Thoughts on Gone With The Wind after a second reading:

[Altair]

After having read “Gone With The Wind” for a second time I decided to write down my thoughts on the story and post them somewhere, so here they are:

First and foremost GWTW is a story about a young woman – Scarlet O’Hara. The story starts and ends with her. She is the only character who is indispensible to the story. It is about her feelings, her desires, her fears, her ambitions and her loves. More than any other character we are shown and we understand her emotions. To me this is the essence of the story and by far my greatest interest in it. Further she is not a passive woman. She makes things happen. She is strong and independent even at the beginning of the story and with time becomes more so. This is despite of or maybe because of the extreme difficulties she faces – both in regard to the war and to a culture than holds women to be submissive and incapable of great deeds. To me this is not a “Love Story” or even a “War Story” this is a “Woman’s Story.” The war and the men in her life are there to bring out her character.

Scarlet has faults as any fully rounded character has. These faults make her human and much more interesting. But she has determination and this is shown throughout. Jane Austen wrote, in regard to her story Emma “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” It’s easy for me to believe that Margaret Mitchell would have felt the same way about Scarlet. This is a story that shows that women can be intelligent, strong, determined and capable.

Second, to me the relationships that are most interesting are the ones between the women, in particular between Scarlet and Mammy and between Scarlet and Melody and not the relationships between Scarlet and the men in her life. The relationships between Scarlet and these women are complex, which is what makes them intriguing.

Third I feel that Margaret Mitchell was a fine writer. In particular her main characters, of each there are quite a number, are complex and even her minor characters are well defined. I also like her descriptions of the environment, the red fields surrounded by black pines, the buildings and streets of Atlanta, etc.

Fourth, I feel this story is neither pro-North nor pro-South, but anti-War. What I particularly see as being anti-war is that there are no actual scenes of battles. There are only the horrors of the aftermath of the battles, the horrors experienced by civilians and the short sightedness of those who ignorantly looked for glory in the war.

Fifth, I feel the story downplays the horrors and misery of slavery. Slaves, particularly slaves on big plantations were made to work very hard and this story would have it seem that they did so by being asked nicely.

Sixth, despite saying the above I feel that the story is not racist. This is for two reasons:

One, it is the white male southern planters that are portrayed in the worse way and with the most negative characteristic. These southern planters are portrayed, in many cases, as arrogant, short sighted, explosive, murderous, ignorant, dogmatic and immature. They are shown to have wanted a war, whether or not they could have seceded without one and they got the war that lead to all of the troubles of war and reconstruction that followed. They asked for the war and they got it. On other hand the slaves/ex-slaves: Mammy, Pork (after he started thinking for himself), Dilcey, Uncle Peter and Big Sam and are shown to be intelligent and capable and to display emotions that all humans have.

Two with the definition of racism being “a doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior” I don’t see the story as being racist. Most importantly Margaret Mitchell writes: “To the credit of the negroes, including the least intelligent of them, few were actuated by malice and those few had usually been “mean n******”even in slave days. But they were, as a class, childlike in mentality, easily led and from long habit accustomed to taking orders. Formerly their white masters had given the orders. Now they had a new set of masters . . .” (page 654 chapter 37). That is it was their experience as slaves that lead to their inabilities, not that they were black. This is an anti-racist idea.

Altair IV,

[Altair]

Margaret Mitchell is Scarlett and is Scarlett’s granddaughter. Of course I do not mean this literally, but figuratively.

Phillip Fitzgerald was one of Margaret Mitchell’s great grandfathers (her mother’s, mother’s, father). He was born in 1798 in Ireland, while Gerald O’Hara was born in Ireland and was 60 years old in 1861, so he was born approximately in 1801. At least one of Phillip’s brothers, according to family tradition, an older one, James Fitzgerald was already in Georgia when he sent for Phillip. James Fitzgerald owned a dry-goods store. In 1836 Phillip Fitzgerald purchased land “across the Flint River, five miles east of Fayetteville and about the same distance southwest of Jonesboro . . .” This would eventually become Phillip’s 1000 acre plantation. At the outbreak of the Civil War he “. . . owned at least thirty-four African-American slaves . . .” Being on the side of Flint River across (to the east) from Fayetteville, the site is in the current Clayton County. Clayton County was formed in 1858 and as far as I know with the boundaries of the current county. See here: http://tomitronics.com/old_buildings/.... The caption to the map at the following link is “Modern map of parts of Clayton and Fayette counties, with hatched overlay by author depicting the property that Philip Fitzgerald bought and/or sold before the Civil War. The star marks the original location of the Fitzgerald House in LL 145.” http://tomitronics.com/old_buildings/..., this shows that Phillip Fitzgerald’s plantation went to the banks of the Flint River.

This Phillip Fitzgerald married Elenor Aveline McGhan. Both Elenor and Ellen were born in Georgia with Elenor being born in 1818, while Ellen being 15 in 1844 was born in 1829. Both were significantly younger than their husbands with Elenor being 20 years younger than Phillip Fitzgerald and Ellen being 28 years younger than Gerald O’Hara.

Phillip and Elenor Fitzgerald had a daughter Annie Elizabeth Fitzgerald, born in 1844 in Orrs, Clayton, Georgia. As Scarlett was 16 years of age in 1861 she would have been born approximately in 1845. Annie married John Stephens and they had a daughter Mary Isabelle Stephens born in Atlanta in 1872 while Scarlett married Frank Kennedy and had a daughter Ella Lorena Kennedy who was also born in Atlanta approximately in 1866. Mary Stephens eventually gave birth to Margaret Mitchell. So, taking Phillip Fitzgerald as representing Gerald O’Hara, Elenor Fitzgerald as representing Ellen O’Hara, their daughter Annie Fitzgerald as representing Scarlett, her daughter Mary Isabelle as representing Ella Lorena, Margaret Mitchell would represent Scarlett’s granddaughter.

Now for names, of course all of the following could be coincidence, but on the other hand the author may have not wanted to use people’s real names, but still may have wanted to leave hints. First is Phillip Fitzgerald. The name Fitzgerald is Irish and means “son of Gerald.” This could have suggested Scarlett’s father’s name Gerald. Then there is Philippe Robillard, Ellen Robillard’s first and only love. Philippe is the French version of Phillip which is Phillip Fitzgerald’s first name. So, Phillip Fitzgerald’s name, may have supplied inspiration for both Philippe and for Gerald, Ellen’s love and Ellen’s husband.

Further the names Elenor, Annie Fitzgerald’s mother and Ellen, Scarlett O’Hara’s mother are similar, although Elenor Aveline McGhan does not seem to be French. We now come to Annie Elizabeth Fitzgerald, which does not seem connected to Scarlett O’Hara, but Annie, which I’ve seen spelled that way in two family trees, is similar to Pansy. Take off the “P” and the “s” from Pansy and we have something that sounds like Annie and Pansy was the original name for the character of Scarlett.

Here is a link to Margaret Mitchell’s family tree: https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Mi.... I plan to, in the future, post my thoughts on Margaret Mitchell “being” Scarlett.

Altair IV

[pooja]

Gone with the wind is just not a book for me.It advocated that warrior spirit I have as today's woman is not born because I have privileges of being born in a modern feminist world.This bold,beautiful,ambitious ,determined spirit was always there & hence Scarlet is my most favorite heroine.I love her,admire her and her story with Rhett Butler is so realistic and close to my heart .

I carve more of Gone with the Wind but alas ! there cannot be any other classic which I can love so dearly.

[Altair]

Pooja, thank you for your comment.

Altair IV,

[Megan]

Altair wrote: "After having read “Gone With The Wind” for a second time I decided to write down my thoughts on the story and post them somewhere, so here they are:

First and foremost GWTW is a story about a youn..."

Who's Melody? Do you mean Melanie?

[Altair]

Yes, Megan, I did mean Melanie. I also misspelled Scarlett I spelled it with one “t” instead of two. I don’t know how to edit the comments or I would change them. Thanks for letting me know.

Altair IV,