I am an avid reader… but somehow, I am too unromantic to appreciate the novels on romance…. Hence I have always preferred to stay out of all the love stories and anything linked to that.
Last time when I was going on a long tour, I was looking for a real fat book to carry me through the trip. And my eyes caught the attention of “Gone with the Wind”… So I gave it a try just to see how mushy can the love stories get…. And my God… 1024 pages with very small fonts!!!
Well…. The book starts with a certain party in the late 19th century somewhere in Southern parts of the US…. Where our lead lady is surrounded by boys and boys are all busy talking about the war…
I found the novel interesting and carried on…. But when I finished around 3-4 chapters… there was no letting go…. To me it looked like the novel of the century and it was so thrilling and captivating that till I finished the novel and 3 months after that, I could not get out of the grips of this masterpiece….
The Story
This is a love story with many angles….
This is the love story of Scarlet O’Hara, an adamant, strong headed, rebel girl and Rhett Buttler, a social outcast. Or like many have put it, it’s a love of a lady manipulator and a gambler.
This is the story of Scarlet O’Hara and her burning desire for Ashley Wilkes. Is it desire? Is it love? Is it obsession? Is it something for which she can marry twice hoping to get to Ashley?
It is the story of the unconditional love of Scarlet for the her land: Tara, for which she can go to any extreme.
The story is based at the time of American Civil War, and is told from the views of a southerner. Scarlett has seen in front of her own eyes the death and destruction in the South by the northern army (referred to as Yankees). All her friends have perished, she has lost her husbands – twice, still nothing makes a difference to her, other than her desire to be close to Ashley and her determination to make Tara the way it was before.
Rhett Buttler is a speculator, who has made enough money from the war. He does not confirm to the set rules and probably the only one who can penetrate into Scarlet’s schemes and manipulations.
What happens when both of them come together?
Will Scarlet be able to get over Asley?
Will Ashley ever come to Scarlet, even though he is heavily indebted to her?
Will Rhett ever really win Scrlett?
Can two non-conformists really come together?
Please read the book for the details…. Its definitely worth the time and effort.
Characterization
Probably it’s the characterization that makes the novel special, especially the lead four: Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley and Melanie. One can actually touch, feel and see them through the letters in the novel.
Scarlet:
The manipulator, who has taken the full advantage of her looks and the fact that guys find her irresistible. She can go down to any level to get the things the way she wants. Probably her failure has been in the fact that whom she thought she always loved, she never loved and whom she always detested, was the one she really loved. The paradoxes have been brought out very carefully through her emotions.
Rhett:
The gambler, speculator, social outcast….. and yet… the gentleman who always there for Scarlet. We see his strength and we see his weakness in the novel. Probably what every man will like to be…..
Ashley Wilkes:
The gentleman, soft, educated, cultured…. But when it came to the real test after the time of the war, he had to accept defeat. A man, who let himself to be manipulated by Scarlet.
Melanie:
Melanie is the symbol of strength and trust in the novel. The wife of Ashley and the sister of Scarlet’s first husband, she had never any doubt on the intentions of Scarlet. For her Scarlet was God sent, who could never do anything wrong. What if she committed a murder? What if people saw Scarlet in the arms of Ashley? Given a choice between Scarlet and the rest of the world, her choice was always clear… it had to be scarlet.
The other notworthy characters are Gerald O’Hara - Scarlet’s father, Mammy – the nurse, India Wilkes and aunt Pittypat…. Each character was special.
The characters are so intense that, I went into a depression when Scarlet comes back to Tara after the war and finds all her dreams shattered.
On Racism
Often the book is accused of being highly racist.
Yes… it is highly racist, which is probably the only shortcoming that I found here.
The way the story is projected, it looked like the white folks were actually doing a favour to the blacks by offering them employment. There are certain places where the novel has gone into lengths explaining how well knitted the southern community was in spite of slavery where the slaves were actually parts of the household.
At times it was a bit hard to take, but the beauty of the novel was, no where has the author expressed the views as if they were her own. These come out only through the dialogues.
However, the story telling is so captivating and spellbinding that you tend to ignore these.
Trivia:
Gone With the Wind was Margarett Mitchel’s first novel. Several times she was asked by the fans, when she would be writing the sequel as the story seemed to have ended unfinished. She would simply reply that the story ended where it had to end…. There can never be any sequel to it.
After her death however, a sequel was made called “Scarlet”. Critics have often rejected the sequel saying that it killed the Scarlet we loved.
GWTW is said to have sold more copies than any book other than the Bible and is still selling 200, 000 books a year, even after 7 decades of its publishing.
Initially the lead character’s name was Pinsy O’Hara which was changed to Scarlet O’Hara after the publisher’s request.
Ironically, Margarett Mitchel died at the age of 49 in a road accident in Peachtree Street, Atlanta…. The street, where most of the actions in the novel took place….
End Note:
GWTW is a novel of a life time. I would call it as the strongest art of storytelling I have ever seen. I would have called its as the greatest novel of all times had it not been for the racism part.
This is a MUST MUST MUST READ. Don’t get disheartened by the length of the book… once you start it, you will soon start wondering…. How come it got over so soon???