Gone with the Wind
question
Symbolic Meaning Burning of Twelve Oaks and Survival of Tara
deleted member
Apr 25, 2013 09:11PM
I am listening to the Gone With the Wind OST and there is one track titled: "Twelve Oaks in Ruin/Scarlett Comes Home". Apparently the full music for this OST of the scenes are recorded in as one track. But I really suddenly realized that the scene where Scarlett found Twelve Oaks Burned down was an important one as well as the scene where they came home to Tara and were relif it was still standing.
I remember how worried and scared Scarlett was in the book when as she was returning to Tara after seeing Twelve Oaks burned down to the ground.
I didn't detect why Scarlett was crying and saying "Ashley I'm glad you're not here to see this" when I watched the movie adaptation years ago.
But the book cleared it up to me as it stated Scarlett loved Twelve Oaks even more than Tara for it had things that Tara did not have such as elegant columns.
So these two scenes have symbolic importance in the story.
What do you think they meant? My interpretation is that the Burning of Twelve Oaks represents the death of the Old South and was a foreshadowing what would happened to the Aristocracy of the Old South and the Gentlemen.
But the survival of Tara symbolically foreshadowed that Scarlett O'Hara would survive the New South and prosper. The book described it as in ruins when they came but fortunately it was still standing there. The Movie adds even more effects by adding some vines IIRC and burn parts.
This showed Scarlett's strength and how the Old Ways were dying. Only those who could adapt the new hardships (as represented by the mansion's dilapidated state) that came out of could hope to survive and perhaps even flourish under the new conditions. This is shown in the Movie when Rhett and Scarlett visited Tara after their honeymoon in New Orleans and Rhett promised Scarlett he'll spend all the money he could to not only repair Tara to its original state prior to the war but could even make it more beautiful than it ever was and told her in addition that the Red Earth of Tara is where she got all her strength from.
I remember how worried and scared Scarlett was in the book when as she was returning to Tara after seeing Twelve Oaks burned down to the ground.
I didn't detect why Scarlett was crying and saying "Ashley I'm glad you're not here to see this" when I watched the movie adaptation years ago.
But the book cleared it up to me as it stated Scarlett loved Twelve Oaks even more than Tara for it had things that Tara did not have such as elegant columns.
So these two scenes have symbolic importance in the story.
What do you think they meant? My interpretation is that the Burning of Twelve Oaks represents the death of the Old South and was a foreshadowing what would happened to the Aristocracy of the Old South and the Gentlemen.
But the survival of Tara symbolically foreshadowed that Scarlett O'Hara would survive the New South and prosper. The book described it as in ruins when they came but fortunately it was still standing there. The Movie adds even more effects by adding some vines IIRC and burn parts.
This showed Scarlett's strength and how the Old Ways were dying. Only those who could adapt the new hardships (as represented by the mansion's dilapidated state) that came out of could hope to survive and perhaps even flourish under the new conditions. This is shown in the Movie when Rhett and Scarlett visited Tara after their honeymoon in New Orleans and Rhett promised Scarlett he'll spend all the money he could to not only repair Tara to its original state prior to the war but could even make it more beautiful than it ever was and told her in addition that the Red Earth of Tara is where she got all her strength from.
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Very intriguing interpretation, Morte! And behind all that is the truth that Mitchell's ancestral home in Jonesboro (called very unimaginatively, "Rural Home") was one of those plantatations that did survive when so many others were destroyed. Yankee General Sherman swore to carve a path to the sea forty miles wide -- and he nearly accomplished it, one of the reasons that Georgia has so many fewer historic homes than other states. In the Atlanta area, we call Sherman the first uban renewal specialist.
I recall Tara survived because Gerald let the Yankees set up HQ there - the girls were sick upstairs and he let them in, otherwise they would have kicked out the sick girls and burned it down. It was only that reason that the house survived. I saw this as foreshadowing that Scarlett will work with the Yankees to survive, as she does in her lumberyard and with her politics in Atlanta.
It's been awhile since I've read the book, so I don't recall a passage where it states Scarlett loved Twelve Oaks more than Tara. If you could point that out to me, I'd like to read that part again.
That being said, without reading to see that statement, I disagree that Scarlett loved Twelve Oaks more. I've always thought GWTW was a love story on many levels, including the love of home. When the soldiers start burning their way through Atlanta, Scarlett's No. 1 focus is going home to Tara because it represents everything she loved before everything in the south changed. And it is Scarlett who stays at Tara for awhile and keeps it up for the rest of her life.
So all I saw in this was the basic: she didn't want Ashley to see Twelve Oaks burning because it was his home. I'm not sure I lent much to this discussion, but I just always thought the concept of a love story about a home was interesting.
That being said, without reading to see that statement, I disagree that Scarlett loved Twelve Oaks more. I've always thought GWTW was a love story on many levels, including the love of home. When the soldiers start burning their way through Atlanta, Scarlett's No. 1 focus is going home to Tara because it represents everything she loved before everything in the south changed. And it is Scarlett who stays at Tara for awhile and keeps it up for the rest of her life.
So all I saw in this was the basic: she didn't want Ashley to see Twelve Oaks burning because it was his home. I'm not sure I lent much to this discussion, but I just always thought the concept of a love story about a home was interesting.
deleted user
"They topped the rise and the white house reared its perfect symmetry before her, tall of columns, wide of verandas, flat of roof, beautiful as a woma
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To be honest I've never thought of the symbolism in this topic. Yet, I think that it symbolisizes that Tara would survive the war and that the people in Tara would survive as well. Twelve Oaks burning shows that the wilkes' would not survive as well as Tara survived. I don't know if that makes any sense but that what I feel.
Remember when Scarlett read Melanie's letter from Ashley? Ashley spoke in depth of how he truly felt about the war and his feelings about Twelve Oaks and Georgia. Scarlett knew Twelve Oaks meant wonders to him, which is why she said that; she knew he would've been devastated at the sight of it burnt down and ruined. To me, the burning of Twelve Oaks was the sudden reality to Scarlett that her life would change forever. That her time in Atlanta was only the beginning and the worst was yet to come.
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