To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman have many of the same main characters, such as Jean Louise Finch (Scout in Mockingbird), Atticus Finch, and Aunt Alexandra, and both novels are set Maycomb. Both are explorations of Atticus as a moral exemplar in his community, and both are told from Jean Louise's point of view. In both novels, Jean experiences personal growth and revelation: both are coming-of-age novels.

The novels differ, however, in that Mockingbird is set in the 1930s, when Jean is a child, and Watchman is set in the 1950s, when Scout is twenty-six. Mockingbird takes place over a several-year time frame, while Watchman unfolds while Jean is home from New York for a visit.

Mockingbird is centrally about Atticus as the courageous moral center of Maycomb in his decision to mount a fair defense of Tom Robinson. In the novel, Scout's admiration and respect for her father only grows. Her revelation and growth is in understanding she has been just as prejudiced towards Boo Radley as the white townspeople were towards Robinson.

In Watchman, in contrast, Jean's growth comes through her disillusion with Atticus. In this novel, she comes to realize he is a racist who opposes civil rights. While this is shocking to her, she grows more fully into adulthood as she accepts her father's limitation and yet still loves him.

Watchman, a draft, is less polished than Mockingbird. Atticus's racism and participation in a council meant to hold Black Americans back as not "ready" for full citizenship is painful reading, making Watchman far less of a feel-good novel than Mockingbird.