From the Bookshelf of Classics for Beginners…

Gone with the Wind

Margaret Mitchell

Start date: July 1, 2014

Finish date: September 30, 2014

Discussion: Tri-monthly Read

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Tri-monthly Read

* Ulysses (July-September 2016 Tri-monthly Read): Part II: The Odyssey, Episodes 4-9
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What Members Thought

Aug 01, 2011 ☯Emily Ginder rated it it was ok

Shelves: classics

I had rated this book 5 Stars before this last read. I gave it that based on the fact that I had read it in high school and finished it in five days.

However, this time I rate the book with 2 stars because, as an adult with historical knowledge and more consciousness of racial injustice, I realized this book is pure propaganda. What a contrast to reading Uncle Tom's Cabin!

According to Margaret Mitchell, slaves were child-like and loved to be slaves. No slave was misused or abused, but all were tr I had rated this book 5 Stars before this last read. I gave it that based on the fact that I had read it in high school and finished it in five days.

However, this time I rate the book with 2 stars because, as an adult with historical knowledge and more consciousness of racial injustice, I realized this book is pure propaganda. What a contrast to reading Uncle Tom's Cabin!

According to Margaret Mitchell, slaves were child-like and loved to be slaves. No slave was misused or abused, but all were treated like one's favorite pet. Most facial descriptions of the slaves involved words like monkey, dog, or some other animal. After the Civil War, the good blacks were the ones who stayed with their former masters and helped out the family, while the bad blacks were the ones who wanted to vote, to be paid for their work, or the ones who decided to join the political world.

The book tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler from 1860-1872. She is first seen as a flirtatious 16 year old determined to have the one man who won't marry her, Ashley Wilkes. It ends 12 years later when Scarlett is finally able to marry Ashley, but then decides she doesn't want him. During those 12 years of active longing for Ashley, Scarlett's old life as the daughter of a plantation owner disappears in the Civil War. She becomes frightened when Atlanta is overrun with Northern soldiers. She leaves and goes back to Tara, her plantation, to find it in ruins. Scarlett is brave and obstinate. She saves the plantation from being burned when the Union Army comes through; she saves her family from starvation; she comes through the war and early Reconstruction period through hard work and scheming. She is determined never to be hungry again. She is determined to be rich. She meets her goals, but in the process she alienates most of her friends and all of her family.

Scarlett has to be one of the most unlikeable protagonist in literature. She is scheming, amoral and unlovable. She has no regard for others. She is out for numero uno and she doesn't care who she uses or steps on to get what she wants. One man loves her and understands her, but she is not interested, until she can't have him. That is part of Scarlett's problem. She wants what she can't have and if/when she gets it, she is no longer interested.

I hear people say that GWTW is their favorite book and Scarlett their favorite heroine. I have to ask myself why. How does one read propaganda with a degenerate heroine and proclaim it is their favorite book? ...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Sheila rated it it was amazing

Shelves: pulitzer-prize, boxalls-1001

Scarlett O'Hara is a very passionate character. She married a stranger to seek revenge against her ideal lover, Ashley Wilkes, because he loves another woman. She ruined her hands and hurt her back from bending too much to pick cotton that she might sell them for food to feed her family. When Rhett Butler was too casual or glib, she lied about her true feelings for him. When Scarlett demands more work, more money, or more involvement in matters important to her, she must get it or she will ruin ...more

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Aug 29, 2017 Parikhit rated it it was amazing

Shelves: america

Finally! And proudly I claim to have been swept off my feet by the hurricane that 'Gone with the Wind' is. For days I was in Georgia, in the vastness of its cultivation, farmlands, long-winded roads, the thriving town of Atlanta, civil war, the rise of Republicans, the collapse of slavery, witnessing history, privy to all the secrets, all the gossips, all the conversations, all the upheavals, emotional and physical and there is (one of the greatest) love stories of our times in the backdrop of a Finally! And proudly I claim to have been swept off my feet by the hurricane that 'Gone with the Wind' is. For days I was in Georgia, in the vastness of its cultivation, farmlands, long-winded roads, the thriving town of Atlanta, civil war, the rise of Republicans, the collapse of slavery, witnessing history, privy to all the secrets, all the gossips, all the conversations, all the upheavals, emotional and physical and there is (one of the greatest) love stories of our times in the backdrop of all of it!

The rambling narration, the events, description of everything small and big has always been my forte and 'Gone with the Wind' was so much more. I remember pausing so many times while reading to absorb, digest, assimilate all that was written not because its disconcerting to read but to reflect upon the occurrences in my own life, to juxtapose the happenings in the box with that of my life and ponder over them, look at all of it as an observer, to understand it better! There are the main protagonists and you have a love-hate relationship with them. Scarlet and Rhett are both selfish in their own ways, are stubborn, flawed, determined, steely, opportunists and precisely why they remain human and are not elevated to the stature demigods which would make it unreal otherwise! There is Melanie, Scarlet’s sister-in-law, Ashely, Mammy, Aunt Pitty, the Merriweathers, the Tarletons, and so many others, each distinct and distinctly contributing to this sagacious tale. I loved Melanie more than anyone. She was indeed 'one great lady', a pool of guidance, patience, happiness, unparalleled strength and someone who remained untainted throughout.

The book is so much more that what most think of it as a romantic affair. It deals with the complexities of relationships, knowing the ones who would silently bear your weight from the ones who wriggle off, appreciating what would actually make you happy, the idea of patriotism and morals, right from wrong.
So, to those calling this magnum opus a romance novel, shed your snobbish glasses and read the book for the sheer wonder that it is. ...more

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Jun 30, 2013 Keri rated it liked it

I liked the psychological insights in this book and the "unlikeable" main characters, but I was deeply disturbed by some of the racist attitudes in the book. I understand that the book is set in the Civil War South, so some racism is to be expected in the characters. This would be realistic, and, let's face it, the characters have a lot of other characteristics that are not too admirable. So what bothers me is not the attitudes of the characters but the fact that the narrator agrees with the neg ...more

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