If you’re here, it means you survived both the emotional rollercoaster and this very long readalong…and I’m so excited to have finished the book in the presence of such great discussion and input! 

Congrats to Diane, who won a copy of the movie adaptation of Gone With the Wind. For this week, I will be giving away a signed copy of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind by Ellen Firsching Brown and John Wiley (our last winner was unable to claim her prize, which means one more lucky winner!). 

Part 5

I have been reading GWTW in a cheap paperback edition this time and seeing familiar words in unfamiliar type on strangely-sized pages has given me a bit of new perspective on the book.  This time around (after countless readings), I was surprised at how bleak Part 5 is and how quickly it read.  Of course, it is well known that Margaret Mitchell wrote the book’s famously dramatic and ambiguous conclusion first, and indeed it seems the most to the point section of the book.  The vividness of history fades a bit as we focus more closely on the characters and their various (tragic, bitter, unsatisfying) resolutions. What follows is a hodgepodge of impressions as the book closes: 

Though this section lacks the virulent racism of Part 4, there are a few passages that still shock with their WTFness, particularly the passage in which Rhett and Ashley team up to obliterate the Klan in Georgia (???).  I found this surprising and kind of random. 

Ashley comes off as even lower and lamer in this section…his complaints about Rhett’s supposed debasement of Scarlett were so misguided and inappropriate that I almost threw the book across the room.  I did relish the portion in which Scarlett, aware at last of his milquetoast non-appeal, realizes that he will be nothing but another child to raise to her in the future. 

Mitchell is even more overt about the parallels between Rhett and Ashley in this portion.  So why do I love Rhett so much more?   

I actually think the first moment of maturity in Scarlett can be seen in her interaction with Ashley before the scandal breaks. 

Um, can we please discuss Scarlett and Rhett’s hot-n-heavy night?  Rape or just hot power-play sex?  Does it really take this total break from propriety to awaken Scarlett to her own sexuality?  How is it possible for her to not understand Rhett’s feelings toward her at this point (um, aside from him possibly raping her)?

Surprisingly to me, Scarlett’s miscarriage and subsequent estrangement from Rhett was far more painful and bleak than Bonnie’s death.  The events that follow are a quite agonizing litany of bad news, and a great example of an author putting her characters through their paces.  As I read, I felt laden down with care and worry and kind of numb and dissociative, like Scarlett.  But, as Mammy points out, Scarlett can bear what she is given to bear, however disgracefully.  I wonder if that might not be the secret of her long-term appeal and durability as a literary character…she survives even savvy and ironic Rhett. 

Melanie’s death seemed rushed to me this time (I mean, in addition to being a total shock anyway).  I noticed this time that MM teases us with a few passages from Melanie’s perspective before killing her off. 

Scarlett’s real dissociation and brokenness is revealed in this section.  She reminds me of the alcoholic who must bottom out in such shame and loss that she loses all before she begins to recover.  But I am still unconvinced of her ability to move forward with the knowledge she has gained. 

It strikes me that Rhett is as well-drawn as Scarlett, and I am constantly amused and surprised by the greatness of MM’s character development and illustration. 

The parting between Rhett and Scarlett…I found myself surprised at his showing his age so severely and pained at the agony he had obviously endured.  But, as has happened the last few times I have read this book, the part that brought tears to my eyes was Scarlett’s revelation that a man who has done what Rhett has done must have loved to distraction. 

All in all, the end of this book always impresses me with its greatness…its gravity, humor, insight into human nature, pitiful portrayal of a broken woman, and magnum opus style juggling of history and personal story. 

Discussion Prompts

Feel free to respond to some of these questions to get the discussion going. There’s no right or wrong answer!

Thoughts on Part 5? 

Tara: Will Tara help or heal now that Scarlett has lost everything?  

Family:  Scarlett seems relatively disconnected from her blood family in this portion (granted, many of them have died), but this section deals heavily with the family feud between Melanie and India in a way that draws attention to the complex and extended ideas of family in post-war Georgia. 

Sex: …yeah.  Please discuss That Night, its repercussions, inappropriate/appropriateness, and anything else that crosses your mind.  The parallels drawn between Scarlett and Belle were particularly interesting this time ’round.

The little details: I loved the Wade-ness in Part 5, along with the descriptions of Scarlett’s ridiculously overt abode. 

Minor Characters:  Many side stories are wrapped up in this portion, though “new people” are also introduced (and quickly dispensed with).  Who did you love and loathe? 

The End:  How did you like the book, in totum?  What do you think happens to Scarlett and Rhett?  (This time around I noticed that he promised to come back on occasion to maintain respectability…that roguish Mitchell!)  What are your final thoughts? 

Before We Get Started…

A cartoon image of the hated carpetbagger.

First of all, congrats to Risa, who won an autographed copy of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey!  This week’s giveaway is a fun one:  a DVD or Blu-Ray of Gone With the Wind! 

Our next and final segment will be October 17, when we will discuss Part 5 (Chapters 48-63). 

Part 4

I have struggled over this section of Gone With the Wind for a few reasons…first of all, it’s LONG and dense and packed.  Secondly, it’s just plain traumatic.  Finally, it’s full of WTF material that I have found especially problematic this time around.  

I feel like Mitchell really ups the ante in this section.  Like any good writer, she isn’t content to let her characters suffer a few bumps on the road…it’s all suffering, all the time for our heroine, who must confront, among other things, a total moral collapse, the reality that even though Ashley overtly wants to get it on with her, he will never do so, humiliation, yet another loveless marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, the death of a parent, an attempted rape, public censure due to acting “unwomanly” to secure financial viability, the death of a husband which is blamed on her, AND another marriage.  Yeah.  That’s a lifetime of trauma and drama, don’tcha think?  

Instead of summarizing the chapters individually this time, I am going to draw out my personal WTF moments from this section and add some context to each.  Feel free to add your own or weigh in on the other questions below.  

WTF, Ashley?

Ashley’s behavior in this section really stood out for me.  We get a way better view of him as a character, and I’m not liking what I see.  His conduct in the orchard scene aside (who could resist Scarlett at the height of her, er, convincing powers?), he is just wilting on the vine.  He could have prevented Scarlett from going to Atlanta, though I am not convinced he’s responsible for her conduct.  The most surprising moment for me was one I seem to have missed all the other times I’ve read this book:  the moment in which he basically tells Scarlett that he is afraid he will break down and have sex with her if he moves to Atlanta:  “Then you are surer of yourself than I am.  I could not count on myself to keep such a promise.  I should not have said that but I had to make you understand.”  WHISKEY. TANGO. FOXTROT!!!

Atlanta during Reconstruction.

WTF, Scarlett? 

Okay, the point is probably moot, but Scarlett goes to great lengths in this section of the book.  She becomes willing to prostitute herself to Rhett over the taxes.  She steals Suellen (I will spare you my WTF, Suellen? moment)’s beau and makes him wretched.  She seems determined to bring everyone down with her.  She sinks into alcoholism while pregnant.  There’s really not a lot this woman will not do when her livelihood is threatened.  Which brings me to…

WTF, Rhett?

Killing an uppity black person and a Yankee cavalryman and bragging about them to Scarlett?  The mind.  It boggles.  I will say that MM’s mastery shows through in her masterful handling of this roguish, hard-to-handle character. 

WTF, Margaret Mitchell? 

This is the part that’s really hard to bear….my total torn feelings when it comes to Margaret Mitchell’s handling of Reconstruction and racial issues in this section of the book.  While I do think there is nuance in some of her black characters (Mammy, Uncle Peter, and Pork all show interesting sides of themselves and are portrayed as human in sections), I can’t overlook her use of words like “savage,” “ape,” and “Affikuns” to refer to black characters, much less her liberal use of the n-word to define a certain type of lackadaisical, useless and “trashy” black person. 

"The Wind Done Gone" is one of the most famous statements on racism in GWTW.

When combined with the fact that apparently all male characters in the book are part of the Ku Klux Klan (and are portrayed as neutral if not good for their actions) and that the real terror of Reconstruction was the Yankees’ ability to convince black people that they were more valuable than they were, I am at a total loss.  On the other hand, perhaps she can be seen as writing the book from an 1865 Southern perspective?  Perhaps we need to examine the negative effects of Reconstruction with the same scrutiny we might give, say, post-WWI Germany? How do we reconcile this subject matter in a book that is so sensitively handled in parts? 

I want to open up the conversation on these topics, because the book must be examined from today’s perspectives regardless of the time in which it was written.  Here are a few articles as food for thought: 

• The Problem With Gone With the Wind (Justine Larbalestier)
• Racial Illiteracy and Gone With the Wind
• Gone With the Wind and Hollywood’s Racial Politics (The Atlantic)
• Gone With the Wind Shouldn’t Be Romanticized (deals in part with the film and its portrayal of black characters)
• Gone With the Wind Turns 75, and Shows Its Age
• A call for papers I wish I had known about…I’ll be looking for conference details this November.
• If you’re looking for actual historical coverage of Southern Reconstruction, you could do way worse than this series of video lectures by Yale University’s David W. Blight. 

Discussion Prompts

Feel free to respond to some of these questions to get the discussion going. There’s no right or wrong answer!

Thoughts on Part 4? 

Tara: Scarlett is even more connected to Tara in this section.  What does Tara represent now that Gerald has died? 

Trauma: The trauma continues!  How do the characters deal with trauma? 

Sex: From unconsummated passions to near-prostitution, sex and childbirth are still in the forefront of this book.  I love the part where Mammy is curious about Belle Watling.  What sexual themes caught your attention? 

The little details: More details…which ones stood out?

Minor Characters:  One of Mitchell’s real coups, in my opinion, is the way in which minor characters live and breathe.  Who did you love and loathe?  

Before We Get Started | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Discussion Prompts

Before We Get Started…

A Civil War-era nurse (hopefully a bit more merciful than Scarlett!)

Huge question…are we going too slowly? When you respond, please let me know and I will weigh the options. Right now we are scheduled to discuss Part 4 (Chapters 31-47) on Monday, September 26, but if the consensus is that we are going too slowly, I will move it up a week. Let me know!

Secondly, thanks to the many people (too many to count) who have responded and participated thus far. What an amazing group! Congratulations to Sarah Williams, who won a copy of The Authentic South of Gone With the Wind! This week’s prize is a signed copy of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey, by the incomparable Ellen F. Brown and John Wiley. This book is as fascinating as GWTW itself and belongs on any fan’s bookshelf…thanks, Ellen and John, for donating a copy!  I’ll choose a random commenter before the next week’s installment. 

Part 3

Things really pick up in this section…and this time, just to change things up, I’m going to summarize each chapter with a notable quote.

Chapter 17

“I won’t go back to the hospital if they hang me! My goodness, I didn’t start this war and I don’t see any reason why I should be worked to death and–”

Scarlett ditches her hospital duties, sees slaves from Tara, and faces the idea of a siege in Atlanta.  Read more about The Atlanta Campaign.

Comment to win a signed copy of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind!

Chapter 18

“Good heavens, Miss Pitty! This is war time. We can’t think of the proprieties now. We must think of Miss Melly.”

Pitty ditches Scarlett and Scarlett faces the idea of delivering Melly’s baby in Atlanta. More information about Civil War-era maternity and pregnancy.

Chapter 19

Dear,” he said quietly, “I am complimenting your intelligence by asking you to be my mistress without having first seduced you.”

Rhett makes Scarlett an indecent proposal in what has got to be one of the sexiest moments in non-explicit literature.  For an idea of just how inappropriate/unheard-of his proposal was, check out this description of courtship rituals in the antebellum South.

Chapter 20

“If I should die, will you take my baby?”

Melly enters labor pains in a hushed, humid Atlanta.

Chapter 21

“Fo’ Gawd, Miss Scarlett! We’s got ter have a doctah. Ah — Ah — Miss Scarlett, Ah doan know nuthin’ ’bout bringin’ babies.”

Scarlett visits the railroad depot to find Doctor Meade and must face the fact that Melly’s baby will be brought by her and Prissy’s inexpert hands.  Railroad depot, 1864.

Chapter 22

“Yes, Ma’am. You see, the Yankees are coming.”

The baby is brought, and it’s time to escape! The baby boy delivered, Scarlett sends Prissy to find Captain Butler.

Chapter 23

“I will go home!” she cried. “I will! I will!”

Scarlett ropes Captain Butler into escorting her, Melly, Wade, Prissy and the baby out of Atlanta…he obliges, to a point, and leaves her on the road to Rough and Ready after a breathtaking declaration.  What about the people who stayed in Atlanta?  Some of them camped out in “bombproofs” to escape bombardment.

Chapter 24

The Burning of Atlanta - Harper's Weekly

“Just a few more steps,” hummed her brain, over and over, “just a few more steps for to tote the weary load.”

Scarlett makes it to Tara…only to find utter devastation.  “Tote the weary load” is a lyric from My Old Kentucky Home, which Rhett sings with Scarlett, and was considered by MM as a potential book title.

Chapter 25

“If I have to steal or kill — as God is my witness, I’m never going to be hungry again.”

Scarlett awakens to assess the wreckage of Tara and her life and resolves that the family plantation is worth fighting for.

Chapter 26

She had killed a man, she who took care never to be in at the kill on a hunt, she who could not bear the squealing of a hog at slaughter or the squeak of a rabbit in a snare. Murder! she thought dully. I’ve done murder. Oh, this can’t be happening to me!

Scarlett kills a Yankee deserter…and is helped by an unlikely ally. And on a visit to Grandma Fontaine, she learns that facing the worst that can happen can change a woman. Fascinating article on desertion in the Rebel and Yankee ranks.

Chapter 27

“Be a little man, Wade. They’re only a passel of damn Yankees.”

Yankees return to Tara and burn what they don’t take. Melanie saves Scarlett, who must admit that she’s good in a pinch.  Slave perspectives post-Civil War explained, briefly.

Chapter 28

“Daytime is enough like a nightmare without my dreaming things.”

Scarlett encounters a recurring dream about hunger, and entertains Frank Kennedy over Christmas.  First-hand accounts of the surrender at Appomattox.

Dead horse on Civil War battlefield. To give you an idea of the devastation, it is estimated that 50% of all horses in Arkansas died during the Civil War.

Chapter 29

“Melly,” she said, “What’s going to happen to Southern girls?”

The war is over, and the neighbors respond.  Fascinating portrait of Civil War widows.

Chapter 30

“After all, he’s her husband, ain’t he?”

Will Benteen comes to Tara…and Ashley returns to Melanie.

Discussion Prompts

Feel free to respond to some of these questions to get the discussion going. There’s no right or wrong answer!

Thoughts on Part 3? It is rumored that Margaret Mitchell wrote this entire section in one big chunk, and it certainly reads that way. I can very well remember looking up after reading this section for the first time and being amazed that it wasn’t a sultry summer’s evening.

Siege: The war finally in her backyard, Scarlett is forced to flee. What does the war do to Scarlett? What about her renewed love of Tara?

Trauma:This is probably one of the more traumatic sections of the book. How did the trauma affect you, the reader? What do you make of the nightmarish quality of this section? How does trauma affect the characters?

Slavery: MM’s portrayal of Prissy is controversial at best. What do you think of Prissy and the other slave characters in this section?

Sex: Talk about sexy…Rhett finally declares himself in infuriating fashion. What do you make of it? And what do you make of Scarlett’s terror of childbirth even though she herself has a child?

The little details: More details…which ones stood out?

Minor Characters: The neighbors and the slaves are back…which ones did you love/hate/wonder about?

Before We Get Started | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Discussion Prompts

Before We Get Started…

Woman in mourning, circa 1860

First of all, thank you to everyone who contributed to a very lively discussion on our last post.  You might want to check out people’s personal summaries of Part I (Joanne, Whitney, Katie…am I missing anyone?) and add your comments there as well.  

Secondly, congratulations to our randomly selected winner, Madeline, who won a fab set of Scarlett Magnets!  Madeline, I’ll be dropping you an email so I can find out where to send them.  This section’s fun prize is a copy of The Authentic South of Gone With the Wind, an illustrated guide to the world of GWTW.

Thirdly, there was a great article in the New York Times recently that touched on something we discussed in Part I…the portrayal of marriage among slaves.  I highly recommend that you read it…it touches on some of the ugly realities of slavery.

Like last time, I’ll summarize our chapters here, giving some of my impressions and linking to fun resources and information. Then I’ll open it up for discussion. Please be civil, participate and speak your mind! The contest will remain open until we meet again on September 5 to discuss Part 3 (Chapters 17-30).

Part 2

I continue to be impressed by the scope and skill of this novel.  Part 2 brings us to bustling Atlanta, hub of Civil War production and home to the many Old Guard characters who make up the recently-widowed Scarlett’s confusing, structured new world.

Chapter 8

Scarlett arrives in Atlanta for what she assumes will be an extended visit and finds herself exhilarated by the bustling city…despite the silliness and annoyance of Aunt Pittipat and the hated Melanie.  We meet the dowagers who keep the town hopping and learn more about what is expected of wartime women, who nurse and organize with gusto.

Of note: This is our first real glimpse of Melanie, who embodies the good sides of Southern womanhood.  It’s also interesting that the world Scarlett is entering is primarily feminine…I love the descriptions of what women are doing to help the Cause.

Chapter 9

Bazaar time!  Scarlett mourns her inability to cast off mourning to attend the bazaar, but a strange breach of tradition brings her to a booth and one of the most important chapters in the book.  After a sumptuous description of the ballgowns Scarlett longs to wear, we realize that Captain Rhett Butler is a famous blockade runner now…and hasn’t forgotten Scarlett’s impropriety at Twelve Oaks.  He alone recognizes her desire to dance the night away…and scandalizes Atlanta when he bids for her in a reel, allowing her to dance at last and forever damaging her reputation. 

Of note: Oh, what a chapter!  We get introduced to three important songs:  Lorena, The Bonnie Blue Flag, and When This Cruel War is Over, which sold over a million copies during the Civil War.  We watch Scarlett breach passionately-held mourning traditions that forbid her participating in public activities (click here to see some examples of mourning gowns from the era). And we realize that Rhett Butler is both a ruthless mercenary and a flirtatious force to be reckoned with.  There’s a really telling sentence in this chapter when Scarlett is considering Captain Butler:  “Of course he wasn’t a gentleman and there was no telling what men would do when they weren’t gentlemen.  There was no standard to measure them by.”  I feel like this says it all in terms of the structured, predictable, placid world in which Scarlett lives, one in which the social order makes everything clear. 

Chapter 10

Choose your partners for the Virginia reel!

The morning after, and Scarlett is defiant about her conduct.  To everyone’s surprise, Melanie takes up for Captain Butler after he returns her wedding ring (and secures an invitation to her house).  And Rhett saves the day by getting Gerald O’Hara drunk to distract him from Scarlett’s bad behavior, giving her carte blanche to behave as she pleases. 

Of note: This chapter illustrates the extent to which Scarlett is assumed to be under control of whomever is her chaperone (and her parents, for that matter).  I love the part where she greets Rhett at the door dressed in her wrapper (here’s a great article on that estimable and forgotten piece of clothing, somewhere between a bath robe and a proper street dress).

Chapter 11

We get a glimpse of Ashley’s true thoughts and Scarlett’s true colors in a chapter in which she reads his wartime letters to Melanie.  Uh-oh…Ashley thinks the South will lose the war!

Chapter 12

Wartime privations aside, Scarlett is having a ball in her newly-freed state.  And Rhett Butler is part of that picture.  We see his acceptance into society and his quick fall due to reckless remarks about the South’s viability…ideas that Ashley shares and Melanie hastens to defend. 

Of note: Here’s a fascinating look at the dress difficulties of the blockade-era South (and a song about homespun, the humble fabric you’ll see quite a lot during the next few parts of this book). 

Chapter 13

It’s official…Rhett’s an outcast.  But that doesn’t keep him from visiting…and tempting Scarlett out of mourning with a dreamy hat from Paris.  His flirtatious non-kiss occupies Scarlett’s fancy until she realizes that a hospital gift from the town’s bad lady, Belle Watling, was financed by Rhett’s blockade gold.  The cad!

Of note:  find this chapter really fascinating for its description of a well-bred young lady’s reaction to a prostitute.  The realization that the men in her life might associate with prostitutes shows both Scarlett’s naivete (even though she has had sex, she really has no understanding of why sex would be appealing to anyone and sees it as something to endure) and the double standard of the time.  This is also our first intimation that Rhett Butler is not only seeing, but bankrolling the town’s most notorious madam (who some say was based on a prostitute named Belle Brezing).  What a scoundrel. 

Chapter 14

Any thoughts about the sexual double standard are cast aside as the town waits for disastrous news from Gettysburg, and gathers to receive lists of the dead and wounded.  We learn that many of the County boys, including all of the remaining Tarleton boys, have died in the battle. 

Belle Brezing, whom some say provided inspiration for madam Belle Watling.

Chapter 15

One of the survivors is Ashley Wilkes…and he comes home on furlough in a heartwrenching chapter in which Scarlett remembers that Melanie is his wife, after all.  That doesn’t keep her from forcing herself on him after promising to take care of Melly…and it doesn’t keep him from telling her that he sees beauty in her that nobody does and kissing her goodbye. 

Of note:  The descriptions of a tormented man on leave, Scarlett’s veiled realization that Ashley and Melanie might just be getting busy behind closed doors, Ashley’s not-so-honorable conduct and his backhanded compliments. 

Chapter 16

A double blow — Melanie is pregnant with Ashley’s baby and Ashley himself is imprisoned at Rock Island.  Rhett’s mercenary nature comes in handy as he turns to his Yankee friends to find out the whereabouts of Mr. Wilkes, but that can’t keep Scarlett from despairing over the honorable conduct that keeps Ashley locked up. 

Discussion Prompts

Feel free to respond to some of these questions to get the discussion going. There’s no right or wrong answer!

Well…how are you liking Part 2?  Things definitely pick up in this part of the book, and I’m longing for reactions of those familiar and unfamiliar with the story.

Melanie: Margaret Mitchell often called Melanie the real heroine of her book, but Scarlett can’t stand her eternal goodness.  I think the character is actually pretty amazingly drawn — she’s not just a goody two-shoes, but a principled and human woman.  What do you think?

Atlanta: As much a character in the book as Ashley or Rhett, Atlanta becomes the primary setting in this part.  How does it fuel the action and the emotion of the book? 

Sex: We’ve got prostitutes, double standards, visiting husbands, and illustrations of Scarlett’s own dissociative relationship to the marital relation.  What do you make of it? 

The little details:  I revel in the tiny details MM chooses to show, from waffles (don’t you just love Scarlett’s earthy, improper love of food?) to boots.  What caught your eye?

Minor Characters: We’ve got even more great minor characters in play, from Draconian Uncle Peter to pompous Doctor Meade.  Who do you love/hate? 

Happy Monday!  Ish.  I do have happy news to report…The Heroine’s Bookshelf just got a Brazilian book deal! The book will be translated into Portuguese and sold as a trade paperback and ebook by Casa da Palavra within the next year or so.  Whoever would have thought that my little book would be available in Italian, Korean, and now Portuguese…? 

Other things of note: 

The Great Gone With the Wind Readalong presses on.  If you haven’t had a chance to participate in our Part 1 discussion yet, you can do so here. 

On a GWTW note, I was devastated to hear that How We Do Run On: A GWTW Scrapbook is closing down shop.  They’ve been ardent supporters of the blog and the book and their blog on the history and mastery of Gone With the Wind is truly one of the best on any topic I’ve ever encountered. 

Lest you think this blog is now all Gone With the Wind, all the time, I have another ending to report:  the ending of Bitch Magazine’s YA book club with a great discussion of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  I’m so thankful to Ashley at Bitch and my co-conspirators for making it a truly memorable and challenging project, and I encourage anyone who’s into feminist critiques of pop culture to check out Bitch and consider subscribing to the magazine.  

Finally, I’m really sad about the closing of Borders stores nationwide.  I’ve read lots of smack-talk about big-box stores over the last several weeks, and while I love my indie book store (huge shouts to Boulder Book Store, one of my favorite places on earth!), I think there’s room for more than one kind of retailer in the bookish landscape.  No matter what your opinion on Borders, I think we can all agree that its passing means big things for the publishing industry, the bookselling business, and the 11,000 or so passionate, bookish employees who now find themselves out of work.  So if you’re planning on attending one of those big liquidation sales, remember that Borders’ passing means a lot more than just a huge discount on your favorite book.  This concludes my random semi-rant

How It Works | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Discussion Prompts

How It Works

I’ll summarize our chapters here, giving some of my impressions and linking to fun resources and information.  Then I’ll open it up for discussion.  Please be civil and speak your mind!  To make things a bit more fun, one commenter will be chosen at random to receive a fabulous set of Scarlett O’Hara costume magnets.  I’ll leave the contest open until we meet again on August 15 to discuss Part 2 (Chapters 8-15). 

Fabulous Scarlett magnets!

Part 1

Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful…with those words, Margaret Mitchell plunges us into a world of sight and sound.  I was really impressed on this rereading at her command of description and detail, from the colors of the furrowed earth of Tara to the essential frills and furbelows of Scarlett’s sigh-worthy wardrobe. 

Chapter 1

We meet 16-year-old Scarlett in her element, surrounded by the doting Tarleton twins and teasing them about their recent expulsion from the University of Georgia. But when the conversation veers away from her and toward the soon-to-be-announced engagement of Ashley Wilkes and his cousin Melanie Hamilton, a chill falls over the pleasant afternoon.  No dinner invite for you!  What’s Scarlett’s deal? 

Of note:  I thought it was interesting that this chapter doesn’t really come close to Scarlett’s motivations or thoughts.  Instead, it stays with the lively Tarleton twins and our first glances of Scarlett are through their approving eyes. 

Trivia:  Margaret Mitchell struggled over this chapter and didn’t even deliver it with her draft of the book. 

Chapter 2

Scarlett rushes away to await her father despite Mammy’s dark protestations about the dangers of life sans shawl.  She’s heartbroken that her crush, Ashley, is even considering marrying another. She’s wanted him since she was 14 years old, even though she admits she doesn’t quite get his poetic, dreamy ways or his lazy aloofness.  But stumpy Gerald O’Hara will hear nothing of it, reminding her that like must marry like to ensure happiness.

Of note:  MM gets straight to the point when talking about love, doesn’t she? I love how Scarlett childishly believes that she can change someone so different from herself. 

Chapter 3

What I imagine Solange Robillard, Ellen's snooty mother, to look like.

This chapter focuses on the strange alliance of Ellen Robillard O’Hara, a tireless, tall, and unfailingly gracious coastal woman, and preening, rough Gerald O’Hara, an Irish immigrant decades her senior. We learn of Gerald’s acquisition of Tara in a game of cards and his need for a rich, competent woman to run his plantation…and of the mysterious failed love affair that lead Ellen to accept Gerald’s hand in marriage.  Scarlett desperately wants to be a great lady like her mother.  Too bad she’s inherited her father’s stubbornness and temper. 

Of note:  I love this chapter for its eye-opening look at the lot of a plantation owner’s wife in 1861.  Ellen’s entire existence is devoted to the comfort of her husband, despite the huge toll it takes on her internally.  How like Scarlett to only see the composed outside and never understand the tremendous act of will it must take for Ellen to balance her many responsibilities.  Of course, she’s helped by hundreds of slaves whose lot is doubtless far worse than hers. Learn more about Ellen Robillard’s education at Gone With the Wind Scrapbook.

Chapter 4

Though she’d rather run off and cry, a miserable Scarlett must preside over dinner while Ellen labors over trashy Emmy Slattery’s newborn child.  The family welcomes Dilcey, wife of Gerald’s valet, Pork, and Ellen returns home just in time for prayers.  A moment of silent reflection results in a foolproof plan:  Scarlett will simply tell Ashley she loves him at the barbecue tomorrow, then snap him up and be done with it!  Brilliant. 

Of note:  Loving the look at quiet family life in this chapter. 

Trivia:  The term “broad wife” (in reference to Dilcey) refers to a male slave’s wife on another plantation, or “abroad.”  Often, slaves were married but never lived on the same plantation. 

Chapter 5

Ten o’clock and all’s well!  Except for Scarlett, who can’t figure out what to wear to the Wilkes barbecue at Twelve Oaks.  She tries and rejects several dresses, imagining that her rival Melanie will judge her harshly in each one.  Brainstorm:  why not wear a low-cut afternoon dress instead?  Game plan:  she’ll attract every man possible at the barbecue, negotiate her food consumption with Mammy, ignore the foibles of her annoying sisters and the Tarleton girls, and take Twelve Oaks by storm. 

Of note:  Great contrast between what young ladies should hear and should not in this chapter, embodied by the sex-and-horses obsessed Beatrice Tarleton.  Also, the descriptions of Scarlett’s wardrobe are good enough to eat.  GWTW Scrapbook does some impressive detective work and finds possible inspiration for Scarlett’s dresses in this image-heavy post of period fashion plates.

Chapter 6

Slave woman and child. It was hard to find non-idealized images of Mammies for this post.

Barbecue time!  The Southern hospitality meter turned up to 11, Scarlett enters the barbecue only for a glimpse of a bad-looking man.  Turns out he’s Rhett Butler, a Charleston man who is not received after an ill-fated drive with a lady in the late afternoon.  But there’s no time for strangers, no matter how rakish:  Scarlett’s got work to do, and she won’t be satisfied until she snags enough men to make Ashley writhe with envy.  We meet plenty of party-goers in this chapter, from frivolous Honey and old-maidish India to pointdextrous Charles Hamilton and old-maid-in-britches Frank Kennedy.  And we see the total devastation of Scarlett’s hopes as she comes on too strong to Ashley, who doesn’t go for her charm and embarrasses her greatly in front of that troublemaker Butler.  God’s nightgown!  She’ll show them!  Scarlett impetuously accepts the hand of Charles Hamilton to spite Ashley…and the Civil War comes to Clayton County. 

Of note:  Wow, could much more happen in a single chapter?  I love the contrast between Charles’s dreamy love and Scarlett’s self-absorbed machinations. 

Trivia:  Supposedly, this house was the inspiration for Twelve Oaks.   

Chapter 7

Well, that was quick. No sooner is Scarlett a miserable bride than she’s a miserable widow and mother.  With Charlie dead of measles, Ashley and Melanie married, and Wade Hampton crying away, Scarlett can’t quite process her new life…or her new role as a quiet, unattractive widow.  Will a trip to Atlanta to stay with her new sister-in-law prove a distraction? 

Trivia:  Scarlett’s “second-day dress” was traditional for many Victorian-era brides, who would wear that dress as a best dress in portraits and at special occasions for years after their wedding. 

Discussion Prompts

Feel free to respond to some of these questions to get the discussion going. There’s no right or wrong answer! 

So…what did you think?    If you’re reading the book for the first time, tell us what jumped out at you.  If you’re already familiar with the book, tell us what you noticed now. 

Scarlett:  Appealing or frivolous?  What’s your first impression? 

Antebellum life:  MM goes to great lengths to describe the vigor and leisure of the South.  What’s your opinion?  How do you respond to her depiction of slave life and the primary slave characters in the book? 

Marriage:  Gerald states that like should marry like, but he’s nothing like his sedate wife.  How is marriage portrayed in the book so far?  What does marriage give and take away from the characters? 

Minor Characters:  MM gives great voices and descriptions to the book’s minor characters.  Which ones have you taken a shine to?  

It’s time for the Great Gone With the Wind Readalong! 

Discover (or reacquaint yourself with) Margaret Mitchell’s perennial classic, which turns 75 this year.  It’s a chunkster, to be sure, but it’s also a hotbed of romance, scandal, historical detail and roiling controversy…and it features one of literature’s most petulant and complex heroines. 

How It Works

To participate, just tell me you plan to read along in the comments below.  Then procure a copy of the classic and start reading.  We’ll meet here on the blog on the following schedule to discuss the book in parts.  I’ll summarize each part and include historical background and fun ways to approach the book as a conversation-starter…then we’ll discuss in the comments.  And I’ll be giving away GWTW-inspired prizes to make this summer read even juicier!

The Schedule*

• August 1: Discuss Part 1 (Chapters 1-7)
• August 15: Discuss Part 2 (Chapters 8-16)
• September 5: Discuss Part 3 (Chapters 17-30)
• September 26: Discuss Part 4 (Chapters 31-47)
• October 17: Discuss Part 5 (Chapters 48-63)

*Due to the chunkster nature of this novel, I’ve broken our group reading down into five parts.  You’ll have two weeks to read the first two parts, and three weeks to read each subsequent part.  But buyer beware…this book just might be hard not to read in one feverish, fell swoop! 

Are You In?

Please introduce yourself, tell us where you’re from and whether you’ve read the book before.  Happy reading!

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Goosebumps…and Gone With the Wind

For a long time, I considered myself a Gone With the Wind fan, only slightly more interested than normal.

Yes, I re-read the book every year, but that’s as much of a writerly task as it is a readerly one. Yes, I have been to Oaklands Cemetery and the Margaret Mitchell House, but only because I was in Atlanta anyway. I believe still have enough fingers to count the number of times I have seen the movie (not that the number of my fingers is in question, but the number of times I have seen the movie is), and I own no Vivien Leigh collectible plates.

I don’t think I can make that slightly-more-interested-than normal claim anymore.

Not because I bought a collectible plate, but because I had the good luck recently to be at the Arkansas Literary Festival with Ellen F. Brown, author of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller’s Journey From Atlanta to Hollywood. After Ellen’s presentation at the Historic Arkansas Museum, two of the Museum’s director whisked me, Ellen, and Kyran Pittman up to a storage room where they opened three boxes that had arrived in preparation for their upcoming “Reel to Real: Gone With the Wind and the Civil War in Arkansas” exhibit.

There are no adjectives to describe how awesome this is.

The first contained the hat Vivien Leigh wore as Scarlett O’Hara in the Twelve Oaks barbecue scene (and later on when working the farm at Tara).

The second contained Bonnie Blue Butler’s beautiful blue velvet riding habit.

And the last contained Vivien Leigh’s Oscar for Gone With the Wind.

I have been to a lot of museums in my time, but I don’t think I have ever had the reaction to an exhibit the way I did to those items. I had goosebumps. I cried. I squealed (okay, maybe shrieked) with delight each time they opened a new box.

I don’t know if I realized until that moment, as Ellen, Kyran, and I, stood in collective wonder in that museum storeroom, how very much Gone With the Wind means to me. The book and the movie have been my companion for a good twenty years now, and each time I re-read or re-watch them, I see something new, I learn something else, I am inspired to write something wonderful.

And because the book has been with me for so very long, I can add to that list of the pleasures of re-reading it my own memories – of watching the movie when I had my wisdom teeth out in high school, of reading it curled in a chair in my college library’s “Classics” room, of the lines that ran through my head as I stood in Oaklands Cemetery, looking at the endless rows of Confederate dead.

Happy birthday, Gone With the Wind.  It’s been my pleasure to have you by my side for twenty of your seventy-five years. I hope to travel with you for many more.

The Wind as Literature – Q&A With Melissa Maday

When did you first read GWTW/what were your initial impressions?

I had seen the movie — or parts of it — over and over on TV, but I hadn’t read the book. At Smith, during the first semester of my sophomore year, I took an American lit class with the then-senior member of the English Department. It was 1998, and he’d been at the college for close to 40 years. The students in my class wanted to know if he had known Sylvia Plath as a student or instructor at Smith  but no one wanted to ask him. Finally, they talked me into asking. I raised my hand and asked simply”Professor Murphy, did you know Sylvia Plath when she was here?”

In response, he sighed heavily, shook his head, and leaned on the podium: he said, “We were here at the same time, and I suppose our paths must have crossed,” then he sighed again and added. “I don’t know what the big deal is about Sylvia Plath. The best writer this college ever produced was Margaret Mitchell.”

Let me get this straight...people don't consider Gone With the Wind to be great literature?

I was so surprised by this — both that Mitchell had gone to Smith, and that an editor of the Norton Anthology thought she was a better writer than Plath — that i went to the library after class and checked out Gone With the Wind. I read it over the next few weeks, and I was struck by the careful characterization and sumptuous detail. And, carrying its 1037 pages around campus with me for a few weeks also served as a real conversation piece: I was amazed to find out that many women I met felt connected to the book. I heard lots of stories about people whose moms read it every summer, or who had read it for the first time at the age of 12, then read it again and again … it became clear to me that it was a book that meant something to women of different ages and from different backgrounds. There was an unexpected (for me) universality to Scarlett’s story.

You wrote about GWTW in your senior thesis at Smith College. What was your topic?

I wanted to look at the book as a piece of literature. So much had (and has) been written about the movie, but the book’s popularity tended to remove it from consideration as “serious” literature. My thesis sought to read it as literature and position it in the canon of American literature, and — more specifically — American literature by women.  Fortunately for me, the book about Margaret Mitche”s journalism career came out while i was writing my thesis, and that book really served to put GWTW into perspective for me I saw where MM got her trained eye for detail, her ability to describe and explicate characters, and her clear, precise writing style. 

It was also really rewarding for me to write my thesis about an author who was also an alumna of my college. I’m grateful that i had the chance to spend so much time reading and writing about a book that means so much to so many people. I ended up writing a lot about the differences between the movie and the book to highlight that much of the exaggeration and excess we associate with the film was not in the novel.

What do you find most compelling/upsetting/awesome about Margaret Mitchell as an author?

I love her authorial perspective — GWTW is a novel written by a journalist: someone practiced and expert at observation and description. It is not the weepy, melodramatic, sentimental artifact that the movie has come to be. I think it’s most interesting that Mitchell did not like to be compared to Scarlett (in fact, she was kind of horrified by such comparisons). It’s also important to understand that Mitchell had a keen understanding of historical scope — GWTW wasn’t meant to stand on its own, it was the first of a planned trilogy of novels about the American South. But, of course, her untimely death prevented her from going on.

And, I really enjoyed reading about her utter consternation at the making of the movie — my favorite quotation is when she wrote that they were making the Wilkes’ plantation look like Grand Central Station. She was really worried about what the residents of Jonesboro, Georgia would think when they saw how their town was portrayed.

Can you speak to GWTW as a classic/feminist work/work of “serious” or popular fiction?

Yes! GWTW has been repeatedly misnamed as sentimental fiction, when, in fact, it is an historical novel about the Civil War — but from a woman’s perspective — Mitchell was a 20th-century southern woman giving voice to the women before her. She told their stories beautifully in the novel, and she created an archetypal flawed heroine in Scarlett. It always bothers me when critics or scholars contend that “serious” and “popular’ fiction have to be placed in different categories — I think it takes a truly gifted writer to blur those lines, and Mitchell succeeded at it in this novel. To understand this, it’s important to separate the novel from the film, and I think most who only know the latter are surprised by the intensity and depth of Mitchell’s prose.

I use the novel often in my own classroom — I haven’t taught it in full (yet), but it’s a great example of strong, descriptive narrative, and it holds up well under the scrutiny of close reading.