A saga of survival

PREMA SRINIVASAN

Described as one of the greatest love stories of all times, Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell has always been an unforgettable reading experience for most of us. The setting for this historical novel is the American civil war which unleashed the forces which eventually led to the loss of a way of life that the Southerners had taken for granted. A tumultous period in American History is described with passion and drama and the book is peopled by unforgettable characters like the legendary Scarlett O'Hara and her dashing lover Rhett Butler. Not surprisingly, ever since its first publication in 1936 the book has sold over 29 million copies worldwide. It was later made into a highly successful film starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in the lead roles.

Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in an atmosphere heavily laden with civil war anecdotes. She developed a keen interest in American History and worked for a time on the Atlanta Journal. After her marriage in 1925, she put on paper all the stories she had read about the civil war and the result was a well-authenticated piece of historical fiction which eventually won for the author the coveted Pulitzer prize. Strangely enough this book, a record best-seller, was her only published work.

When the story begins, war between the north and southern states becomes official and the southerners seem to live in blissful ignorance of their weaknessess as well as the strength of the opposing yankee forces. Only Rhett Butler, an adventurer from Charleston, has the courage to speak his mind. He warns the Southern plantation owners: "All we have is cotton and slaves and arrogance, They'd (northern Yankees) lick us in a month." He points out the bitter fact that the north by virtue of its commercial superiority is better equipped to face the war. " Have you thought that we would not have a single warship and that the Yankee fleet could bottle up our harbours in a week so that we could not sell our cotton abroad?," Rhett Butler asks his hosts contemptuously, in the barbecue hosted at Twelve Oaks, the home of Ashley Wilkes.

Ashley Wilkes, a true representative of the old South, realises the hollowness about the southern cause, but his loyalty to his people prevents him from speaking his mind. Although he admires Scarlett for her zest for life, he is unable to reciprocate her love in the way she yearns for. Scarlett spends her best years chasing a mirage, her unrequited love for Ashley, only to discover in the end, that it was not love but a mere childhood dream. She understands the true nature of her relationship with Rhett Butler only in the final pages of the book, but the discovery comes too late. After the death of daughter Bonny and Melanie Wilkes, Rhett leaves Scarlett, a broken man with no love left in his heart. Scarlett, however, still has the last word; "tomorrow is another day" she says and raising her chin defiantly she declares that she will somehow get Rhett back.

The Southerners still clinging on to a lifestyle that was fast vanishing, are rudely awakened by the reality all around them. As Sherman's army storms down Atlanta in a triumphant march, the Southern pride along with their plantations are razed to dust. The battle scenes, the nightmarish escape to Tara, Scarlett's grim resolve to survive are all described with passion. Georgia, along with the other southern states faces bitter humiliation as yankees and white trash lord it over the decaying sprigs of aristocracy. The emancipated blacks are bewildered with the new found freedom. Ashley, the idealist returns from the war, unable to come to grips with the disaster around him. In these momentuous years Scarlett with her "never say die" motto lives, loves, and finally resurrects her beloved home Tara from doom and decay. The story of Scarlett's gallant struggle, her courage and unscrupulousness, her singleminded pursuit of a dream, her love for the elusive Ashley, constitute this memorable saga.

So tenacious has been the hold of this book upon the memory of its readers a sequel called Scarlett appeared after half a century. However, Scarlett could not quite deliver what it promised. Just recently The Wind Done Gone, a black writer's parody of Gone With the Wind has created a mild stir in the publishing circles. True to today's trend of subverting existing classics, the later book attempts to give a different version of that era (civil war). It portrays life in the old south from the viewpoint of a mixed race daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, who appears to be a half sister of Gone with The Wind heroine Scarlett O'Hara. The author Alice Randall claims that the book seeks "to counter the disparaging caricatures of blacks in Mitchell's original." Meanwhile even as the heirs of Mitchell are suing Ms. Randall and her publisher for copyright infringement as the author has committed a wholesale theft of major characters from the 1936 novel, the book itself is selling like the proverbial hot cakes. The publicity from the case has no doubt aided this and the booksellers declare that they have sold out copies of the book in no time...

Sequels and parodies may appear but the popularity of the original Gone With The Wind is not likely to diminish. If anything they would be inducements to tackle this massive work of fiction in its original form. The universality of the theme - love, conflict and regeneration perhaps will ensure its survival.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Down to the grass roots
Next     : Checkmating him