Gone With the Wind

Margaret Mitchell

5/15/2007

Scarlett O'Hara is the spoiled eldest daughter of a Georgia plantation owner at the beginning of the Civil War. She is in love with Ashley Wilkes. Ashley seems to be in love with her, but is engaged to his cousin Melanie. Scarlett pronounces her love but Ashley turns it away for Melanie's sake. Scarlett is mortified when another man who had been in the room makes himself known. Rhett Butler, a man with a scandalous reputation, overheard the scene and knew of her embarrassment.

Over the next twelve years Scarlett, Melanie, Ashley, and Rhett live through the Civil War, Atlanta burning, Reconstruction, Scalawags, blockades, marriages, babies, high taxes, starvation, Union prisons, abuse, and triumphs. Scarlett watches the Atlanta and Georgia citizens support their men and their Cause. She never quite identifies, but is able to play their game. The only people she respects are her mother and father. She often says she wishes she were like her mother, the gentle Ellen from a good Southern family, but usually acts like her Irish father, Gerald.

Gone With the Wind is a classic story in the American culture. It was written over 70 years ago when Mitchell could still have interviewed people who lived through the war. She grew up in Atlanta, so was steeped in the post-Civil War Southern culture. The novel is long, but doesn't let the reader down. Because it was written before television, there are long descriptive passages of the countryside, the people, the fashions, and the other environmental aspects that give the background that brings the story to life.

But Gone With the Wind is a tale full of themes. The tragic romances are the most obvious, then the Civil War and the aftermath. But there is feminism. There is peer pressure from Society. There is the beginnings of the KKK, with attitudes different than the KKK has now. There is the relationship between the races. There is loyalty to family, friends, and the South. There are different cultures between the haves and the have nots and how they react when they switch places. The themes continue the more the reader studies the book.

I first read Gone With the Wind over 30 years ago - twice within a few years. Now I see so much more in it. The ending is more tragic than ever and it was always a sad ending. I believe Ms. Mitchell once said Scarlett and Rhett would not get back together. I used to believe they would. Now I agree with the author (no I haven't read the family-sanctioned sequel where they do finally get together).

Gone With the Wind is not a quick read - it's over 1000 pages long when unabridged. I understand if it is purposefully overlooked for something else. If you're a reader, challenge yourself. If you're not as much of a reader, try an abridged version. The movie is good - the book is better. But it is riveting. It is a good picture of Georgia and the Southern United States during the latter part of the 1800's. I recommend this book highly.

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