Where has the month of May gone?

It has “gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia”.

Say what?

Well, for me a big chunk of it was spent home sick. I had an on again, off again cold for about 2 weeks. It was brutal. So, I didn’t cook a single interesting thing. (We lived on pasta and soup. I didn’t know until a few days after I made my chicken noodle soup how terrible and bland it was. It is hard to season when your can’t taste anything.) I did a little bit of painting, which I’m eager to put up in a separate post. But mostly I watched a lot of tv, (I discovered the show Bones on my Netflix Instant Watch and fell in love with it) and I read. In fact, I made it all the way through “Gone with the Wind”. It was epic.

I’ve read “Gone with the Wind” once before. It was when I was in junior high school. I didn’t really remember much about the experience other than that I liked the book and thought it was pretty much the same as the movie, but with some extras. I have a deeper appreciation of the novel this time.

First of all, it is one of the most epic things that I’ve ever read. In terms of depth and girth this novel is immense. Around 1,000 pages, the novel spans a time frame of about 12 years. It contains in it the Civil War and the early years of Reconstruction. It looks at these momentous times through the eyes of the heroine, Scarlett O’Hara. Scarlett witnesses  the fall of the South, an end to the life she knew, the burning of Atlanta, death and pain in wartime hospitals void of  medicine, the struggles of reconstruction, and still had time to marry three men and have a child by each of them. This book is epic on a social level, a deeply personal level, and it holds one of the most brilliant love stories ever told.

So, other than being in awe of the book’s size and scope, the characters that Margaret Mitchell created are memorable, stunning, and so full of life that you feel like you truly know them and would not be suprised to see one of them walk right into your room.

Scarlett O’Hara. One of the most well-known literary characters of all time. How does one begin to sum her up? I’m going to go with strong. Scarlett begins the novel as a young, spoiled girl on a wealthy plantation surrounded by adoring suitors. She is selfish, silly, and generally unconcerned with anything in the world other than men and clothing. However, her fortunes change wildly in a very short span of time. The Civil War begins. She is married to a man she doesn’t care about and widowed shortly after, left at 17 as a mother. As the times around her become harsher, so does she. The novel often talks about how during the war a hardness starts to form around her heart. She is forced to grow up. After the burning of Atlanta, she becomes responsible for a large number of friends, servants, and family members. They are forced to do hard physical labor for the first time in their lives to feed themselves. It is at this time that the iconic quote, “‘As God is my witness, and God is my witness, the Yankees aren’t going to lick me. I’m going to live through this, and when it’s over, I’m never going to be hungry again. No, nor any of my folks. If I have to steal or kill – as God is my witness, I’m never going to be hungry again.'” is spoken. Scarlett is forced to become hard. Forced to carry a heavy burden. It is survival of the fittest and Scarlett doesn’t let anything get in her way. She is a selfish, conniving, cutthroat character. She gets more and more ruthless. She steals, kills, and ruins the lives of others. However, despite her hardness, she is brave. She takes care of those she is responsible for, at least in some ways. She is a pioneer for women. She owned a business at a time that it was scandalous. “A startling thought this, that a woman could handle business matters as well or better than a man, a revolutionary thought to Scarlett who had been reared in the tradition that men were omniscient and women none too bright.” She threw off social conventions. She was a rebel that only looked out for number one.

The parallel character to Scarlett is Melanie Wilkes. Melanie is sweet, gentile, and can only see the good in people. She loves Scarlett unreservedly, though Scarlett does not deserve it. Scarlett saved her live, fed her when everyone was starving, but only took care of Melanie because she was trying to steal her husband Ashley. Melanie is a truly good person and a beautiful character.

Ashley Wilkes. The love story of the book is a story of a love triangle. Scarlett loves Ashley. She can’t have him. Ashley loves Melanie and though he professes his love for Scarlett, his honor would never let him leave Melanie. Melanie and Ashley are both alike. Two peas in a pod. They are symbols of the old South, of gentility and honor. Scarlett wants him because she doesn’t understand him. It isn’t until she can actually have him that she realizes that he was just a fantasy. Ashley is weak and Scarlett can’t abide weakness.

And who is the 3rd corner of this love triangle? One of the most dashing characters ever. Rhett Butler. Ah, Rhett Butler. A girl’s dream, a mother’s nightmare. Rhett Butler is a rogue. He is a blockade runner during the war, a profiteer during the reconstruction, a frequenter of bars and brothels, and is generally swarthy like a pirate. He is rich and from a good family (which has disowned him) and lives his life the way he wants, tossing off social conventions left and right. The only person he truly respects is Melanie. However, the one he loves is Scarlett. He loves her for all the reasons that are considered bad and unlady-like by everyone else. He loves that she is selfish, fiery, unconcerned by taboo, and only concerned with acquiring wealth so that she will never have to want for anything. Oh, and Scarlett is a looker.

Rhett wants Scarlett. Scarlett wants Ashley. Ashley loves Melanie but wants Scarlett, but will never take her. It is a sordid love story.

Scarlett eventually marries Rhett (husband 3) but still pines for Ashley. It is agonizing to see this play out. Scarlett and Rhett are just alike. They are perfect for each other, but she is too blind to see it. The turmoil and tension of the triangle is unbelievable. It lasts years. Opportunities for happiness are dashed and confused again and again because of pride, bad timing, or honor. Rhett says at one point, “You’re so brutal to those who love you, Scarlett. You take their love and hold it over their heads like a whip.”

Despite her many romances and loves, Scarlett’s only real love is for Tara, her plantation home. The home built by her father. Early on in the novel, Gerald, her father, tells young Scarlett that “‘Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for ’tis the only thing in this world that lasts”. It isn’t until much later in life that Scarlett realizes the truth of the statement. Rhett mocks her attachment to the land, chocking it up to her Irish heritage. But for Scarlett, Tara is not just home, but a place of rejuvenation, something worth fighting for, worth dying for. It is an oasis in her world of chaos.

I’m amazed that a movie could capture so much of so huge a novel, but the classic film does a fine job of it. There are a number of omissions, most noticably her first two children, and the movie is prettier at times than the book. For example, when Scarlett utters the “never go hungry” line in the movie, she is working hard in the field. However, in the book, when she utters it, she is half starved, hungover, and laying on the ground behind the slave cabins after just vomiting up the first thing she has eaten in days. The movie is beautiful and well worth the watch, but the book has a much darker and more personal telling of the story.

This has become an epic post for an epic book, so I’ll wrap up. I’m glad that I read this book again as an adult. It is one of the best written novels that I’ve ever read. The descriptions of Tara are beautiful, of the war they are dark and brutal, and the characters are so well developed that they seem like real, complete people. Margaret Mitchell’s novel is a treasure in the vault of American literature and I think it deserves a revival of readers.