Ignorance Is Not Always Bliss
In the novel, Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, Jean Louise is an adult desperately trying to find her place in the world. Throughout the story, she overcomes her childishness and becomes aware of the true personalities of others and their views on the world. She especially comes to understand her father's and Hank's beliefs. In the novel, Jean Louise's childhood ignorance serves to demonstrate that growing up can be difficult, but one can make it through in the end and understand the world better.
First, Jean Louise cannot understand that others have grown up and changed while she has not. When she frets about seeing Uncle Jack at church, she does not leave him room to show that he has grown up since the past events occurred. Jean Louise did not want to see him because he "sometimes embarrassed her unmercifully in front of the company with a tinkling recitative of her childhood felonies" (Lee 39). She believed that these past events of embarrassment were all Uncle Jack knew how to do, and therefore did not want to reencounter them. This shows Jean Louise's childhood ignorance by her jumping to conclusions about people's personalities and views even though they have only stated one fact. Second, Uncle Jack also vividly expresses his views to Jean Louise. He talks to her about the purpose of the NAACP and explained, "[p]rejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends" (190). Jean Louise regards this as confusing because she has never been exposed to people blatantly expressing their views and opinions. This also expresses her childhood ignorance because it demonstrates her lack of knowledge about political views and problems, like the NAACP in the South.
Third, Jean Louise is also ignorant about her father's beliefs and views on Maycomb politics. Jean Louise was upset about Atticus' views of giving African Americans full citizensh...
