Should I Give a Damn? - Rethinking "Gone With the Wind"
"One of the reasons we lasted as long as we did is because of the ladies behind us who never gave up, who wouldn't give up."
- Margaret Mitchell - Gone With the Wind
A long and harrowing novel, Gone With the Wind still maintains a reputation for one of the greatest American novels ever written. The story captures a sense of white Southern hostilities that were more than just about race and a fight to end (or keep) slavery. In essence, the novel's undertones radiate a lesson in class division far more than it did skin color. In losing their slaves in the midst of war, most of Scarlett O'Hara's class lost their air of moral superiority and bragadocious wealth that later pushed them down as low to poverty as their slaves once were.
Scarlett's bitterness shown in the book over resenting taking over hard work makes up the basis of the novel. At first, she floats in naïve denial about the harsh realities of Southern politics. Yet once it hits home and detracts from her lifestyle, her interest in the 'cause' suddenly piques. Her own selfish interest, that is. Gone With the Wind is a voluptuous book that romanticizes an old view of the South that not a single one of us was alive to see. It is vividly rich in glistening setting, description of costume, proper mannerisms and memorable characters who write an escape off of the page in a way that even Vivien Leigh never did!
With over 1037 pages published in 1936, how many of you can brag that you made it through this tank of a novel? Now that is something for your New Year's do or die list.
