A Study Guide for Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Themes for Students: War and Peace. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Themes for Students: War and Peace for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535824002

Book preview

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Gone With the Wind

Margaret Mitchell

1936

Introduction

Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind is an epic tale of the American Civil War. It is the story of Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of wealthy Georgian plantation owners, who must overcome incredible adversity during and after the war. As she transforms from a selfish teenage girl into a confident woman, the United States undergoes a similar transformation, changing from a divided nation at war with itself into a unified country striving to heal from the wounds of a protracted battle. This novel has been translated into dozens of languages; it offers a tale that continues to resonate for contemporary readers, describing lovers and would-be lovers caught between Confederate slave-owners and Union abolitionists.

Gone with the Wind focuses on an array of white male characters. These range from enthusiastic young men like the Tarleton twins, who are eager for battle, and the philosophical Ashley who speaks of honor, to the cynical, profiteering Rhett, who insists on confronting others with his contrary and controversial opinions. Along the way, Mitchell also reveals a diverse array of characters including pompous bureaucrats who stay out of the war to give political speeches, veterans who straggle home with psychological wounds from witnessing the unspeakable horrors of war, and entrepreneurs known as carpetbaggers who sweep down upon the South to reap huge profits from the land that has been ripped apart.

Gone with the Wind simultaneously demonstrates the ways that women can be caught in the crossfire of war, just as Scarlett and Melanie are caught between the retreating Confederate Army and the victorious Union soldiers of General Sherman as the two women flee from Atlanta to Scarlett's home, Tara. On the home front, Mitchell's female characters face tremendous sacrifices and challenges in supporting the troops and surviving without male protection: they share food and medicine, donate jewelry and other valuables, nurse the wounded, and perform hard labor on plantations and