Gone with the Wind as an Allegory for the Juxtaposition of the New and Old South

A literary analysis I wrote for my friend for her senior english final.

Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind is a complex novel that reflects the changes of the South during the Civil War, as mirrored by the plot and symbolism it contains.

Scarlett herself is a representation of the juxtaposition of the Old and New South, being the daughter of a self-made immigrant and the heiress of a wealthy southern family. Before the war, she observes most rules of high-class southern society. Perhaps this goes against her nature, but she has no outlet for her rule-breaking instinct, and so she allows it to smolder within her until the war breaks out. She dutifully attempts to seduce Ashley, a man who represents everything a southern gentleman was supposed to be before the war. He excels at skills of leisure, riding and hunting, but unfortunately has no true experience with labor or work. He is a proper gentleman, and as such cannot continue to court Scarlett once he is promised to another woman. Scarlett, although distressed, understands this and begrudgingly accepts it as part of life in the Old South.

After learning that Ashley is engaged to another woman, Scarlett speaks to her father, who tells her, “Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for ‘tis the only thing in this world that lasts.”

This quote is incredibly foreshadowing to the rest of the novel. When she initially hears this bit of advice, Scarlett rejects it, because she is still mourning her loss of Ashley. However, this quote is extremely important. Love of her family’s land, Tara, is a huge motivator for Scarlett throughout the novel. It propels her to success like nothing else has before, not even love for Ashley. By the end of the novel, Scarlett has lost a great many things. Rhett, her true love; Melanie, her best friend; and her love for Ashley, which kept her going through most of the novel. She takes comfort in Tara, knowing that only Tara will be there for her, always.

Scarlett, although being from a wealthy family and raised to be a proper southern lady, has a obvious vicious streak. Even after she learns that Ashley is engaged to marry Melanie Hamilton, she resolves to steal him away from his betrothed. She believes that confessing her love will be enough to convince him to elope with her, which demonstrates a kind of narcissism. When her plan to win Ashley falls through, she gets engaged to Melanie’s brother Charles out of spite, hoping to make Ashley jealous. When the men go off to war and her husband dies of measles, it is obvious in the way she behaves that Scarlett did not love him, and perhaps saw him only as a means to an end. She gives birth to her first son, and becomes plagued by boredom and anger that suggests that she could be suffering from postpartum depression. Tired of the dull life of a widowed mother and the buzz over the war, she talks a trip to Atlanta to stay with Melanie and her aunt.

It is this movement to Atlanta that symbolizes the beginning of Scarlett’s transition into ways of thinking represented by the Reconstruction period after the war. It is where she truly encounters Rhett Butler, a dashing man, cast out from his family in Charlestown. Rhett is the foil to Ashley, the devilish adventurer to Ashley’s gentleman. Ashley is the golden boy, with blonde hair and infallible manners. Rhett is dark, handsome, and infuriatingly full of wit. If Ashley represent the Old South, then Rhett is the North. He encourages Scarlett to deviate from the strict rules of the antebellum South and become more independent. However, she can’t fully follow his advice because the societal mold that the war will soon break is still in place. Meeting Rhett does, however, signal the beginning of Scarlett’s transition into new ways of thinking.

While staying in Atlanta, Scarlett is still expected to adhere to the societal decorum regarding widows, which means that when the army hospital in the city throws a fund-raising bazaar, she is expected to help manage it but not to attend as a guest, and especially not to dance. This infuriates her and when Rhett scandalously asks to dance with her in front of all the guests, she accepts despite knowing there will be consequences. This is further proof of her changing views on her own rule-breaking nature. It is mirrored by the progress of the war at that time and the Confederacy’s steady decline of victories and troop morale. When Ashley writes a letter to Melanie expressing his doubts about the war, Scarlett ignores his doubt in her relief that he has not written Melanie a love letter. Perhaps this is reflective of the Confederacy’s stubborn refusal that they are losing the war, sticking their heads in the sand to maintain their naive patriotism.

As the war creeps closer to Atlanta and the Confederate army loses the Battle of Gettysburg, Ashley returns to Atlanta on a short leave of absence. He asks Scarlett to look after Melanie, which she agrees to do before kissing him. He kisses her back for a moment, but breaks away and leaves to catch his train. A few months later, the Confederacy is losing ground and the Union army comes even closer to Atlanta. Rhett has become a food speculator and profiteer, and is openly antagonized by the citizens of Atlanta. He flirts openly with Scarlett, but she spurns him and believes that he is too scandalous and unconventional, too unlike her beloved Ashley. When both of them learn that Ashley has been captured as a prisoner of war, Rhett tells Scarlett that if Ashley was not such a gentleman, he could have avoided capture by betraying the Confederacy, as Rhett himself would have done. Scarlett surprisingly agrees with him, once again showing her almost vicious selfishness. Scarlett does not care about the war, only the safety of those she holds dear. She resents Melanie, but will take care of her because of Ashley’s request, because of the hope that it will make her a better person in Ashley’s eyes. If it were not for her own gain, perhaps she would not aid Melanie throughout her pregnancy and might have abandoned her when the fires broke out in Atlanta.

The burning of Atlanta was not only an important and memorable part of Gone with the Wind, but a pivotal point of the Civil War. The Union army successfully cut all railway lines leading in and out of Atlanta, effectively cutting off the flow of supplies. Canon shells bombarded the city for a little over a month, and General John Bell Hood of the Army of Tennessee ordered his troops to pull out of Atlanta, but not before setting ablaze weapon stores to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. The burning of Atlanta within the novel symbolizes the destruction of the Old South and Scarlett’s cozy, wealthy life. She must focus on not only her safety, but the safety of Melanie and their children, and cast aside any other notion that may distract her from her goal. The toll the last months have taken on her have hardened her resolve, demonstrated by her determination to get home to Tara, even if it means riding through dangerous forest land and sleeping on the road.

Scarlett arrives home to find that her mother has died and her father has gone mad with grief. His dementia is symbolic of the Old South’s inability to adapt to new ideologies, and his allowing Scarlett to take over the plantation is a mirror of the Old South surrendering to new ideas after the war. Scarlett takes over Tara quickly and efficiently, becoming even more determined to succeed. She vows, “I’m never going to be hungry again.” Scarlett also develops the saying, “I’ll think about it tomorrow” as a kind of mantra, a coping mechanism to keep her afloat and looking forward. She begins to pick cotton in the field despite her chagrin that it makes her look “white trash.” When a deserting soldier attempts to rob the house, she shoots him with her late husband’s gun. She kills a man, and yet her resolve never wavers. As Scarlett continues to bring Tara back to it’s former glory, she adopts a hardened resolve that allows her to keep going despite the hardships she has endured.

When the war ends, Ashley returns to Tara and the news spreads that the taxes on Tara are being raised. Scarlett asks Ashley what she should do, but he is dismayed about the loss of the Old South and admits to Scarlett that he does not belong in the new society she seems to fit so well in. Scarlett asks him to escape with her, but he will not leave Melanie. He places a clump of dirt in her hands and tells her that she loves Tara far more than she loves him. This calls back to her father’s advice that land is the only thing in the world worth anything, because land does not leave or fade away. Scarlett realizes this to be true and vows to not chase Ashley anymore.

Scarlett returns to Atlanta to ask Rhett for money to save Tara, but he has been put in prison for allegedly murdering a black man. She visits and tries to seduce him, but he refutes her and she storms out. She runs into Frank, her sister’s fiance, outside the jail. He tells her he plans to start a sawmill, and she sees an opportunity to save Tara. She tells Frank that her sister is set to marry another man, despite knowing that marrying Frank will hurt her sister. This provides further evidence that Scarlett has selfish and manipulative tendencies and views people as a means to an end.

Frank and Scarlett marry, and Scarlett gets the money to save Tara. After realizing that she would be better at running the sawmill than her husband, she buys it out from under him, with help from Rhett who blackmailed his way out of prison. Scarlett is a shrewd businesswoman, and Atlanta begins to resent her for her success. Her marrying of Frank and ownership of a business represents another stage in her life, and the New South’s adaption to a new, less agriculturally based economy. It is Scarlett’s rise to success over her male counterparts that had many people considering Gone with the Wind to be an early feminist work, although the only real quotation that expresses the idea of gender equality is, “A startling thought this, that a woman could handle business matters as well as or better than a man, a revolutionary thought to Scarlett who had been reared in the tradition that men were omniscient and women none too bright.”

The mention of the Ku Klux Klan in these chapters offers a more jarring perspective and symbolizes the harsher ways of the New South as compared to the Old. The work is often criticised as racist, however the ideas of race expressed in the novel are typical for the time and place in which the book is set.

Eventually, Scarlett and Rhett marry, a joining that represents the final turn over to the New South and subsequently the amalgamation of Scarlett’s hard work. They have a child together, a daughter, who Rhett loves fiercely. However, the marriage is strained, as both Scarlett and Rhett are stubborn and fiery to a fault, so alike that they often clash. Scarlett is the representation of the New South, and Rhett remains the North. Their relationship reflects this as they go from a near hatred for each other (although Rhett possesses at least some desire for Scarlett) to a begrudging cooperation.

The death of their daughter and a rumor that Scarlett has been having an affair with Ashley seem to finally strain their relationship to the breaking point. Scarlett seeks friendship from Ashley, and in talking with him realizes that Rhett is her true love. She rushes to tell him, only to find him leaving. She tells him she loves him, and when he still intends to leave, she asks him what she is to do if he leaves her. Turning to her, he utters the famous quote, “My dear, I don’t give a damn.”

This quote is a good summary of their relationship, with the juxtaposition of the words “dear” and “damn” providing a love-hate clash that is present between them throughout the novel. After Rhett goes to leave, Scarlett is anguished and breaks into tears, before resolving to go home and think about how to get Rhett back. The ending quote of the novel depicts this by saying, “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.”

This last monologue by Scarlett not only includes her “think about it tomorrow” mantra, but also accentuates all that Tara has come to mean to her. It is her home and she has fought to protect it and help it to thrive. Even when her heart is seemingly broken and her true love has left her, she thinks of Tara. This mirrors the pride that the southern Confederacy felt in their home and in their desperate battle to protect their ideals and preserve the Old South and all that it stood for.

Gone with the Wind is an extremely complex piece of literature that touches not only on the complexity of the Civil War, but dramatises the transition from Old South to New and how many people struggled to adapt and cope with the change of ideals and how others, like Scarlett, thrived. It is an incredibly detailed work of historical fiction with enough drama and romance to keep people engaged and enthralled with the many strifes of Scarlett O’Hara.