Book Review: Gone with the Wind (with spoilers).

I was fully prepared to not like Gone with the Wind. It’s southern (and I mean, Southern). It’s pre-bellum, bellum, antebellum, Reconstructionist – and all with a confederate slant. It’s girly. When I started reading it, all of my preconceived notions bore up. Scarlett was nothing but a silly twit whose idea of rebelliousness was to run off the porch without her shall, enjoy eating, and identify with her father more than her mother. And the barbecue scene where she flirts with every single boy present and dreams up ways to win those who weren’t there? Made me roll my eyes and snort with derision more than once.

But then something happened. I started enjoying the book. I started caring who Scarlett ended up with. Ashley or Rhett? Ashley, of course! No! Rhett! And I started seeing themes emerge and paper topics popped up before my eyes. The theme of motherhood, the connection of the motherhood theme with that in Rebecca Wells’s The Divine Secret of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, fantasy vs. reality in the Scarlett/Rhett/Ashley/Melly love quadrangle. Mitchell’s portrayal of race. Her portrayal of womanhood. Did Mitchell even like Scarlett? Are the readers supposed to like her? Is she supposed to be the ultimate portrayal of womanhood?

Wait – could this be a real book? Not some bodice-ripper with a historical background flapping behind it?

I was shocked. Sure, it could be read as a bodice-ripper (if one were able to overlook the horrific ending), but there was undeniably more to be had. I was particularly struck with the theme of motherhood. Scarlett’s obsession with and elevation of her mother’s role as a martyr, a saint (of which we later see faint echoes of in Melanie’s mantle of motherhood and defense of Scarlett) early in the novel is sharply contrasted thereafter with Scarlett’s failure to approach anything resembling her mother’s example. That Wells continues the theme in Ya-Ya and models her main character in a Scarlett-esque fashion, and then concludes her novel with the message that even flawed mothers can love powerfully, seems to show that at least Wells thought Mitchell was trying to portray Scarlett in a realistic and sympathetic light. (Yes, I know I’m simplifying things here and further analysis and research is needed, but just roll with it.) To compound the discussion, Mitchell throws in a seemingly throw-away description of a minor character early in the novel. Scarlett notes how relaxed the Tarleton girls act around their mother, how convivial and teasing and almost impudent they act, although it’s clear they adore each other:

Scarlett laughed with the rest at these sallies but, as always,the freedom with which the Tarletons treated their mother came as a shock.  They acted as if she were one of themselves and not a day over sixteen.  To Scarlett, the very idea of saying such things to her own mother was almost sacrilegious.  And yet–and yet–there was something very pleasant about the Tarleton girls’ relations with their mother, and they adored her for all that they criticized and scolded and teased her.  Not, Scarlett loyally hastened to tell herself, that she would prefer a mother like Mrs. Tarleton to Ellen, but still it would be fun to romp with a mother.

Nothing more is really discussed about Mrs. Tarleton, especially not about her mothering techniques. However, it is interesting that Melanie, the sweetest, kindest, penultimate “good” character in the novel is a hybrid of both Ellen O’Hara and Mrs. Tarleton’s images of motherhood. And where exactly does that leave Scarlett…? Realistic, but how so?

These are all just first-glance impressions and ideas, all of them from a book that I wasn’t supposed to care about, that I wasn’t supposed to think about – I just wanted to be conversant about it. I will admit, though, that the horrible, thoroughly unsatisfying ending did make me feel the tiniest bit better about all those silly preconceptions I had. Now the only question is whether I can live with the pretend ending I made up in my head…or whether it will ruin my street cred to read the unauthorized sequel Scarlett that was written about ten years back.