Set against the backdrop of the Civil War and its aftermath, the story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gone With the Wind is as intricate as its heroine. Here is how Erin Blakemore, the author of The Heroine’s Bookshelf, judges the work of the novel’s author, Margaret Mitchell: “A dual narrative of a defeated way of life and an undefeatable heroine, it covers massive territory, weaving together birth and death, family ties, and fatal historical forces. Appropriately, Scarlett’s story plays out against a historical backdrop as complex and contradictory as its heroine, a woman whose internal battles are as violent as any Appomattox. At its core, the book is about the one thing Peggy knew best of all: fight.”
Blakemore maintains that Scarlett is much more than a selfish creature and likens her to a “seductive splinter” that you can’t remove from your skin. In fact, she’s anything but a perfect heroine. “Where perfect heroines are brave, she is weak; where they act with decision, she is fickle and mercurial. She wastes a lifetime of love on a harebrained obsession with a man of inaction, brutalizes her offspring, and throws away the affection of everyone who counts. And still we read and reread Gone With the Wind, as obsessed with Scarlett’s fight for her land, her life, and her ridiculous love as she is with her own survival.”
What sets Scarlett apart from other classic heroines is that, although she was born into the lap of luxury, nearly everything is taken from her at one point or another. And the things she is forced to do, whether it is delivering a baby on her own, shooting a man, doing harsh manual labour or seeing a pregnant Melanie safely across treacherous terrain, is monumental. Hers is the ultimate struggle (even though she is often fighting against her own decisions). And what makes her so inspiring is that, even when her own prospects are extremely bleak, she has unwavering faith that she can makes things right again.
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