Go Set A Watchman

Jean Louise recounts the history of Maycomb as she and Hank venture to a local restaurant for their date. The owner of the local tavern reportedly bribed the surveyors to make sure that his tavern was the official center of the county, rather than useless swamp land. Later, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt insisted on paving the area around the schoolhouse, resulting in injuries to the children. Jean Louise considers that moment the town’s first brush with the concept of states’ rights. She also recounts how, after World War II, the returning men were bursting with energy to modernize and make a productive living, a different way of life than the town’s status quo at the time. They added neon signs and whitewashed the old timber. The restaurant is one such building, and Jean Louise does not care for it. She acknowledges her opinion as being conservative and generally anti-change and thinks about how the world of Maycomb has passed her by. She suggests to Hank that they go to the river, an activity Hank notes changes her countenance and personality significantly, making her like her “old self.”

At dinner, Jean Louise pontificates on her beliefs regarding the relationships between men and women.