Gone with the Wind⑭

More than anything I saw his slow conquering of Scarlett's heart as a parallel to the slow enveloping of the South by the North until they realized they were dependent on their conquerors but could still maintain their fierce spirit, a marriage of North and South. The fact that she could never fully understand him shows the divide between to two philosophies. But does the South lose in this blending? Can't they adopt the intellectual ways of the North and still maintain their civility? Just like Ashley, they would rather have dreamt and remembered than changed.

 

The characters in the book are so vivid that like or dislike you cannot get them out of your head. There are no more vibrant characters in the history of literature that Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. There is a reason this book is a classic. Everyone should read it at least once in their life to appreciate the civil war and understand the sadness and loss that enveloped the country.

Gone with the Wind⑬

Then we come to Rhett, the only character with the ability to conquer Scarlett, who was quite the devil. Just like the ladies in old Atlanta I found myself at times entranced by his charms, but often I did not like or trust him. I was often torn about the way he constantly encouraged Scarlett to fall another wrung on her morality ladder and mocked her emotions, mocked all of Southern civility. What annoyed me most about him was that he showed love by coddling his wife and child until they were spoiled, dependent, but not grateful, and this was his idea of being a good father and husband. And yet I sympathized with him and was often amused by him. More than anything I enjoyed his intelligence as a way for Mitchell to introduce the Yankee viewpoint, using his sarcasm as satire. I loved the whole discussion of his not being a gentleman and her no lady.

Gone with the Wind⑫

Scarlett realizes that Melanie is not the weak, cowardly girl she always assumed but the most courageous character in the book and one who gets her means by influence and persuasion instead of Scarlett's uncivil ways. It is Melly, not Scarlett, who could get anything she desires and her heart is not her weakness but her greatest strength. Finally Scarlett values the importance of love and sees that it does not make one weak but deep to possess it. OK, I won't go that far. She's not intelligent enough to analyze love, but she grows up enough to fall for it anyway, to realize she needs people.

 

She sees Ashley not as the strong, honorable character she had always esteemed but the weakest and least honorable character in the book. Anyone who would tease another woman with confessions of love just so he could keep her heart and devotion at arm's length is not truly honoring his marriage vows. The greatest gift he could give his wife was the knowledge that he loved her. And we all know that like any pretty toy, once Scarlett had taken him, she would have discarded him. The debasing knowledge that he is not fit for a rougher way of life doesn't endear him. For all his intelligence, he could have picked himself up by the bootstraps and made something of himself if he wanted to survive. He is a representation of the Old South that had to die but many couldn't let go of, even today. That's the sadness of the loss of the Southern way, still longing for the past instead of moving forward.

Gone with the Wind⑪

Initially I thought she was the only character who wasn't growing, actually digressing. But by the end she does grow up. In no regard is this greater than in her eventual desire to be a mother. Turning from her ravenous post-war desire to survive to her acceptance of life and the people around her as the way they are, eventually Scarlett grows into the person she was meant to be. As did the South. Prideful and resentful, eventually they had to accept that they lost the war and take what was given them and try to make it work.

Gone with the Wind⑩

Oh Scarlett. We all know people like her. People who unscrupulously use their womanly charms to get ahead and carry a deep disdain for those bound by concepts of kindness, morals, or intelligence and most especially for those who see them for what they are instead of being manipulated. People who care for nobody but themselves and who find enjoyment in life not in what they have, but in conquering the unattainable that is only desirable because it is out of reach. I loved how Mitchell showed Scarlett's decline from a religious albeit not believing girl who allowed her rationalization and avoidance to carry her from one sin to the next of intensifying degree. An excellent portrait of the degradation of character.

Gone with the Wind⑨

I view Scarlett as a representation of the South in which she loved. She did not care from whence the wealth came or believed that it would ever end. Because she was rich and important, she would conquer. As the Yankees attempted to rebuild the South, fresh in their embitterment at a war they did not want to fight, you can both see their reasoning and feel for the Southerners who were licked and then stomped on in their attempts to gain back of their life. You see that in Scarlett. On one hand you don't pity her and think she needs a lesson in poverty and on the other hand you want her to survive. Either she can lie down and cling to her old ways or she can debase herself and rebuild. Survival, not morality, is her strongest drive.

Gone with the Wind⑧

My one complaint about the book was at times the description was lengthy. I'd get a grasp for the emotions of Scarlett that are supposed to describe the emotions of all Southerners or the description of the land at Tara as a representation of the rich red soil all Southerners love and then Mitchell would go on for paragraphs or pages rehashing that feeling to pull the most emotion out of you. It worked, but sometimes I think she could have done so in fewer words.

Gone with the Wind⑦

I also enjoyed Mitchell showing the volatile formula in which the KKK was aroused, that it wasn't just a disdain for free darkies but a need to protect their women and children from the rash anger now imposed on them through this new regime. Not that there are any redeeming qualities in the KKK, or even the Southern rash justice by pistol shot to curb wounded pride, but it was interesting to learn the wider circumstances in which it arose. The entire picture of the Southern perspective from the hierarchy of slaves to the disdain of the reconstruction was enlightening. The post-war difficulties, that sometimes it's harder to survive than die, were some of my favorite epiphanies of the story. What everyone in the South went through, both white and black, after everything was deconstructed and they didn't know how to rebuild. It wasn't just about freeing slaves but about rebuilding an entire way of life and sometimes change, even good change, can be this scary and destructive.

Gone with the Wind⑥

I enjoyed the picture of plantations that did not abuse slaves to the extent that you read about in many memoirs. There was still a disrespect in that they viewed "darkies" as ignorant and childish and worthy of being owned, but there were those who cared for those in their trust. And the North who came down riling up the lowest of the slaves to flip the oppression did not want any contact with a race they feared. Prejudice takes many faces. Slavery is such an important part of American history, but I don't know that I agree with the format in which it is taught (at least the way it was taught to me). We take young, tolerant children and feed them stories of racism and abuse and then tell them the world is naturally prejudice (that they are prejudice) so don't be. White children start feeling awkward and aware and black children start feeling mistreated and aware. We manage to teach children about Indian and Holocaust history without the same enthusiasm to end racism by breeding racism. There has to be a better way. But I digress.

Gone with the Wind⑤

I enjoyed the picture of pre-war South outside of what you learn in history class approved by the nation that won the war. If the South had won, we would have an entirely different picture painted. A story of lush lands and prosperity abounding with chivalry and gentility by a (too) passionate people. If you visit the South today, you can see that all these generations later the wounds of the war and the regret at losing the way of life are still fresh. But if it had not been the civil war, it would have been by other means that the lazy sprawled out way of life would have been conquered by our efficient, compact, modern lives.

Gone with the wind④

I had started reading this book for 2 months now. It is really hard to understand deeplly for me. The expression in the story is not easy, but it's really fun, too. Now I want to show you my impression of this story little by littele.

It takes guts to make your main character spoiled, selfish, and stupid, someone without any redeeming qualities, and write an epic novel about her. But it works for two reasons. First of all you wait for justice to fall its merciless blow with one of the most recognized lines in cinema ("frankly my dear, I don't give a damn"), but you end with a broken and somewhat repentant character and you can't be pitiless. Secondly, if you were going to parallel the beautiful, affluent, lazy, spirited South being conquered by the intellectual, industrious North, what better way to do that than with characters who embody those characteristics? You come to feel a level of sadness that the South and Scarlett lost their war and hope that they will rebuild.

Gone with the wind③

This story is set in 1860’s Georgia in south of America. It is during the Civil War. Scarlet O’Hara is a daughter of man who succeeded as a planter as an Irish immigrant. She was in love with a handsome boy, Ashley Wilkes who is in the upper class same as her. However he had engaged with his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. At the BBQ party, Scarlet had heard it and was really shocked. Then she lost her temper and broken Ashley’s pot at his mansion. Rhett Butler was looking at her and attracted by her the action, then he fell in love with her. This happening is like start of this story.

Gone with the Wind②

Hello. What's going on? I felt my Golden Week had past really fast though our holidays were longer than the other university. I had a great time then, but I want more free time JJJ

The main character of this story is Scarlett O’Hara. I was surprised at the introduction of this story. This runs as follows. “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men did not realize this when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. Her eyes were green and her skin was that soft white skin which Southern women valued so highly, and covered so carefully from the hit Georgia sun with hats and gloves.” When I read this part first time, I felt it was really interesting, and my attention was engaged by the book!

Gone with the Wind①

Hello. What's going on?

I just reached my twntieth birthday on April 30! Many people celebrated my birthday and I had really great one. It was nice bigining of the Golden Week!

 

I started reading “Gone with the Wind” written by Margaret Mitchell. I had read this book in Japanese before, and I really liked it, so I tried to read it in English this time. My mother told me that she has read all series of Gone with the Wind when she was in college and she was really touched and moved. So I wanted to read it and I wanted to feel same feeling with my mother. This is the best reason why I chosen this book. Isn’t this a nice reason? I’m really looking for going on reading it.

Self introduction

Hi, I'm Nagisa Tsutsui. I'm really happy to start my blog today. I'd like to introduce myself.

I'm in the second grade of DWCLA in Kyoto City. My home town is Maizuru City which is close to Amano Hashidate. There are many nature and beaches around my house. I love them. It takes about 3 hours Maizuru to Kyoto, so I live in an apartment by myself now. I come to school by bicycle for 10 minutes.

I love watching movies or DVDs. I like going to the movie theater alone. Of course I go to the movie theater with my friends, but if the movie is a kind of sad or touching one, I want to watch them alone, because I don't want my friends to look at me crying.

I watched Les Miserable and Sugar Rash recently. The former touched me so much. The power of the young people moved my heart. The latter made me so happy! The story was really nice and the world view of Sugar Rush was lovely and cute. I recommend both of them. I can say I want to watch them many time!

I'm attracted to join some volunteers. Last summer, I went to East Timor which is really small country in Asia. It is not so rich and just became independent in 2000. I saw the builings, living, and people of the country. Everything was new and fresh for me and I got really great experience there.

I want to go to the Tohoku district to volunteer in this summer.

My hobby is playing the piano and listening to the music, especially I often listen to Maroon5, Madonna, and Morning Musume. I love 80's Western music. I sometimes listen to the Jiburi songs.

My dream is not clear yet, but I would like to get an occupation where I can use my English. I'm interested in an interpreter.

My English skills are not high enough to get my dream, so I'll do my best in an AES class to make myself stronger and I want to achieve my aim.

Thank you for reading.