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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Gone with the Wind, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Civil War and Reconstruction
Looking Forward vs. Looking Back
Classism and Racism
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness
Women and Power
Summary
Analysis
By May 1864, the Yankees under General Sherman are in Dalton, Georgia, 100 miles north-west of Atlanta preparing for an attack on the Western and Atlantic railroad. However, Atlanta isn’t afraid of the Yankees, since they’ve beat them back once already. The Confederate General Joe Johnston knows that Georgia—home to many factories and granaries—is too important to the Confederacy to let the Yankees invade it. But Dalton seems so far away.
The South still can’t view the war realistically. Even as the Yankees come closer and closer to Georgia, they maintain that the distance is still too far to mean danger. Also, they believe that, just because Georgia is valuable to the South, General Joe won’t let it be captured, as if Georgia’s sacredness alone is enough to protect it.
Themes
On Miss Pittypat’s veranda, Dr. Meade explains that General Johnston is standing guard like an “iron rampart.” Mrs. Meade hopes her husband is right—if the Yankees invade Georgia, Phil will join the fight. Scarlett and Melanie think of Ashley while Rhett Butler holds Wade Hamilton and plays with him. That morning, Miss Pittypat decided to kill the old rooster. Chicken is now a rarity, so she invited guests to share it. Earlier that day, Rhett came to the house with presents, and she’d been forced to invite him too. However, he’s on his best behavior. They had a nice meal creatively made out of odds and ends.
Dr. Meade’s description of General Johnston as an “iron rampart” seems like an exaggeration, or wishful thinking: General Johnston is only human. While Dr. Meade talks, everyone is absorbed in their personal concerns. Melanie and Scarlett are both thinking about Ashley, and Mrs. Meade is worried about her son. She discourages his patriotism even more. Rhett displays a surprising appreciation for children by playing with Wade Hampton.
Themes
After supper, they all gather on the porch and talk about the war. Captain Ashburn, a wounded soldier, announces that he’d been granted transfer from Atlanta to Dalton. All the women look at him appreciatively. Dr. Meade says Sherman will never get past “Old Joe.” Everyone nods, comforted. But then Rhett asks if Sherman has 100,000 men and Johnston only 40,000, including the returned deserters. Mrs. Meade says there are no deserters in the Confederate army. Rhett corrects himself; by “deserters” he means the wounded soldiers who healed but remained at home. Most of these soldiers didn’t intend to desert permanently, and only came home to plow their fields, trying to feed their hungry families.
Rhett puts Dr. Meade’s explanation of how things stand with the war in realistic terms involving actual numbers. These numbers—100,000 Yankees against 40,000 Confederates— make the South’s situation in the war seem dire. He also explains how many Confederate soldiers “deserted” because their families were so poor at home that they stayed to help plow the fields. This shows how poverty and the war are both enemies to the South during this time.
Themes
Dr. Meade says the numbers don’t matter; one Confederate is worth a dozen Yankees. Rhett asks if this is still the case when the Confederates have no shoes or food. Captain Ashburn looks guilty, knowing that men are at the front with worse injuries than his. Furious, Dr. Meade shouts that the mountains will provide refuge for the Confederates, just like in Thermopylae. Rhett notes that every man died in Thermopylae. Backed into a corner, Dr. Meade says that, if they must, every man will die to keep the Yankees out of Georgia. Everyone is angry that Rhett can’t do the “sacred duty” of believing in the Cause.
Dr. Meade believes that numbers actually detract from the real odds. He says, illogically and vaguely, that one Southerner is worth a dozen Yankees—something Rhett sees as wishful thinking. Rhett recalls historical events to show that the South is not likely to win. This suggests that a Southerner’s hope of victory at this point in the Civil War is dependent on ignoring statistics, history, and common sense. But Rhett’s common sense is seen as him failing his “sacred duty.”
Themes
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To ease the tension, Pittypat asks Scarlett to play piano for everyone. Scarlett starts a sad song about a dead soldier. Fanny Elsing asks her to play something else. Scarlett starts another but stops because it is sad too. To her relief, Rhett suggests a song and joins her in singing, even though it is also a sad song.
Scarlett can only think of sad songs to play which suggests that, try as they might, the South can’t ignore the tragedy that is creeping ever closer as the war progresses. The war is no longer an exciting event.
Themes
Over the next few weeks, Johnston holds off the Yankees. The Yankees can’t assault the Confederates directly, and so they pull back and attack them from behind. Johnston retreats, marching south to meet the Yankees for another attack. This action irritates everyone in Atlanta. Why didn’t Johnston hold off the Yankees instead of yielding more and more of Georgia? Refugees crowd into Atlanta as Johnston continues to fall back, and the Yankees come closer. Atlanta is flooded with the wounded. Every hotel, hospital, and home is filled, including Miss Pitty’s.
From the perspective of the people at home, General Johnston’s retreating strategy is cowardly and nonsensical. For the longest time, everyone thought it out of the question that Georgia would be taken, and now that the Yankees are advancing into it, Southerners don’t know what else to do but admit that their leadership is faulty. They refuse to admit that the Yankees are stronger than the Confederates, no matter the evidence.
Themes
Everyone has faith in the troop and the Cause, but they are losing faith in General Johnston. Why didn’t he hold the Yankees instead of retreating? The Home Guard, safely in Atlanta, boasts that they could do a better job and draw up their own strategies. The same fighting pattern persists for 25 days. No matter how many Yankees the Confederates kill, more come. Finally, the Confederates retreat to Kennesaw Mountain; no one believes the Yankees will cross it, but still, it is only 22 miles away from Atlanta.
The Southerners continue to believe in their Cause, though there doesn’t seem to be much reason to continue believing. Although their confidence seems foolish where the war is concerned, their patriotism is remarkable. They are determined to protect Georgia from the Yankees at all costs. Every distance the Yankees are from Atlanta is an impassable distance in their eyes.
Themes
One day, wounded soldiers start pouring in from Kennesaw Mountain. Mrs. Merriwether wakes Scarlett early and drives her to the hospital. Scarlett is so tired of nursing that she tells Mrs. Merriwether that Ellen wants her to go home to Tara, but Mrs. Merriwether says she’ll write to Ellen and say that Scarlett is needed. Scarlett is sick of the foul smells, the flies, and the soldiers’ constant questions about Old Joe. She follows Dr. Meade around with a basin while he amputates diseased flesh. All the chloroform and iodine has run out, and the screams of pain are unbearable. Scarlett can hardly stand it and feels nauseous.
The hospital fills with more and more wounded soldiers, and Scarlett is running out of patience. It is not that she can’t stand the pity and grief she feels for the dying men, but that she finds them physically disgusting. The wounds are certainly horrifying, but she can’t find it in herself to sympathize. She approaches work at the hospital as she would arduous field work: it is beneath her. She views Tara as a place where she’d be free from this horror.
Themes
At noon, Scarlett sneaks away from the hospital. She runs up the street, breathing clean air. Rhett Butler drives by and comments on her disheveled appearance. She tells him to hush and he helps her gallantly into his carriage. It’s nice to see an unwounded man, and one so well-dressed. She notices his graceful strength and powerful muscles.
Scarlett is attracted to Rhett in this moment because he is untouched by the war. Instead of being weak and dirty and beaten, Rhett is in perfect condition. His strength and vigor have not been expended on the war effort.
Themes
Rhett calls Scarlett a fraud for betraying the “great Cause” and running away from the hospital. She says she’s sick of the hospital, and that its all General Johnston’s fault for bungling the fight. Rhett says Johnston’s strategy saved the railroad, and that everyone in Atlanta is mad at him for not doing the impossible. He says the Home Guard will be called in to help soon and suggests it’ll be a wake-up call for people who haven’t had to do anything yet. Scarlett points out that Rhett also hasn’t done anything. Rhett isn’t offended by this, and he wishes Old Joe luck.
Rhett is perfectly comfortable criticizing the Home Guard for their unearned pride even though he is a speculator in the war. However, although he isn’t fighting in the war, he also isn’t pretending he’s a hero. He believes that the South’s Cause is impossible, so his joining the fight would mean nothing but one more wasted life. Rhett’s attitude suggests that he sees his outlook as realistic rather than cowardly.
Themes
Scarlett notices a group of Black men coming towards them. Rhett stops the carriage and Scarlett looks curiously at the group. She recognizes Big Sam, the foreman at Tara. Recognizing her as well, Big Sam smiles and greets her. The white officer, Captain Randall, orders the men back into formation. Scarlett shakes hands with them all and asks what they’re doing so far from Tara. Big Sam says they were called in to dig ditches in case the soldiers retreat to Atlanta. Scarlett turns to Randall to ask why the army needs reinforcements in Atlanta. He starts to imply that the fighting might reach Atlanta, but seeing Scarlett’s fear, he says the Confederates won’t retreat. Scarlett remembers what Rhett said: once the Yankees push them onto flat land, the Confederates won’t stand a chance. Scarlett gives the enslaved men some money for tobacco.
Scarlett is on friendly terms with the Black men, many of whom were enslaved at Tara. Her kindness towards them and their joy at seeing her is one way the novel implies that white Southern enslavers like the O’Haras are so nice to their enslaved persons that none of them should want freedom. Also, when Scarlett sees her former enslaved staff digging ditches in Atlanta in preparation for war, she realizes for the first time how real the war is. It also implies that Tara is already not the place it was when she left it; the war has drawn out the enslaved persons from the plantations, undoubtedly affecting Tara’s prosperity and comfortability.
Themes
Scarlett wonders aloud why all men try to protect women from the truth. She wonders if the army is so short of men they have to resort to using “darkies.” Rhett says the army is preparing for a siege of Atlanta. Scarlett gasps. Wishing she hadn’t revealed she was afraid, she asks why Rhett’s here when he doesn’t care about the war. Rhett jokes that he wants the experience of rescuing a maiden in distress. Scarlett says she can take care of herself, and Rhett says that is what a Yankee would say.
Scarlett also realizes that the war effort is dire because the Confederates are enlisting Black men, whom they usually wouldn’t trust away from their enslavers. For the second time, Scarlett is compared to a Yankee for saying she can take care of herself. Although acting like a Yankee is framed an insult to a Southerner, in this instance it seems like a compliment because it indicates Scarlett is tenacious.
Themes
Scarlett says the Yankees will never get to Atlanta. Rhett bets her they will; bonbons if she wins, a kiss if she loses. Scarlett forgets her fear in her excitement over the word “kiss.” She teases that she’d sooner kiss a pig. Rhett says that Scarlett’s beaus have respected her too much, and that she needs to be kissed. He says that all nice girls wish that men would kiss them, even if they pretend they don’t. Someday, he says, he’ll kiss her and she’ll like it. Scarlett hates how right Rhett always is, so she asks him to take her back to the hospital.
In Scarlett’s world, it is usually the woman who teases the man with her coyness. In Scarlett and Rhett’s relationship, however, Rhett is the one who teases Scarlett with his affection. Rhett also implies that Southern girls are just pretending to be proper: they want romance just as much as men do, but the South’s focus on policing women’s conduct means women can’t be straightforward about their desires.
Themes
As he drives her back, Rhett explains that he hasn’t made further advances because he’s been waiting for Scarlett to grow up and forget Ashley. Scarlett’s eyes fill with tears because she knows she’ll never forget Ashley. She hates Rhett for teasing while Ashley is dying in prison. Rhett says he’s been watching her “schoolgirl” passion for Ashley, and how she has hidden it from Melanie. He asks if Ashley has ever been unfaithful to Melanie and kissed Scarlett, and he takes her angry silence as a yes. He starts to say what he’ll do when Ashley dies and Scarlett forgets him, but Scarlett furiously climbs out of the carriage before he can finish.
Rhett associates Scarlett’s feelings for Ashley with her youth, believing that he’s only a childish crush of hers. Whether or not he’s right, Scarlett does associate Ashley with her youth and the pre-war days at Tara. Scarlett is furious at Rhett for speaking this way about Ashley, and she usually gets angry with Rhett when she knows he’s right. But having Rhett essentially call her childish and silly is insulting too because Scarlett wants to be mature and practical in how she faces the war.
Themes
