'Gone with the Wind' by Margaret Mitchell (Chapters 1 - 16)

Part One - Chapters 1 - 16

This brick was the bestselling fiction title for two consecutive years, 1936 and 1937. It also won the Pulitzer Prize and took Margaret Mitchell ten years to write. Rather than cramming a discussion of a 1010 page novel into one review, I'll break my thoughts up into quarter sections. This first ramble will cover the first 16 chapters, which also comprises Parts 1 and 2 in their entirety. 

Scarlett O'Hara starts off as a sassy teenage Southern belle with a 17 inch waist. She loves flirting with every male on her radar, and her favourite hobby is stealing the devotion of other girls' beaux. She can have the pick of any single man or boy, except for Ashley Wilkes, the dishy neighbour she's in love with. He's just announced his engagement to his sweet cousin, Melanie Hamilton, and Scarlett is devastated. Even now, she resolves not to take defeat lying down, because she's headstrong and wants the man of her dreams with all her heart. Alas, her tantrum directed at Ashley falls on deaf ears, or does it? It is overheard by a grinning, swarthy stranger named Rhett Butler, who thoroughly enjoys the show. 

In hurried retribution to several people, Scarlett marries Melanie's shy young brother Charles, just to spite everyone and shove her free agency in their faces. Unfortunately, she upsets herself most of all. Scarlett becomes a wife, war-widow and mother all before she turns 18. She and her baby, Wade Hampton Hamilton, go off to stay in Atlanta with her new in-laws, Aunt Pittypat Hamilton and Melanie, now Mrs Wilkes, while the men head off to fight the Yankees. 

Hmm, at this stage, the story focuses on Scarlett's veneer. She's learned to appear sweet, charming and good, while her headspace reveals her to be selfish, stubborn and shallow. Scarlett is basically living a lie. Everything she says and does is a screen for her real feelings. Sure, we can probably all relate to her somewhat, but I find it hard to excuse the way she uses poor Charles. 

In contrast, plain little Melanie is described as, 'simple as the earth, as good as bread, as transparent as spring water.' Melanie is clueless that she's usurping the only man Scarlett believes she can ever love. She's a great lady, according to Rhett, despite her youth. Melanie reminds me of another literary character, in her mild but determined resolve to think well of people. I realised it's Jane Bennet, from Pride & Prejudice. Melanie has no need to conceal her true self, as Scarlett does, because her generous feelings are the real deal. Sure, she never twigs that her sister-in-law really can't stand her, because feeling repugnance for people is not in Melanie's make-up so she doesn't ascribe it to others. This makes her naive but perhaps that's a small price to pay, for living her life with generous, nice thoughts rather than mercenary, restless, crabby ones. 

Ashley seems like a genuine, self-sacrificing guy at this stage. His love of music and literature gives him the reputation of being 'complex' but he's farsighted enough to predict that the war won't end well for his cause. He strikes me as a tragic guy who's torn in every way. He fights for a cause which he knows in his heart is doomed, and possibly marries one girl while loving another. I'm not convinced this is the case though. Perhaps he loves them both for very different reasons, or maybe he was just letting Scarlett down in a gentlemanly manner. Time will tell, but at the moment, I find Ashley a source of great sympathy. I'm aware that we're seeing him merely through the filter of Scarlett's rose coloured glasses and the occasional deep-and-meaningful lines he drops. 

Rhett is a self-proclaimed opportunist and scoundrel who's purely out for himself. His intention as a blockade runner (who sails contraband goods into southern ports beneath the guns of northern ships) is to make a personal fortune, or so he says. I think his appeal depends on which side of the pages you live. He offends many people within his own world, yet endears himself to a far huger number of readers who exist outside the book. Personally, I suspect we'd find him a jerk too, if we existed in the story. But instead, his blunt honesty and outspokenness impress us, because Margaret Mitchell has written him as a sexy cynic. (I believe I can see through her ploy. I've set myself a bet with Ms Mitchell, to resist the charm of Mr Butler throughout this book. It's working so far. I'll keep you posted.)

I keep getting shocked over and over as I experience the American Civil War from the Confederate viewpoint. In their passionate eyes, it's a sacred cause in which young men sacrifice their lives to preserve a precious way of life. They vehemently deny the accusation that they're merely fighting to keep the institution of slavery alive to prevent their economy from crumbling. The brutal chapter near the end of this section in which women wait in the carriages outside the newspaper office for the casualty lists, after the Battle of Gettysburg, is heart-breaking. 

Is Margaret Mitchell glorifying the nefarious Confederate cause though? I don't think so, and apparently neither do her two key male characters. The brooding, introspective Ashley says, 'Let's don't be too hot-headed and let's don't have any war. Most of the misery of the world has been caused by wars. And when the wars were over, no one ever knew what they were all about.' And the outspoken, straight-shooting Rhett says, 'Our southern way of living is as antiquated as the feudal system of the Middle Ages. The wonder is it's lasted as long as it has. It had to go and it's going now. Yet you expect me to listen to orators like Dr Meade who tell me our cause is just and holy.'  

Okay, so at this quarterly stage, we learn that Ashley has been imprisoned on Rock Island, both girls love him dearly, and Melanie has just discovered that she's expecting his baby. What next? Stay tuned for my thoughts on Chapters 17 - 30, which will take us to about the halfway point.