Gone With the Wind

Well I did it. 1448 pages later and I'm done! Gone With the Wind took me just a little over a month to finish, and I'm definitely glad I did. It was always a book that intimidated me by it's sheer size, however I quickly found that the only reminder of how big it was was it's clumsy holding size. There was action and emotion on every page that kept you hooked.

My husband will tell you that I'm not a person that reads for deep meaning, enlightenment or symbolism. Those things are typically, sadly lost on me despite the best efforts of my teachers. I typically am just looking to get swept up in someone's story. To read and feel and experience all the joys and heartaches that characters go through. It allows me a safe space to experience my vast arsenal of emotions without needing to take them out on someone else. It's splendid.

However, I will tell you - I found much more than an emotional appeal in this book. I found it so very intriguing to read about slavery from a different perspective. It wasn't demonized. It wasn't brutal. At least not in this family and in this circle of people. They genuinely had a love, affection and loyalty to their people, and from both sides, too! To see slaves that stayed with Scarlett and Rhett despite everything because of loyalty and love. To see Rhett fondly take care of Mammy as if she were his own mother - this is not what you see in the history books. While I understand that wasn't the norm, and I understand why slavery was bad and needed to end, it was surprising to watch these interactions.

The other thing that struck me was just the echos of collapse and reconstruction that linger into today. I can't help at looking around at our society today and to see scenes from the book all around me. No, it's not near as dramatic or as obvious as the burning of Atlanta and the literal rebuild. But you can see it on the face of those with financial strife - those needing to re-evaluate and lower their standards of living - those that used to have not a care, that have so many additional stresses and worries. And the killers these days? The subtle cancers and heart attacks that creep up unnoticed. Much different, yet just as difficult, as the dysentery, gangrene, and bullet wounds. But yet in it all, I try to see the hope that Scarlett has. To not look back at the past longingly, but to look at the here and now, to look to the future and to find the joy in living. While it was very tainted, I believe that was at the heart of her motives.

"There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South... Here in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization gone with the wind... "

-Gone With the Wind (Movie)