Take a photo of a barcode or cover
thopp84 's review for:
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
It is kind of challenging to really review this book. In part because it has been around for over 70 years and has already been written about and talked about and debated about for decades. And also because of the overt and casual racism sprinkled throughout the book. It so suffuses and informs the book that you can't just overlook it or ignore it.
So, I'm of two minds about this one. On the one hand, there's a really great story here about Scarlett O'Hara and her unbeatable spirit and her desire to get what she wants at any costs. Scarlett is a completely unlikable character. Selfish, self centered, greedy, manipulative, and just downright unscrupulous and yet, I found myself drawn to her over and over again. Her desire to have Ashley really grated on me. Especially when it was never really clear what exactly Ashley had to offer. He seemed like just another mediocre white man.
This book is incredibly long, sometimes frustratingly so. The last few chapters are incredibly sad. So much so that it felt unnecessarily brutal to read.
The racism here is really tough to deal with, especially by modern eyes. The n word is used very liberally here. It is obvious that Margaret Mitchell actually believed these things about the African American population and her overt racism spills over into the book in many places that made me uncomfortable. Black people are portrayed as shiftless, lazy, and never question their place in society. Mammy in particular is a racist caricature of the nurse figure in black tropes. It's shameful and there is no excuse for it.
There are plenty of books out there that deal with the subject of the South and race relations in a better way than this one. This is basically just propaganda for the South and slavery. And there's even some praise of the Ku Klux Klan in here which is particularly reprehensible. Seek out other books if you are curious about life in the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Let this one be relegated to the dust bin of history where it belongs.
So, I'm of two minds about this one. On the one hand, there's a really great story here about Scarlett O'Hara and her unbeatable spirit and her desire to get what she wants at any costs. Scarlett is a completely unlikable character. Selfish, self centered, greedy, manipulative, and just downright unscrupulous and yet, I found myself drawn to her over and over again. Her desire to have Ashley really grated on me. Especially when it was never really clear what exactly Ashley had to offer. He seemed like just another mediocre white man.
This book is incredibly long, sometimes frustratingly so. The last few chapters are incredibly sad. So much so that it felt unnecessarily brutal to read.
The racism here is really tough to deal with, especially by modern eyes. The n word is used very liberally here. It is obvious that Margaret Mitchell actually believed these things about the African American population and her overt racism spills over into the book in many places that made me uncomfortable. Black people are portrayed as shiftless, lazy, and never question their place in society. Mammy in particular is a racist caricature of the nurse figure in black tropes. It's shameful and there is no excuse for it.
There are plenty of books out there that deal with the subject of the South and race relations in a better way than this one. This is basically just propaganda for the South and slavery. And there's even some praise of the Ku Klux Klan in here which is particularly reprehensible. Seek out other books if you are curious about life in the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Let this one be relegated to the dust bin of history where it belongs.