Margaret Mitchell
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Total reviews: 27
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
This is More Than Five (5) Stars [24][26][36] 5 out of 5 stars.
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Margaret Mitchell's requiem of the South succeeds to embrace both the reader and her topic because of the tremendous blend of themes which resound throughout this masterful novel.
First, she introduces us to the concept of peace versus war: "All wars are sacred, to those who have to fight them. If the people who started them did not make wars sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight?" And, of course business pragmatist Rhett Butler concludes, "All wars are in realty money squabbles. But so few people ever realize it. Their ears are too full of bugles and drums . . . " This dialogue of sanctity of war versus business pragmatism constantly resounds in the book.
Secondly, is how men treat other men. And, within this theme are numerous subtopics. The most obvious is the North versus the South. "Arrogance and callousness for the conquerors, bitter endurance and hatred for the conquered." When you start a war - know that at the end you still have an enemy, and that enemy's feelings toward you may be stronger and more bitter! The other obvious theme is white versus black. Slavery versus freedom for the "darkies." And, although that serfdom appears to symbiotically exist in the Camelot of the Georgian south, Ashley Wilkes tells Scarlett O'Hara at one time that had there been no war and had his father died with slavery still intact, he would have freed his slaves as his methodically conceived logical conclusion was to do the right thing : free men.
Ashley Wilkes, who displays another great theme of old antebellum South's gentlemen in the new world of the Reconstruction South, is both hero and goat. Rhett Butler always tells Scarlett that Ashley's days of importance ended when his environs were burnt to ashes at the war's end. She never agrees, at least until the end. And, while she disagrees with Rhett about Ashley, they gang up on her on yet another masterful man versus man theme: employment of convict labor. Treated worse than slaves, convicts are the backbone to cheap labor after the war. But, for their hard work they are beaten and fed little and paid less. Ashley, in her post-starvation period, will do almost everything to avoid experiencing hunger again - including hiring white northerners to be her conscripted laborers.
Thirdly, we learn about truth versus appearance. Rhett and most of the old South depict the wonderment of southern civility - never say a bad thing about anyone, and always show respect and manners to those about you. This applies to many slaves as well. Ashley and his wife, Melanie (Melly), are embodiments of such gentile mannerisms. Scarlett's mother Ellen was another. Scarlett's father, Gerald O'Hara, and Scarlett are not. But, Scarlett and her father were truthful. The Irish in father and daughter refused to fub, they refused to be concerned about the foderol scurried about by gossip - holding such lack of care when the idle gossip festered to outright defamatory lies. Rhett, who loves the lack of deception in Scarlett's character, often criticizes his peers for their hypocrisy. Rhett admits to engaging in the same for purposes of business; but, as a man he refuses to be known as another who says what he does not mean. But, Rhett, as time progresses in the book, succumbs to the gossip and engages in the very hypocrisy he despises.
Fourthly, the issue of uneven playing field resounds. Rich versus poor. Slave owner versus slave. Business owner versus convict labor. South versus North. And, hidden within these themes is Mitchell's greatest announcement: feminism. Scarlett who owns businesses after the war, is criticized by all men and societal women for engaging in a man's world. Even with her success, she is snubbed by the hob nob crowd. But, perhaps greatest in this theme is the concept of men having rights which women cannot. Rhett gallivants with the local prostitute Belle without concern, while one emotional hug held by life-long friends and neighbors Scarlett and Ashley is identified as "adultery." When Rhett confronts her about this, Scarlett retaliates, "You are nothing but a drunken beast who's been with bad women so long that you can't understand anything else but badness. You've lived in dirt too long to know anything else. You are jealous of something you can't understand. Good night."
Other themes also exist: building versus destroying; growing up versus growing old; Catholics versus Christians; love for family versus love for spouses; raising children versus burying children . . .
As these themes ebb and flow and occasionally eddy in this ocean-sized novel, the characters' personalities grow and become embodiments of many stereotypical Southern mainstays. And, to add to the characters, Mitchell uses incredibly detailed phonetic spellings for the crackers' and slaves' dialogues. Her detailed description of people's clothing and household interiors (and exteriors) brand indelible images into the readers' minds. This is writing!
Mitchell, whose own life is a mixture of angelic Melly and defiant Scarlett, had three marriages and worked (as a journalist) in a man's world. She knew that her publication would be much more difficult than a man's work - especially one of such largess. But, like Scarlett, she persevered and triumphed. Mitchell's name remains among the most known in the American literary world - not bad for a small girl from Atlanta.
So many passages of this book flow with delicate prose that make it an incredibly easy 960-page read. In Pat Conroy's preface, that great southern writer states, "This is The Illiad with a Southern accent, burning with the humiliation of Reconstruction. . . Gone with the Wind was not just a book, it was an answer, a clenched fist raised to the North, an anthem of defiance. If you could not defeat the Yankees on the battlefield, then by God, one of your women could rise from the ashes of humiliation to write more powerfully than the enemy and all the historians and novelists who sang the praises of the Union."
Editorial Review:
Margaret Mitchell's epic novel of love and war won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to give rise to two authorized sequels and one of the most popular and celebrated movies of all time. Many novels have been written about the Civil War and its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of our lives.
In the two main characters, the white-shouldered, irresistible Scarlett and the flashy, contemptuous Rhett, Margaret Mitchell not only conveyed a timeless story of survival under the harshest of circumstances, she also created two of the most famous lovers in the English-speaking world since Romeo and Juliet.
