by Margaret Mitchell
According to Collet, J. (n.d.), Gone with the Wind has been hailed as a triumph of American literature and film. In 1937, Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for her sweeping portrayal of the crumbling of the Old South. Since then, the novel has sold millions of copies. Even today, Gone with the Wind, despite its many historical inaccuracies, forms the basis of American popular memory of the Old South. There have been many tales of the Old South in the years since the Civil War, but Margaret Mitchell's tale is the one that is most deeply embedded in American culture. An important element of the story's popularity is Scarlett O'Hara, a strong female character.
Although Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind focuses on the Reconstruction years following the Civil War, many of Mitchell's Initial readers living through the Great Depression could identify with the hardships endured by Scarlett and her family. When all the slaves of Tara run off, and Yankees loot the plantation by burning cotton and stealing valuables, the O'Hara family is left with very little. This experience was one shared by many plantation owners in the South, some of whom also lost their land because they were unable to pay the new taxes. Similarly, many people in the 1930s had lost their jobs, savings, and homes after the stock market crash of 1929 (Bookrags, n.d.).
According to Gajanan, M. (2020), Gone With the Wind has long been criticized for glorifying slavery in the American South—from its catalog, promising to return it to the service in along with “a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of” its racist depictions. It romanticizes the Confederacy in a way that continues to give legitimacy to the notion that the secessionist movement was something more, or better, or nobler than what it was—a bloody insurrection to maintain the ‘right’ to own, sell and buy human beings.
Most of the scenes in the story are connected to the histories. There are historical events that were mentioned that would give us an idea about what happened from the past decades. The story also let us realize that a person can change because of love. Love is a powerful thing that can create unexpected happy moments in our lives and a strong relationship with other people. It shows that love will always be present and will never disappear because it is one of the reasons for us to stay alive. Its themes are the transformation of southern culture, overcoming adversity with Willpower and the importance of land.
References
Bookrags (n.d.). The Great Depression and Reconstruction Eras. Retrieved from
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-gonewind/historicalcontext.html#gsc.tab=0
Collet, J. (n.d.). Historical Analysis of Gone With the Wind. Retrieved from https://
www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/remember/rtl8.html
Gajanan, M. (2020). Gone With the Wind Should Not Be Erased, Argue Film Historians. But
It Should Not Be Watched in a Vacuum. Retrieved from https://time.com/5852362/gone-
with-the-wind-film-history/
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