Literary Analysis of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Gone With the Wind is the only novel written by Margaret Mitchell for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. The novel follows Scarlett O’Hara, a spoiled sixteen year old just before the start of the Civil War through the war and Reconstruction (1861-1870). Major themes throughout the novel are: The importance of land; love of money; survival; wanting what you cannot have; and the change of a culture (Mitchell, 1936).
Scarlett’s life revolved around the parties she would attend at neighboring plantations, flirting with the young men of the county and pursuing her childhood crush, Ashley Wilkes. Scarlett was a spoiled. In 1860 sixteen year old Scarlett O’Hara lived on Tara, her father’s plantation in Georgia. She is self-centered girl who seemed to care little for the feelings of others and who was used to getting everything she wanted. Her father, Gerald was an Irish immigrant who had prospered in his new land. Her mother, Ellen was from an aristocratic French family. Scarlett had two sisters, Suellen and Careen to whom she paid little mind. Mammy was Ellen’s house servant and the girl’s nanny. Mammy was always concerned that the girls be proper ladies like their mother. The O’Hara plantation had many slaves and was prosperous (Mitchell, 1936). In the spring of 1860 Scarlett was looking forward to the barbeque the Wilkes’s family would be having at Twin Oaks, when the Tarleton twins Brent and Stuart stopped by. It was from the Tarleton twins that Scarlett found out that Ashley Wilkes’s engagement to his saintly cousin; Melanie Hamilton would be announced at the barbeque. When Gerald rides up on his horse, Scarlett runs to him to find out if it is true that Ashley will be announcing his engagement. Gerald tries to convince Scarlett that she should not pursue Ashley and says “Have you running after a man who’s not in love with you, when you could have any one of the bucks in the County?” He offers to leave Tara to her if she marries one of the other neighbors and Scarlett tells him that she wouldn’t have Tara or any other plantation. It is at this point one of the main themes of the novel is expressed when Gerald tells Scarlett, “Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for ‘tis the only thing in this world that lasts” (Mitchell, 1936). Gone With the Wind opens with the line “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm….” At the Wilkes’s barbeque Scarlett sets out to make Ashley jealous by flirting with all the young men there. This does not work, so she decides that she has to tell Ashley how she feels about him and he rejects her. Here and throughout the novel, we see another strong theme; wanting what you cannot have. It is at the barbeque that she meets Rhett Butler for the first time. Rhett had come from a prominent Charlestown family, but was disowned when he was expelled from West Point. He was an adventurer and would go on to become a wealthy blockade runner during the war. Rhett over hears Scarlett expressing her love for Ashley and his rejection of her (Mitchell, 1936). The announcement of Ashley and Melanie’s engagement is interrupted by news that the war is beginning. As the young men prepare to leave, Scarlett decides that she will marry Charles Hamilton, Melanie’s shy, timid brother whom she does not love. The couples are married a day apart and afterward the grooms go off to war. Charles dies two months later while in an army training camp of measles. Scarlett is pregnant and later gives birth to a son, Wade Hamilton, whom she feels, little affection for (Mitchell, 1936). Scarlett hates wearing mourning clothes and not being able to go to parties. Her mother thinks she is mourning Charles, but in reality she is mourning her young care-free life. Melanie is living in Atlanta with her aunt, Pittypat and Ellen decides that Scarlett should go to Atlanta for a visit. Scarlett, Wade and Prissy, Scarlett’s slave, go to Atlanta (Mitchell, 1936). Scarlett likes the excitement of living in Atlanta. She does not like wearing mourning clothes and not being able to go to parties. While Scarlett is in Atlanta, she sees Rhett Butler frequently, but keeps a distance from his despite her attraction. As the war closes in on Atlanta, Scarlett delivers Melanie’s baby and Rhett helps them escape from Atlanta as it is burning in a stolen horse and wagon. Rhett leaves them along the way and goes off to fight in the war (Mitchell, 1936). When they arrive at Tara they find her father who seems to have lost his mind. Her sisters are in bed with typhoid. The fields and the cotton have been burned, the food has all been taken, and the house has been looted and robbed by Union Soldiers. Scarlett takes over and finds ways to feed the family. She works the fields and plants more cotton. Her hands are calloused and rough. Scarlett vows that she will never be hungry again. When a Union soldier comes into the house and begins looting, Scarlett shoots him. Melanie stands at the top of the stairs with Charles’ sword, so heavy that the weakened Melanie can barely hold it. They bury the soldier in the garden. From this we see the theme of survival (Mitchell, 1936). After the war the way of life that Scarlett and her neighbors knew no longer existed. There were no slaves to work the fields and most of the land in the county was not reclaimed. Ashley came home from the prison camp where he had spent the end of the war. The Union soldiers had burned Twin Oaks, so Ashley and Melanie stayed at Tara. This shows another theme of the book, the change of a culture (Mitchell, 1936). The taxes on Tara became due and there was not enough money to pay them. Scarlet had Mammy make a dress for her from Ellen’s drapes and set off to Atlanta to get the tax money from him. He had asked her to be his mistress and if that is what it took to save Tara, she would do it. Again we see the theme of importance of land (Mitchell, 1936). When Scarlett arrived in Atlanta, she found Rhett in jail and his assets had been seized. She was distraught at the thought of losing Tara. Then she ran into Frank Kennedy, Suellen’s beau. She learned that Frank had opened a store and was doing well. She knew that if Suellen married Frank, she would not pay the taxes. So Scarlett told Frank that Suellen had agreed to marry someone else, which was not true. She and Frank were married. Greed and love of money are another theme of the book (Mitchell, 1936). When Rhett got out of jail, Scarlett borrowed the money from him to buy a lumber mill. It was successful and she bought another mill. Ashley came to work for her. Scarlett ran her own businesses, which was considered scandalous. Frank was embarrassed by his wife’s behavior. When Scarlett became pregnant, he thought she would come to her senses and stop running the mills. But Scarlett continued to sell lumber and check on the mills after the birth of their daughter, Ella (Mitchell, 1936). Frank was killed as he and other members of the Ku Klux Klan, including Ashley went to get revenge for an attack on Scarlett. The men were saved by Rhett Butler, who took them to Belle Watlings house of ill repute. After Frank’s death Rhett proposes to Scarlett, and then goes away for her to have a proper time of mourning. When he returns, they are married and build a mansion on Peachtree Street in Atlanta (Mitchell, 1936). Scarlett enjoys her life with Rhett and his money at first. They have a daughter, Bonnie Blue. Scarlett decides that she wants no more children and Rhett is no longer welcome in her bedroom. She continues to have feelings for Ashley. One day as she is visiting Ashley at her mill and his sister, India walks in. She is scandalized and soon the whole town knows. Melanie stands by Scarlett. Rhett turns away from Scarlett and focuses his attention on Bonnie. Bonnie dies when she is thrown from her pony. Rhett begins to drink heavily and shuts Scarlett completely out. Scarlett who is upset of the death of the only child she really cared about, but goes on (Mitchell, 1936). Melanie dies during a complicated pregnancy and Scarlett realizes that she has lost her only true friend. She also realizes that she does not really love Ashley, she loves Rhett. She runs home to tell Rhett that she loves him. But it is too late; he has decided to leave her. As Scarlett cries and asks how she can go on without him, Rhett says to her, “My dear, I don’t give a damn” (Mitchell, 1936). In the last line of the book, Scarlett says, “I’ll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” Scarlett seems cold and unloving throughout the book, but the last line leads one to think that she possibly walled her emotions up in order to cope with the horrors of war, losing the man she thought she loved, losing her parents and her child. Living in a culture where women were not supposed to be smart and held in just a little higher regard than slaves it may have been the best way for her to deal with life. (Mitchell, 1936).

References
Mitchell, M. (1936) Gone With the Wind. New York; Warner Books.
Thomas, J. (2008). The New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 12, 2009 from http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge