Gone with the Wind Themes

Gone with the Wind portrays how the Civil War and Reconstruction transform the South. Before the war, wealthy Southerners led lives of luxury, leisure, and beauty on sprawling plantations such as Tara. The war, however, brings this way of life to an end, though most Southerners refuse to admit that this is happening. Rather, throughout the war, Southerners display pride in the Confederacy that at times seems willfully ignorant. The Union army steadily corners…

In Gone with the Wind, the Civil War destroys the South as the characters know it. In the midst of this destruction, some of the characters look back longingly to the past, while others look forward only to the future. When Scarlett returns to Tara and finds her mother dead and her father insane, she is nearly overcome with grief and desperation. However, as she lies in the spoiled garden at the burn site…

Gone with the Wind’s protagonist, Scarlett O’Hara, acts mostly out of selfishness. Even before the war, Scarlett marries Charles Hamilton just to spite Honey Wilkes for being mean to her, and she willfully strays from the ladylike example her mother Ellen O’Hara sets. Even though she hopes to one day be a great lady like Ellen, Scarlett feels that her mother’s selflessness and dignity are not enough to get her the things she…

In Gone with the Wind, the Civil War puts women in a position where they must fend for themselves while the men are away in combat. When Scarlett arrives at Tara during the war, the plantation is on the brink of either being taken by Yankees or falling into ruin and disrepair and being swallowed up again by the wilderness. Scarlett’s love for the land emboldens her to save it at whatever cost. At Tara…