Gone with the Wind

Say what you want about political correctness (or lack thereof). It's all ridiculous anyway, because this book was written in a different age and about a different age. At its heart, this book is an intimate look at the American Civil War from a Southerner's perspective. And it's also got a whopping great (doomed) romance. I grew up for 10 years in Chicago and then when I was nearly 11, we moved to a rural area in South Carolina. A few years later we moved to a small town in North Georgia. My father was from Philadelphia, but my mother and stepfather were Georgians. I always considered myself a hybrid, but I was the only one who thought so. Northerners ridiculed the soft drawl I picked up from my Georgian family; Southerners ridiculed my Northern speech patterns and LACK of a proper drawl. This was in the 1960s and 1970s. So tell me that nobody remembered the Civil War anymore. In both North and South a mere hundred years later, it defined a great many of my own relationships. In the North, elementary school history was all about the evil South and the the evils of slavery. When I got to the evil South--to a fully integrated school (as opposed to the totally white suburb of Chicago I'd inhabited before) I got the Southern perspective--the war came about because of unfair taxes, a federal government that took away states' rights, AND slavery. In some ways, GWTW provides a more comprehensive look at the reasons for secession than some of the history books I've seen. Although it's told from the perspective of rich plantation owners (does anyone even remember that rich plantation owners accounted for about 5% of the South's population??), rather than the "white trash" and "poor Crackers" (this would be people like my family) who made up most of the Southern army, the real focus is on why there needed to be a war at all. And the answer, of course, is, there didn't need to be one. The character of Rhett Butler, who serves the purpose of the one who got away; selfish Scarlett never knew she loved him until he left her--but in addition to that, he is the voice of hard, cold practicality, and 20/20 hindsight. He puts the war into economic terms, questions the motives of all the great heroes (I loved his sneer at Abe Lincoln's "crocodile tears") ridicules everything the Southerners claim to believe, but when the chips are down, he goes to fight too. Melanie and Ashley mourn the loss of their gentle way of life, but both sacrifice everything they have for their "Cause." Better descriptions than mine have already been written about the plot of this book: Selfish Scarlett wants to marry Ashley, but he marries Melanie, so Scarlett sets out to make everyone miserable when the war intervenes. For years she is forced to put her energies into things she'd never given thought to before--like surviving. In the course of surviving she finds out women--herself in particular--are nowhere near as weak or silly as she's been raised to think, and she discovers talents she never knew she had (such as making money) as well as making the knees weak of most men in her vicinity. But of course in the course of surviving, becoming successful, and finally even gaining Ashley, she makes herself the most miserable of all. But there's so much more to it than that. So much about the rapid change of society (anyone who's lived more than 40 years should be able to appreciate that), the horror and ultimate futility of war (anyone who's ever been in the military, or had a son or daughter or friend in the military, should understand that), changing values (such as priorities going from what dress I should wear to the party to will I be able to eat tomorrow). And it makes the war up-close and personal, whether in the scenes leading up to and including the burning of Atlanta or the destruction of Tara's pathetic cotton harvest. Gettysburg notwithstanding, the vast majority of the battles in the war were fought in the South. So most of the destruction was in the South. Rich plantation and tiny sharecropper acreage alike were destroyed, and most of the 50,000 civilians killed in the war were Southerners. This is why “Little Women,” technically also a Civil War novel, doesn’t seem like one—the March sisters were comfortable and untouched in Massachusetts, at worst suffering an occasional shortage or worrying about their father—while GWTW touches every horror women in the South faced, from starvation to rape and worse. I first read this book when I was eleven, not long after we had moved south. It was an eye-opener. I’ve read the book at least fifteen times since then (I’m now 56), most recently purchasing it as an ebook to replace a worn-out hardcover. I read it again, specifically focusing on some of the descriptive passages in the last days of Atlanta, the trip back to Tara and the settling there only to be attacked again by the dreaded Yankees, and I marvel that Mitchell can write such vivid description while the reader (in my case a professional editor) isn’t even aware that it’s just a description. I don’t like reading long descriptions, and some of the worst (in several famous books I could name) have prompted me to skim pages to get back to the story, but with Mitchell I never noticed. I felt the gumminess of Scarlett’s skin in the heat of the day; saw the bloody and dying soldiers on the streets around the train depot, felt the hunger gnawing in her gut when she dug that radish out of the ground. There’s a reason a blockbuster movie came from this book (but is not as good as the book); there’s a reason Carol Burnett’s parody of the story is the most popular of all her wonderful comedic sketches. This book transported ordinary people into the setting and made them feel the agony. And considering how unlikable Scarlett O’Hara really is, it’s doubly amazing that Mitchell makes me root for her. Maybe I don’t want her to get Ashley (heavens, what would she DO with him—he bores her stiff!) but I want her to survive. You want Tara to regain its former glory even as you know it never will. And no matter how many times I read it, I still keep hoping Scarlett will recognize that Rhett loves her before it’s too late. Now THAT is powerful writing.

When I first read Gone with the wind many years ago at age 25, I had watched the movie many times and loved it. Then when I read the book, I fell in love with it hailing it as the best book I'd ever read in my life. At that time though, I did find the in depth descriptions of the surroundings and of backgrounds of people a little tedious. Other than that, I loved it and my lifelong love of Civil War history was started right then and there. As the years went by and I read so many more books, a few years ago there began to be other books that took the title of "best book" in my eyes, always keeping that great love of GWTW in my heart. However, at age 52, I decided to read it again. It just called to me for some reason. This time, I loved it even so much more than I did then, and what I disliked about it years ago, the descriptive writing of Margaret Mitchell, is one of the things I loved about it most of all. It takes a tremendous amount of talent for a writer to totally immerse the reader into the setting they have created, when they can just see the lush beauty, the red clay, the desolation, the dying wounded, everything that was written, you lived it, smelled it, and felt it. I was in this story from beginning to end, and I lost myself in it completely. It now has rightfully taken its place as my favorite book of all time. Yes, It is a book where the main character is a selfish, spoiled rich plantation owner's daughter, that lost everything she had that she knew in the world, her home, her parents, many friends, her money, and how she clawed herself back to the top no matter who she ran over or hurt along the way. She is an unlikeable character that you cannot help but like anyway for the sheer will and determination she has to survive. Somewhere along that road of selfishness, she developed a conscience even though she stifled it whenever it reared it's head and went on being ruthless anyway. Also somewhere along the road, she realized that there was a feeling she could not quite identify in her heart about Melanie and Rhett, a feeling she did not realize was love until it was too late to enjoy that love. Oh you knew she was ruthless and hard, but you knew there was some good in her somewhere (was there?) and you rooted for her. Then there's Rhett. The rebellious, sarcastic, making money at the ruin of others, handsome man that fell in love with her the moment he cast eyes upon her. He was there for her so many times over the years, but she never really appreciated him. He loved her so much, but never let on in words that he did because he knew anyone that admitted they loved her, she would run over like she did so many other poor men that loved her, may they rest in peace. She realized she loved him much too late. There's Melanie, the mild, sweet shy girl-like woman who Scarlett said she hated because she was Ashley's wife (and of course Scarlett was in love with Ashley). So sweet and mild, she has a fierce loyalty and love for Scarlett, which Scarlett also didn't fully realize until it was too late. And Ashley, poor pitiful Ashley who she just thought she loved all these years only to finally realize she was In love with an idea of him, not him. She wasted all those years not realizing this, again, until it was too late. Mixing with all these wonderful characters and more, is a story about the south and how the world they knew was lost. Though it was a world that had many wrongs that should not have happened and that I'm glad was put an end, you can't help but feel their loss, feel the horror as they watched their houses and Atlanta burn to the ground. You feel their hungriness as they have nothing to eat, feel their shame as they have nothing but rags left to wear, feel their bitterness as they are under Yankee rule during the reconstruction. It's also a story about what different people do to survive. In this case, does one go with the flow and make the best out of a new situation and reap the benefits that they can in the situation they're in, or does one stay loyal to a cause that was burned to the ground and is no more and stay humbled and hungry? Does one sell their soul and prosper at the cost of others? Scarlett took advantage of the situation she was in and it made no difference who she ran over to do it or if she did forget the cause for which a war was fought. However, in the end, I think she realized that to have all she acquired, a very high price was paid for it all. This book was so great on so many levels, even more that what I've written here. For to go on, it would be way longer that this. I think it's a masterpiece. I do want to say one more thing, last but not least, about the author Margaret Mitchell. Though this was her only published novel, she did not drop down out of the sky to write this book out of nowhere. Growing up she wrote complete stories all the time as a little girl, was in drama at school, and as a young adult, worked as a journalist until she had to quit due to an ankle injury. She was born into a family rich in civil war history and many of her family had actually fought and lived during the civil war and she sat on many a lap listening to these stories throughout her childhood. She was born, lived and died in the city she wrote about, Atlanta. She knew of what she wrote about and it's historically accurate. She died, unfortunately, at the age of 48, hit by a drunk driver, crossing Peachtree St. (a street mentioned many times in the book), with her husband on the way to the movies. 5 days later she died, she was buried in Oakland Cemetary, (a graveyard mentioned in the book). To me, this book could have never been surpassed and I feel so good knowing that in her short life, she chose to leave this masterpiece for us all to enjoy forever. I, for one, am grateful. Thank you Margaret Mitchell.

I saw the movie before I read the book, and I thought it would be too much to read a book that was so long. But I was enthralled by the 2nd page, by the descriptions and the dialogue. The rest of the novel kept me enthralled because of the unconventionality of Scarlett and Rhett, and the messages about war, the finished past and the unavoidable future of the South in the mid-1800's. I loved the richness of the descriptions of the Old South, which made me feel so nostalgic even though I'm not even from the South! Also, I found the many characters to be well-developed and each major character had a distinct and sympathizable personality. My favorite parts are the ones with Scarlett and Rhett at each others' throats, before and during their "courtship" and even after they were married. Their dialogue is hilarious and clever, though admittedly the wit is all from Rhett and the amusement comes from seeing Scarlett brought down a few notches. Though it hurts to know that even though Scarlett FINALLY matures enough to dump Ashley and realize she needed to change, Rhett is no longer willing to give her another chance. It seems whenever Scarlett is actually sincere about something nobody believes her or is willing to give her the benefit of the doubt (except Melanie of course). What's great about the novel is that if one was one of the characters, he would just see Scarlett on the surface: selfish, conniving and coy, but with the narration, one can see where Scarlett is coming from, and actually sympathize with her actions. She was definitely a woman born in the wrong era. She would do just fine in the 21st Century. Scarlett is very much my favorite character, because even with her insensitivity, selfishness, and materialism, she is oftentimes the strongest person in the passel of main characters. She worked to the bone when she returned to Tara, knowing that her hands would have to be ruined in order to eat and live and provide for the family that looked to her for leadership. Sometimes it seemed she was the only practical, level-headed person in the whole book (excepting Rhett), especially since people like Suellen were just refusing to work because it was "beneath" them, refusing to admit things have changed and work had to be done. Scarlett knows what she wants and has the sense to go ahead and try to get it. Although, many times Scarlett's selfishness comes up so unexpectedly I burst out laughing at the outrageousness of her personality. For example there would be a long conversation or narrative about how the past was so beautiful and peaceful or about a nice thing a person has done, and the book has Scarlett completely overturn the comments with her contemptous thoughts on the contrary of what was just described. Her problem is that though she sees what's in front of her, she doesn't get the POINT of what she's seeing. Hence the character of Rhett. He is so much like her, but he is able to see what she misses. He points them out to her plainly, and in Rhett Scarlett meets her match. He has what she's missing. As a result, another piece of the novel comes together: through Rhett, Scarlett is able to mature and bridge, to an extent, the gap between the ideals of people living in the past and those living in the present. Unfortunately, this maturation is not without consequences. Because of Scarlett's headstrong personality, I found GWTW endlessy amusing, and I think it was meant to be - in showing the huge gap between the over-the-top, in-the-moment practicality of Scarlett and the immaterial dreams of yesterday held so tightly by Old Southerners like Ashley, Melanie, and the rest, Mitchell tells us that both ways of thinking have their benefits and faults. It's not good to hold on to the past without moving forward, but only worrying about current physical security without holding tight to family and identity will cause pain and loneliness in the future. The messages are many in GWTW, and none of the 1000+ pages are superfluous. It was a pleasure to read, to laugh at the witty dialogue, sigh with sadness or nostalgia, scoff with annoyance at characters' actions, and feel the pain of the bitter ironies that define the lives of characters like Scarlett and Rhett. GWTW is not just a love story to me; it's so much more than that. It makes you think about what's past, but warns you not to dwell on the memories. Also, issues about war, race, and gender are definitely touched upon, oftentimes subtly, and it makes for great analysis. I can see why this novel won the Pulitzer Prize. Many issues are laid out all at once in front of you, forcing you to acknowledge their presence, whether it's painful to do so or not. "Gone With the Wind" made it to my "favorite books" list by page 150. It's an amazing literary work; a real masterpiece.

When I was about ten years old, my mom tried to make me sit down and watch Gone With the Wind, saying that it was a fantastic movie and that she thought I would love it. I couldn't even get to the barbecue. A couple years later, my mother finally succeeded in getting me to watch the whole movie, which I subsequently fell in love with. The summer before my Freshman year in high school, I was in a Half-Price Books and came across what looked like a fairly new copy of Gone With the Wind. I took it from the shelf, tested out the feel and weight of it, and ALMOST put it back because I had had a bad experience trying to read a novel of about the same length. *cough* Les Mis *cough* And THANK GOODNESS I went ahead and bought the copy. I read it in about two weeks, even though I had band practice, marching band competitions, football games and school work. Even though I was extremely busy, I could always find a section of the day that I could dedicate to Rhett and Scarlett, meaning that pretty much every time I picked the book up to start it again, it was like losing a best friend to try and put it down. When I finally finished it, I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. And I've read it every year since then, resulting in me about to begin my fifth reading of owning the book. When I got my first Kindle, it was one of the first books I bought because I wanted it with me every where, and I've read the heck out of my book. This story will honestly never get old, neither will it age out after many of us are dead. I can guarantee that anyone who reads this book, will find something about it that makes them fall in love. Maybe some identify with Scarlett, Melanie, Rhett, or Ashley. Or maybe one of Scarlett's emotionally abused children or the men Scarlett so cruelly strong-armed into loving her. Maybe you'll find admiration for Scarlett's tenacity and ruthlessness or Rhett's sarcasm and what seems to be his never-ending good humor that darkens over time. The themes with this book are beautiful as well, and something that most people can pick up on. Themes like, "Out with the old, in with the new", "You don't know what you've got till it's gone", and "Money can't buy happiness", just to touch the tip of the obvious iceberg. I would recommend this book to anyone and every one who came to me asking for a book to read. It's long, but definitely worth it. And if you've ever watched the movie and have wondered about whether you should read the book or not, I would tell you to DEFINITELY read the book. It touches on the plights of other characters and fills in their storylines where the movie wasn't able to. And honestly, for anyone who says this book is racist, I'm truly sorry you feel that way. It's a serious and wonderful piece of literature that doesn't even focus that much on the disdain for the freed and enslaved men and women. It's definitely not the focus of the story, and I believe that in those moments where it's biased against the slaves, Mitchell managed to do it in a way that was as tasteful as possible and, in my opinion, probably deemed it a necessary evil to a story about the Old South. Long story short, read the book and love it the rest of your life.

The Great American Novel. Great because of its plot, characters and velvety smooth prose. American because you can’t understand the South without reading this book. It encapsulates Southern longings and embodies the aching of the American Dream. And this is a novel of place. It is grounded firmly in the red clay of Georgia. It reads like a family history told with a strong personal connection. Following the plot is easy and the characters are so clearly expressed that they are never confused. It goes down agreeably like a Southern lilt. The characters are vividly drawn, full of life and motivations. Characters develop in a natural way. It is a story of growing up. Every character has a trajectory that puts them into conflict with themselves and their neighbors. The conflict is always personal, or it feels that way. Everything about this book is personal, yet iconic. As intimately personal as the character are, they are also iconic of American and the South. Gerald and Ellen, the Irish and the French parents of Scarlett are the seed stock of the South, not only genetically but psychologically. The refined French intermingled with the stormy Irish. Scarlett, Melanie, Rhett and Ashley personify the good south and the cruel south. The genteel south in contrast to the unscrupulous South. It is a story of survival. Survival of the South as it endures the horror of war and the humiliation of reconstruction. The idyll of the antebellum south draws a sharp contrast to the ravishes of war. The burning of Atlanta destroyed more than wood and stubble, it wiped away the soul of the South. Left with only the hunger to feed and hope in the lost cause. The South is gone, gone with the wind. The plot echoes with real conflict, psychological, personal and romantic conflict. The conflict lays in wait just below the surface of Southern life. It is repressed and then exposed. It is the intrafamilial conflict of disagreeable family relations forced to live too close. It is a conflict about family, place, love, and money that can only take place in America. Each character is working at cross purposes to the other, not through any desire for conflict or contrived conflict. The conflict arises as the inevitable result of characters sharing the same land and the same cultural space. The book ends in the only way it can, hopeful about a hopeless tomorrow. The old South longing for a past that slipped irretrievably away and striving for a future that will never come to pass.

My favorite book! I haven’t read it since high school until now. The cover was a little creased.

The first time I read Gone With the Wind, I was around sixteen years old. It made a lasting impression on me. I have probably read this book at least ten times during my youth and my young adult years and watched the movie as many times. I realized that it must have been thirty years since I last read it and decided it was time to read it again with new eyes. I downloaded it and also purchased the audio book to go along with it. I must say this has been a different experience listening to the audio along with the book. Linda Stephens is the narrator and truly brings this huge cast of characters to life. I could easily distinguish the different voices. She does an outstanding job with all the varying accents from Scarlett, to Rhett, to Mammy. Now at times, I did cringe when I listened to all the racist dialogue, but I tried to remember this is written when this was the normal attitude of that time, not how we feel today. Obviously Gone With the Wind is NOT politically correct to say the least! I think that it also important to understand that Margaret Mitchell was a gentile southern woman and her upbringing was vastly different from how my generation was raised. My mother was also raised during the same time period and even though she grew up in the north, her attitude was a bit prejudged as well. I thank God I became an adult in the seventies and have a much more enlightened attitude. With that being said, I also listened/read with knowledge of books written in my time. While Margaret Mitchell’s writing style is vastly different from the norm today, I am sure it was brilliant in 1936. I kept that in mind and focused on this epic story that swept me up in the midst of a war torn world and the aftermath of that war. I can understand why Ms. Mitchell took ten years to write this story. I cannot even imagine the amount of research she must have done to get the historical details accurate. I am not going to do a synopsis of the book other than to say that it covers the years of the Civil War and the reconstruction period that the south endured. Most individuals today have either read the book or watched the movie, at least my generation. Our children are aware of it as well, even if they have never read the book or watched the movie. When I read Gone With the Wind as a young girl, I think I concentrated on all the history and pageantry and not the character’s defects. While Scarlett is an incredibly narcissistic character, she does have an indomitable spirit and personality. I am not sure I could have grown up in those times where a woman’s only purpose in life was to be ornamental and where men believed them hen-witted and should not be concerned by any issues beyond beauty and refinement and the need to be a lady at all times, and not have been just like her. I would hope I would have been more like Melanie, but I doubt it. I am as strong-willed and as stubborn as Scarlett. I just do not like to admit it. Scarlett is a complex character with many layers to her personality and while I do not like her character, I do admire her tenacity and determination to survive and flourish in a changed world, so different than what she could have imagined as a young girl. Margaret Mitchell has written a character with such depth that it takes my breath away. If I could write a heroine with a tenth of her depth, I am sure it would be an immediate best seller. Rhett Butler is a rogue that as a reader I always love. For some reason, while it is not acceptable for a woman to be scandalous, it is desired in heroes as long as there is a tender, caring side to them. Rhett’s character has a huge arch that satisfied my need for ‘a bad boy gone good’. While I wish that their love story could have had a ‘Happily Ever After’, it is much more realistic for Rhett to give up on ever having Scarlett return his love and to grow so cynical that he finally does not “give a damn”. It would have been out of character if he had been able to forgive and forget. Well my musings are getting a bit deep so I will close. If you have not read this amazing book, I highly recommend it, but do read with an open mind to fully appreciate the artistry of the writing and the pageantry of a time long dead. Happy reading!

As with all great classics, I am hard-pressed to say anything original about Gone With the Wind. This is my second reading and I still love the book. If you have seen the movie, but have not read the book, read the book. There is a great deal more that will only add to your enjoyment of the storyline. Some things I did not know about Margaret Mitchell made re-reading the book all the more interesting (thank you Wikipedia). Mitchell's maternal great-grandfather was from Ireland and settled on a slaveholding plantation in Georgia. Her grandfather fought in the Civil War and made a lot of money in the lumber business after the war (just like Scarlett!). As a young girl, Mitchell heard a lot of Civil War stories from her relatives and visited the ruined plantations in Georgia. And, most interesting to me was that her mother was a women's rights activist. I think these points are important because they give you a better understanding of the characters in GWTW. And I think the most interesting point is Mitchell's portrayal of Scarlett as a shrewd and independent businesswoman during a time when no women ran businesses or even played a role in commerce, except maybe in selling pies like Mrs. Merriwether and taking in sewing and boarders like Mrs. Elsing. (Or Belle Watling's business. Belle's character is also quite modern, profession aside.) Mitchell also portrays Ellen, Scarlett's mother, as the true head of the plantation, with Gerald as a figurehead. Although I love this book, it is difficult to read the sections about slavery and the slaves on the O'Hara plantation. The O'Haras take pride in their kind treatment of their slaves, yet the O'Haras and other plantation owners come off as very condescending. And who knows whether kind treatment was common on all southern plantations. It's a bad part of American history and all accounts of this time-period make you cringe. But I think it's important to note that some of Mitchell's slave characters (Mammy, Pork, Uncle Peter) are smarter and wiser than their owners. I think Mitchell's description of the post-war period is very good and it shows what a mess Atlanta was and how the Southern way of life known and loved by its people was forever lost. I like how the characters, particularly Melanie and her followers cling to their committees and old customs, even when the Northerners take over the city. There are certainly many, many other points to add about the characters and the book, Melanie's goodness, Ashley's displacement in the new South, and Scarlett's inability to understand and appreciate the people around her until it is too late. I like Rhett Butler the best. He is very modern, thinking it ridiculous never to mention pregnancy and birth control. He loves children and these things make him even more appealing. You want to forget how he makes his money, his drinking and what he does over at Belle's house because he is so likeable and smooth. His flirtatious conversations with Scarlett are so fun to read, but my favorite parts are when Rhett shows his true feelings to Melanie, and sadly to Scarlett at the end.