the one who sparked his imagination. In Jean Louise’s case, she hasn’t yet picked up the conclusion that Uncle Jack tries to get her to reach.

Jean Louise feels as though Henry and Atticus have failed her. She perceives them both as hypocrites. Jean Louise has a hard time seeing Henry after the incident with the meeting. But Atticus’s hypocrisy is even harder for Jean Louise to face than Henry’s. In her view, Atticus’s tacit acceptance of racism undermines every moral action he has taken and every value he has taught her throughout her life. But Atticus never says anything that is explicitly or blatantly racist. He doesn’t object specifically and vocally to the others’ opinions, but he also doesn’t ever claim that he agrees with them. Instead, he takes a very decidedly neutral stance.

Jean Louise’s outrage against Atticus attacks his perceived actions, more than his actual responses. While Jean Louise is enraged by Atticus’s presence at the meeting and his ability to condone the townsfolk’s behavior, she reacts mostly to what she thinks he believes and how she perceives him to be acting. Thus, Jean Louise is acting out more against her own emotions of betrayal and anger, rather than against any concrete action that Atticus has done or continues to do.

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