Gone with the Wind: Chapter 28 Summary & Analysis

Winter arrives suddenly, and everyone at Tara is hungry again. Scarlett thinks how wrong she’d been when she told Grandma Fontaine she’d already known the worst. Life gets worse every day. The cotton is gone, most of the food is gone, and there is nothing to buy with their money. The Tarletons’ and Munroes’ houses were burned in the recent invasion. No one has food. Neighbors share with one another, but soon there’s nothing to share. At Tara, they eat catfish Pork catches in the stream. The kill the calf and eat the veal, but they wait to kill the baby pigs until they get bigger.

Pork forages for food. One night, he comes to Scarlett’s room late and shows her that he’s been shot in the leg. She bandages him while he explains that he’d been stealing from a chicken coop. Ellen once told Scarlett she must make sure the enslaved persons had good morals, but Scarlett loves Pork’s loyalty. Instead of chastising him, she tells him to be more careful about being caught. She praises him and promises to buy him a gold watch when she has the money.

During this time, Scarlett has a nightmare that haunts her for years. The first time she has it, the house is damp from rain. There is nothing to eat but milk, and everyone looks at Scarlett with hunger in their eyes. She lies down and worries. What can she do? Why isn’t there anyone to help her? She falls asleep and dreams she’s in a foggy wilderness. Icy fingers try to drag her down. She knows there’s a safe haven in the fog somewhere. She runs, trying to find it, but she’s too weak from hunger. From then on, she has this dream when she goes to sleep with an empty stomach. She starts sleeping with Melanie and begins to get thin and gaunt.

At Christmas, Frank Kennedy and a small troop of soldiers stay at Tara. They are overjoyed to sleep with a roof over their heads, and to be in the company of pretty women. They joke about the war and are festive. Suellen is happy to see Frank—her beau—again. Carreen talks with one of the soldiers who knew Brent Tarleton. Melanie, usually shy around men, flirts with a soldier. She’s still weak but wants the soldiers to enjoy their Christmas.

Scarlett doesn’t enjoy the company. The troop eats a lot of Tara’s food, and she resents every bite they take. She is afraid they’d discover the newly dead pig in the kitchen and eat it all. She tries a “ramrod roll,” an army staple—corn meal paste wrapped around a ramrod and burned tasteless in a fire. She wonders how the soldiers can fight when they eat like this. Scarlett turns to ask Frank for news of Miss Pittypat, but she catches him looking sorry for them about their poverty. Frank loves Suellen, so the sight of Tara in this state is one of the most horrible sights he’s seen in the war. He wishes he could help them. Scarlett meets his eyes with a look of fierce pride, and he drops his head in shame.

Frank tells the room that Sherman has taken Atlanta and had housed his men there. Many of the Atlanta residents have died because Sherman drove them out of their homes in the pouring rain. He later burned the city down. Scarlett can’t believe that the Atlanta is gone. Frank doesn’t want to share the other horrible things he’s seen, so he tells them that Miss Pitty’s brick house still stands. He saw her in Macon and she plans to return to Atlanta.

Frank says that many Atlanta residents such as Mrs. Merriwether and Mrs. Meade are returning to Atlanta, living in tents while they rebuild their homes. Frank insists that Atlanta can’t be beaten. Melanie and Scarlett are proud of Atlanta. Melanie says that if Aunt Pitty is going back, they’d better go back too. Scarlett snaps that she won’t leave Tara, but Melanie can go. Melanie says she’d never leave Scarlett. Scarlett is sure Sherman will burn Atlanta again, but Frank says Sherman went to South Carolina.

Frank explains that Savannah fell because there were no men left to defend it. The Confederates even pulled convicts out of the prisons to join the war. Scarlett says that with the Yankees around, there are enough thieves. Scarlett is angry that Sherman went to Tennessee, leaving the Yankees to pilfer Georgia. Gerald says Ellen won’t like the way Scarlett is talking. Melanie asks if Frank has heard of Ashley. Frank hasn’t, so Melanie starts to say she knows Ashley is dead. Scarlett stops Melanie before Melanie can finish her sentence.

Frank says the Yankee prisons are comfortable, unlike the Confederate prisons. Melanie jokes that he must be lying and offers to go play piano for the men. As they go into the parlor, Frank asks Scarlett for a private word. Scarlett is afraid he’ll ask her for the livestock, but instead he says he’s sorry about Ellen. Scarlett says they shouldn’t talk about it. Frank says he was planning to ask Gerald for Suellen’s hand, but it seems like Scarlett is the head of the house. He says he lost his money in the war, but he can give Suellen true love.

Scarlett says Gerald always expected Suellen to marry Frank. Frank says happily that he’ll ask Suellen tonight. Scarlett says she’ll send Suellen to him so they can have some privacy, and she asks Frank what he meant earlier when he said it was the end of the world. Frank says the end of the war is coming and the Confederates will lose. They have no money and no men. Scarlett doesn’t care about the Confederacy, but she cares about the lack of food. Scarlett wishes Frank could marry Suellen now—she’d have one less mouth to feed.