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Gone With The Wind: Part 5
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Sara W
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Jun 30, 2009 07:03PM
Please discuss Part Five: Chapters 48 - End here.
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All through the book I've looked forward to when Rhett and Scarlett finally marry. I remembered it being a bit tragic, of course, but I was still excited.Now that I'm here I'm finding it heartbreaking.
Scarlett is so self destructive, it's horrible to watch. I want to scream and cry and shake her.
I remember now why I was so desperate to read a sequel - even something as silly as Ripley's Scarlett. I was just aching for a happy ending.
I've been tearing through this book the last few days, trying to get it finished so I could move on to The Conqueror - but now that I'm within 50 pages of the end, I don't want to get there!
Scarlett is going home to Tara - where she always runs to heal her wounds. Too bad I know this time won't make much difference.
I totally agree with you Mandy (even though I am not reading along with the group I have read this book 3 or 4 times over the years). And, every time I read the book I found myself so frustrated that Scarlett could not snap out of it! Just like you said, I want to shake her and slap her, with some dramatic old move style, across each cheek a couple of times until she gives up on Ashley. She seems to be determined to ruin what she has with Rhett. It is almost painful to read the storyline. If I could reach into the book I would and smack some sense into that stubborn Georgia Peach.
I finished it. It was as tragic as I remembered.Poor Rhett...I would make it all better for him...
:)
Off to the completed thread!
Her ridiculous determination to stick to her "love" of Ashley is annoying. I felt "Scarlett" was at least better than the recent "sequel" that came out. "Rhett Butler's People" was HORRIBLE.
Robin wrote: I felt "Scarlett" was at least better than the recent "sequel" that came out. "Rhett Butler's People" was HORRIBLE."Oh, I agree. I didn't even finish it and very very glad I gave up. I hear he ruined Melanie.
It's been fun watching you re-reading this book as I did a couple of years ago. You're reacting as I did, it's quite a different book to experience when we're all grown up then as a young teen isn't it? Same as I had with Jane Eyre and Wutherine Heights.
Oh y'all are so unkind to Scarlett, ah do declare.Seriously though, I do think that due consideration should be given to Scarlett's essential aloneness. She was early encouraged to be the complete Southern belle, which she did to perfection, even though it was at war with her essential nature, which was hard headed and practical. Loving Ashley was part of this divided inhereitance really, he was the male representation of all she had been taught to find good , her mother being the female aspect .
Then when it all fell apart, and the whole of her and the South's way of life with it, it was kind of the only thing she had left,and a sort of promise that all could be well again. It might seem 'ridiculous' and 'annoying' now, but given the period, more understandable don't you think?
Rhett encouraged her to let loose the real her, the go-getting, not very scrupulous side but this was an enormous risk for her to take and she was extremely ill thought of for it - Melanie being the only person wise and kind enough to see what Scarlett had to do to keep it all together. I think Melanie always knew that Scarlett loved Ashley, but Melanie's essential goodness keeps her from seeing just how much and in what way. Scarlett only dimly understands Melanie and needs to keep telling herself that Melanie is weak and silly etc etc of course.
I agree with everybody that she was a complete fool regarding Rhett, but she was so young and pretty damaged and had undergone a great deal- he was so much older and more worldly and was, most importantly, a man in a man's world. Scarlett, like any woman attempting to push the envelope of female behaviour was very much more vulnerable. Probably the precipitating feature of final tragedy was that she was unmaternal, no one could forgive her that. Certainly not Rhett, despite his exhortations to her to forgo everything else inconvenient.
Oh dear , all so sad. The human pain angle remains the same somehow , on every time of reading , unlike the really hard-to-read KKK and reconstruction stuff and the excruciating stuff on the nature of 'darkies ' etc
Ok, it's all over...sigh,, will she ever get him back ( Rhett of course) or will she be saddled with Ashley and his dreams of the past and of Melanie...How did you all cope with the death of Bonnie and it's terrible aftermath? I can't help thinking she would have been the MOST obnoxious child, however, but once Scarlett had accused Rhett of killing her with his pride ,well I don't know how they'd ever get back from that..............
I agree with all the comments here. I'm at the point where Bonnie is born, and it's just been painful so far to read! I hate seeing the road Scarlett is on and her almost complete disregard for Rhett. When I read it the first time, I don't think I picked up on all the sly looks Rhett gave her and how he put on a blank face whenever she would catch him looking at her - it is heartbreaking. Scarlett seems so focused on having a good time and spending money like there's no tomorrow, that I don't feel she would really care for Rhett at this point even if Ashley wasn't around. I definitely understand the points Barbara makes; I think I'm just a little shocked because as a teen I LOVED Scarlett and didn't see any of her faults or flaws, and this time around I'm seeing them. I had a huge poster of Scarlett on my wall as a teen (which is probably still there in my parents house). My best friend had the same poster on her wall - we idolized Scarlett! I still LOVE this book, but I love Rhett and Melanie and Mammy more than I love Scarlett this time through.I'm like Mandy as well - now that I'm getting towards the end, I really want to pick up Scarlett by Ripley just to keep the story going and to get my happy ending! I'm anxious to start The Conqueror though, so Scarlett may have to wait. I have Rhett Butler's People but am a little scared to give it any of my time (especially after what someone posted in another thread about Bonnie's death barely being mentioned - that seems absolutely insane considering how much Rhett loved that child).
I'm like Mandy as well - now that I'm getting towards the end, I really want to pick up Scarlett by Ripley just to keep the story going and to get my happy ending! I'm anxious to start The Conqueror though, so Scarlett may have to wait. I have Rhett Butler's People but am a little scared to give it any of my time (especially after what someone posted in another thread about Bonnie's death barely being mentioned - that seems absolutely insane considering how much Rhett loved that child).I hated "Rhett Butler's People." The reader is told NOT to look at it as a sequel that fits with "Scarlett" because it is it's OWN sequel that has nothing to do with what Ripley wrote. "Scarlett" was MUCH better than this one though (not that "Scarlett" was near as good as GWTW, but it was much more interesting to read than RBP). The things that are skipped over (Bonnie's death), the weird twists the author throws in, almost recreating character we know and love (really...would Melanie really have written in a letter to Rhett's sister that she WANTS to have intimate relations with Ashley???). It was just horrible.
I'm with Robin, although I maybe made it to 100 pages before it hit the wall with a resounding thud. What ticked me off is the way the author rewrote scenes from GWTW and put his new characters in them. From reading reviews on Amazon I understand he really screwed up Melanie's character and had her doing things that we all know our Melly would never ever do. I considered reading Ripley's sequel, but then I took a real close look at the one and two star reviews on Amazon and decided it was best to just leave the story as Mitchell wanted it left.
