A review by nkbt
Gone with the Wind by Pat Conroy, Margaret Mitchell

adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Gone with the Wind is a completely inaccurate and deeply problematic portrayal of history - you have to go into the book acknowledging that up front. The racism, the glorification of the “Lost Cause,” and Margaret Mitchell’s white feminism make this a difficult read. It is an epic novel, an American classic, but you must keep those things in mind as you go in.

There are the three main things that I was enraptured by when reading the story:

  1. The character that is Scarlett O’Hara. She is one of the most entertaining train wrecks I’ve ever read. She’s selfish and ruthless, and she is THAT Bitch. She’s so messy to read about, and I found myself admiring her at times. Not morally of course, but just her determination to survive and push through anything. Throughout the book, when she’s in a high stress situation she repeats the phrase “I’ll think about it tomorrow”. I remember when I first read this book as a teen that stuck with me as someone who was anxious overthinker. It’s a pretty good mantra to have when something is so overwhelming that you need to shelve it away for a bit, tbh.
  2. The romance between Scarlett and Rhett. Full of passion, tension, messiness! And it’s quite shocking in parts, especially if you consider it was written in the 1930s. They’re both kind of terrible, but with each other they’re perfect. It’s all about wondering if they’ll ever work it out or if they’ll destroy each other before they get their happily ever after. Which is why the heartbreak of the ending works because, you kind of need to be left wondering. And also, you need to me reminded of Scarlett’s determination to win him back (“After all, tomorrow is another day”).
  3. The descriptive writing. It’s such a vivid and gorgeous form of writing, and probably why it was very easy to then adapt to film. You can visualise the Georgia landscape, the grand parties, the hunger, the heat, etc. Margaret Mitchell was a talented writer.

She was also a racist. It’s impossible to ignore.

I had to put down the book several times when I was frustrated and pissed off with Margaret. As I mentioned before, what a white feminist. After the Civil War ends in the story, opportunities emerge for Scarlett to take charge of a business and Scarlett finds that she does a better job than the men. It’s just that she didn’t have the opportunity to do this work before the war because of societal restrictions. However, while Margaret celebrates that for Scarlett, she also writes that formally enslaved individuals shouldn’t be given the right to vote or govern because they’re “illiterate”?

I had to look up when Margaret was born (1900), and it’s clear that she was influenced by the Lost Cause narrative that the previous generation no doubt passed on to her. I wish I could contact her from beyond the grave, dissect her brain, and give her a stern talking to (mildly speaking).

And that’s just one of the hundreds of examples of racism in the story. It’s uncomfortable. It’s fake news. You can see exactly why the book captivated the audiences who were reading this in the Depression Era or watching the film during WW2, with iconic phrases of “I’ll never go hungry again” being spoken. But in our present day, we need to read these kinds of books, analyse and review them with our modern lens, and see how it connects with our present.

I’m really keen to read “The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells” by Sarah Churchwell now that I’ve finished the novel, to read about how the myths written in GWTW still affect and shape how America sees itself to this day.