An outsider, another self-centered rogue and blockade-running realist, Rhett Butler, sees Scarlett for what she is—a grasping, insincere, trouble-maker, much like himself. She never succeeds. A still image from the film adaptation of the book depicting Rhett Butler as portrayed by actor Clark Gable The book paints an antebellum background that infuriates the guardians of the modern historical ethos: most of the slaves are both happy and loyal; the white overseer is a corrupt and violent carpetbagger, the Southern Cause was both impetuous and noble, but foolishly romantic and doomed from the start.
The novel, beside its soap-operaish love stories and romantic sub-plots, places the actors on a stage, that even in its most realistic passages, typically shows the lives of a tiny minority of the wealthiest class of Southerners.
It is meant to. Peggy Mitchell never intended to write a sociological treatise or demographically precise commentary on Southern society. Stereotypes resonate with readers.
Sherman, July-August The book is a story-telling masterpiece that appealed to a nation weary of shortages and troubles. It vividly describes the horror of war in Atlanta during the siege operations of Sherman, and the utter destruction visited upon the people and state at the end of the War. Besides, who doesn't love a good emotional roller coaster every once in a while?! Another epic story complete!
This was a very good one! I have read a few huge books in my life. Some are a struggle to get through and others are so captivating they read easier than a page novel. Gone With The Wind falls in the "captivating" category.
At no point was I bored with the story or wondering if it was ever going to end. I was fully invested every step of the way - invested to the point that my wife was amused that I spent a lot of time talking back to the book or exclaiming when something big or shocking happened.
Gone With The Wind was the complete experience. Before I go further, I will address the uncomfortable part of the book: the depiction of race, dialect, and other Civil War era activities in the South.
At times I felt like maybe I shouldn't be enjoying a book featuring a sympathetic view of the South or feeling bad for those who struggled in their losses to the North.
However, the story was really interesting and I have seen a lot of people from a wide variety of races give this book 5 stars, so I believe it is generally acceptable to enjoy it for what it is with an understanding of the time period it was written.
The writing: so great! How is it that Margaret Mitchell is only known for this book. I will have to look it up and see if she wrote any others. To write such a large book with a great story, symbolism, character development, etc. The story: I had seen the movie but was not sure if I should expect it to be the same seems like Hollywood used to stick closer to the source material than they do now.
From what I remember of the move, it is a pretty fair adaptation of the book. I thought the combination of fictional characters and events along side and intertwined with ones that actually occurred was very well done. Because of that I am sure this is a novel that historians enjoy as well.
The characters: Great character studies and development. Watching where everyone starts compared to where the finish was very interesting.
It is not often you get to go along on what seems like an almost daily journey with the characters from youth through adulthood. None of these characters have it easy. Seeing how each character handles the struggles of drastic life changes is the heart and soul of this book. Gone With The Wind lives up to its reputation as a classic.
Side note: finished this while in Greenville, South Carolina - pretty close to Atlanta. Seems appropriate! Hell yeah! I mean, everyone has the basic idea correct: the South took a tremendous thrashing. The stars all aligned and for the first time in a long time the general reading audience had it correct. GWTW is a remarkable, unique reading experience. You have enough time to live with the book, to form a relationship with it, to think about your future together It becomes an integral part of yourself… Now, what do we get on this journey that is sadly missing in its technicolored, titanic doppelganger?
The atrocities shown here of the war are not apt for a rated G film. The following questions are thoroughly answered In what way did Gerald O'Hara gain ownership of Tara?
What invisible connection exists between women and horses? How did the siege of Atlanta take place? Why Atlanta?
What is Southern hospitality, really? Priceless is the mentioning of several ostentatious Atlanta parties with only the Yankee army 22 miles away…! Priceless is the POV of the woman that stayed behind while all men are off to war…!
Priceless the interconnections between folks [of course the world population was nil back then! What is true sisterhood? What's Post-traumatic stress syndrome? The townships are fully described. GWTW has many protagonists, as they all add authenticity to the incredibly narrative. If there ever existed a valentine for a city in the elusive form of an epic historical romance, then it is this, for Atlanta!
Everyone, it seems, has fallen in love, which adds the hues of Romanticism to the epic Southern Myth. Too, there is sympathy for the devil, scorn for the overly dandified Yankees They desecrated graves! Raped, and pillaged! Missing from the silver screen? Frank Kennedy, also known as Mr. I will admit, GWTW is gee-wow! She turns from spoiled brat teen to fiery, materialistic bitch!!
In her brain is the constant battle to get Ashley Wilkes, to get Tara. These things, it seems, never change. Also, that Gotterdammerung, or, the dusk of the gods, the end of civilization, is apt to occur in our times, and soon: this is a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled…! One of my reading themes for is reading at least ten classic books. It seems only fitting that on the Fourth of July I completed Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, an epic masterpiece that many view as the definitive great American novel.
I feel that the two halves of the book mirror the southern United States before and after the Civil War. The first half of the book occurs primarily at Tara Plantation. We meet our main protagonist Scarlett O'Hara, the belle of the south, who epitomizes what life was like in the antebellum era: young, carefree, never having to lift a finger and having an entire plantation at her beck and call.
She never gave a thought to slavery, the confederate cause, or political matters because in the south that she knew, this was her way of life. Next, there is the fated barbecue at neighboring Twelve Oaks plantation. We meet mainstays Ashley and Melanie Wilkes who are to be married. Scarlett grew up with Ashley and desires him yet this is a teenage fantasy, unfortunately one that will plague her for the rest of her life. Witnessing her declaration of love for Ashley is the mysterious Rhett Butler, an unreceived gentleman with a past.
Instantly smitten with Scarlett's looks and personality, he begins a lifelong quest to have her as his own. And then the Great War hits and shatters all these dreams. Scarlett reduced to nothing rebuilds.
She is a modern woman who goes into business despite an entire city of Atlanta giving her nasty looks. She does this at the cost of her children's upbringing so she can rebuild Tara and her Atlanta life from the rubble of the war. Although many people in their reviews state that they dislike Scarlett and her selfish motives, I view her character with determination as she tried to better her place in society in order to leave her children with more than she started with. Mitchell is writing from a 20th century perspective and had witnessed the modern woman and inserts some of these modern traits into Scarlett.
Combine that with her Irish blood, and we have one of the most determined protagonists of all time. Of course as in any epic, we have a sketch of the time period. I learned much about the reconstruction south because growing up in the north, we only had what was in the history books. I knew the basics but not the intimate look at how southerners rebuilt following the war. There were two views to the new south- there was Ashley Wilkes who pined for Twelve Oaks and the way of life before the war and Rhett Butler who symbolizes the modern south and how Atlanta and the south rose again.
The second half of the book focuses on these two men and how they coped and succeeded in reconstruction, yet it all came back to Scarlett and which of the two paths she would choose, which man's dreams she would decide to follow. She was the only character who knew all the principal players for who they were, and held them together through good times and bad.
Whereas Scarlett was the new south, the new woman, Melanie was the south and the picture of the south I have always had- a strong woman, rallying soldiers, rallying for every cause after reconstruction, holding together an entire city, selfless. Even Scarlett with all her selfishness turned to Melanie in times of greatest need, even though Melanie is the one who viewed Scarlett as the pillar of strength.
And yet, both women were strength, Melanie in her antiquated ways and Scarlett as the new woman who would bring this country forward while still remembering Tara, where she came from. As I finish this epic on America's birthday I feel a sadness as I leave behind Mitchell's well drawn characters that earned her a Pulitzer Prize 80 years ago.
Scarlett's determination, Rhett's swarthy brashness, Ashley's love of time gone by, Melanie's heart. I look forward to seeing the epic film for the first time and witnessing Scarlett and Rhett and Tara on screen. I am glad I let myself be drawn into this slice of Americana from bygone eras, and believe that every American should attempt to read Mitchell's masterpiece at least once in their lives.
I received my copy of Gone With the Wind in and never got past the first 50 or pages in any of my annual attempts at this books until , at which point I decided to defeat the book one and for all. I want my time back. There was a reason I never before read past the first 50 or pages - Scarlet is a raging evil snarky miserable bitch and I hate her.
None of the other characters were particularly likable - ranging from sniveling, whiny sissies to evil, snarky assholes. None of these characters really expressed the complexities or debated the moral dilemmas involved in surviving the Civil War.
Scarlet was a whiny, conniving miserable human being and I don't give a crap if she "only did what she had to do as a woman. I disliked every single character and their miserable lives. But by God did it feel good when Rhett tells her "My dear, I don't give a damn" because neither do I.
PS: I am, in fact, allowed to dislike this book. You don't need to reply to my review by calling me names. I'm perfectly happy to hear about why you did like it, or why you didn't like it, but I'm tired of people coming to MY review and calling me names because I don't like this "classic" book. It's the literary equivalent of the Confederate Flag. Seriously, folks. You can just read this and disagree and then not say a single thing.
A for fuck's sake, don't come here and be an asshole to me if you don't like my review. Get the fuck off my lawn. And don't come here saying I want to ban or burn the book, like Nazis. I don't. You can read whatever you want. I don't believe in banning or burning books. I do believe this book is the Confederate flag of literature.
So much has been said in praise of this book it feels redundant to add more. In terms of the slave-holding society, the film actually toned-down the pro-South view of Reconstruction Scarlett's second husband joined the KKK in the book and Mammy remains probably one of the most fully-developed and likeable African-American characters from you'll read. Rhett Butler is the consummate alpha male.
This book is definitely the timeless classic reputation it has earned, and though at times it seemed like the longest book ever, it is all worth it in the end. It touches on many misunderstood aspects of the civil war and its afterwords.
What many people do not realize is how horrible it really was for Southerners after the war, mostly because they cannot get past the racism of the times which it wasn't as if the North was full of equality and peace, either. If you can accept the times for what they were, you will see how well this book was written. I appreciate it for the well built characters, smooth flow, and albeit romanticized- depiction of the Antebellum South.
As far as being politically incorrect or the modern charges that the book is "racist," remember that this book was written in the s. Not to mention, the time period is the Civil War era! You know her as Scarlett now, but for years, the heroine of Gone with the Wind was named Pansy.
It probably would have stayed that way had the publisher not requested a name change. Many people believe that Mitchell used her famous kin as the inspiration for Ashley Wilkes. That was also the tentative title. Though Gone with the Wind is a classic now, not everyone was a fan of the epic novel when it was released—and that includes critics. Among his criticisms :.
0コメント