Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1900. Her father was a lawyer and the president of the Atlanta Historical Society, and her mother was a suffragette (a woman in support of extending the right to vote, especially to women) and an advocate of women’s rights in general. Mitchell grew up listening to stories about Atlanta during the Civil War, stories often told by people who had lived through the war. Mitchell attended Smith College, a women’s college in Northampton, Massachutts. In 1919, she returned to Atlanta and began to live a lifestyle considered wild by the standards of the 1920s. After a disastrous first marriage, Mitchell began a career as a journalist and married an advertising executive named John Robert Marsh. In 1926, encouraged by her husband, Mitchell began to write the novel that would become Gone with the Wind. She went through nine complete drafts of the thousand-page work, tting an epic romance against the Civil War background she knew so well. In the first eight drafts, the protagonist was called Prissy Hamilton, not Scarlett O’Hara (as the character was renamed in the final draft).
Gone with the Wind differs from most Civil War novels by glorifying the South and demoni
zing the North. Other popular novels about the Civil War, such as Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, are told from a Northern perspective and tend to exalt the North’s values. Mitchell’s novel is unique also for its portrayal of a strong-willed, independent woman, Scarlett O’Hara, who shares many characteristics with Mitchell herlf. Mitchell frequently defied convention, divorcing her first husband and pursuing a career i关于寓言故事的成语
n journalism despite the disapproval of society.
Gone with the Wind was published in 1936, ten years after Mitchell began writing it. A smash success upon publication, Gone with the Wind became—and remains even now—one of the best-lling novels of all time. It received the 1937 Pulitzer Prize. In the late 1930s a film version of the novel was planned, and David O. Selznick’s nationwide arch for an actress to play Scarlett O’Hara captivated the nation’s attention. The resulting film starred Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable as Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, and it quickly became one of the most popular motion pictures of all time.
Mitchell was less than thrilled by the sweeping popularity of her work. She found the spo
tlight uncomfortable and grew exhausted and ill. Gone with the Wind is her only novel, though she continued to write nonfiction. Mitchell volunteered extensively during World War II and emed to regain her strength. In 1949 a car struck and killed Mitchell while she was crossing Peachtree Street in Atlanta.
Many critics question the literary merit and outdated racial stances of Gone with the Wind. Some consider the novel fluffy, partly becau women of Mitchell’s time rarely received credit for rious literary fiction and partly becau the novel features a romance along with its historical plot. Both blacks and whites have harshly criticized Mitchell’s sympathetic depiction of slavery and the Ku Klux Klan and her racist depiction of blacks. The novel is most v电动牙刷怎么用
aluable if read with an understanding of three historical contexts: our own, Mitchell’s, and Scarlett’s.
Plot Overview
It is the spring of 1861. Scarlett O’Hara, a pretty Southern belle, lives on Tara, a large plantation in Georgia. She concerns herlf only with her numerous suitors and her
desire to marry Ashley Wilkes. One day she hears that Ashley is engaged to Melanie Hamilton, his frail, plain cousin from Atlanta. At a barbecue at the Wilkes plantation the next day, Scarlett confess her feelings to Ashley. He tells her that he does love her but that he is marrying Melanie becau she is similar to him, whereas he and Scarlett are very different. Scarlett slaps Ashley and he leaves the room. Suddenly Scarlett realizes that she is not alone. Rhett Butler, a scandalous but dashing adventurer, has been watching the whole scene, and he compliments Scarlett on being unladylike.
The Civil War begins. Charles Hamilton, Melanie’s timid, dull brother, propos to Scarlett. She spitefully agrees to marry him, hoping to hurt Ashley. Over the cour of two months, Scarlett and Charles marry, Charles joins the army and dies of the measles, and Scarlett learns that she is pregnant. After Scarlett gives birth to a son, Wade, she becomes bored and unhappy. She makes a long trip to Atlanta to stay with Melanie and Melanie’s aunt, Pittypat. The busy city agrees with Scarlett’s temperament, and she begins to e a great deal of Rhett. Rhett infuriates Scarlett with his bluntness and mockery, but he also encourages her to flout the verely restrictive social requirements f
or mourning Southern widows. As the war progress, food and clothing run scarce in Atlanta. Scarlett and Melanie fear for Ashley’s safety. After the bloody battle of Gettysburg, Ashley is captured and nt to prison, and the Yankee army begins bearing down on Atlanta. Scarlett desperately wants to return home to Tara, but she has promid Ashley she will stay with the pregnant Melanie, who could give birth at any time.
On the night the Yankees capture Atlanta and t it afire, Melanie gives birth to her son, Beau. Rhett helps Scarlett and Melanie escape the Yankees, escorting them through the burning streets of the city, but he abandons them outside Atlanta so he can join the Confederate Army. Scarlett drives the cart all night and day through a dangerous forest full of derters and soldiers, at last reaching Tara. She arrives to find that her mother, Ellen, is dead; her father, Gerald, has lost his mind; and the Yankee army has looted the plantation, leaving no food or cotton. Scavenging for subsistence, a furious Scarlett vows never to go hungry again.
Scarlett takes charge of rebuilding Tara. She murders a Yankee thief and puts out a fire t by a spiteful Yankee soldier. At last the war ends, word comes that Ashley is free and on his way home, and a stream of returning soldiers begins pouring through Tara. One such soldier, a one-legged homeless Confederate named Will Benteen, stays on and helps Scarlett with the plantation. One day, Will brings terrible news: Jonas Wilkerson, a former employee at Tara and current government official, has ra发芽的种子
id the taxes on Tara, hoping to drive the O’Haras out so that he might buy the plantation. Distraught, Scarlett hurries to Atlanta to duce Rhett Butler so that he will give her the three hundred dollars she needs for taxes. Rhett has emerged from the war a fabulously wealthy man, dripping with earnings from his blockade-running operation and from food speculation. However, Rhett is in a Yankee jail and cannot help Scarlett. Scarlett es her sister’s beau, Frank Kennedy, who now owns a general store, and forges a plan. Determined to save Tara, she betrays her sister and marries Frank, pays the taxes on Tara, and devotes herlf to making Frank’s business more profitable.
