Resumo de Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchelle

The story goes like this. Scarlett O?Hara the heroine was
refreshingly uninhibited about her sensuality and sexuality
when 19th century America dictated women to suppress their
basic instincts. The queen of young hearts of entire
Jonesboro County and a darling of an affluent family was
totally ignorant of the hardships of life.

The immature and self-centered girl had a dream; she was
charmed by the Briton returned intellectual, Ashley Wilkes
and wanted to possess that noble human as husband. But
Ashley was in love with a plain looking girl, Melanie, to
whom he was to be engaged. Desperation made scarlet mad
and gulping her pride, she pleaded Ashley to give her a
chance. Ashley regretted. This humiliating episode of
Scarlett?s life was exposed to a Stranger ? captain Rhett
Butler, the hero of the story.

Rhett had come at Ashley?s invitation but being
incompatible with the rest of invitees, he was resting in
the corner of the library unnoticed. Captain was attracted
by the spirited attempt of the young lady to achieve her
goal and recognized his soul mate immediately. But the
heart broken immature girl was yet to grow up. As if to
prove her potential to be married to an educated man,
Scarlett married Charles, Melanie?s brother. Southerners
were joining Rebel army and Charles also joined. However he
died a cowardly death in pneumonia leaving Scarlett a
pregnant widow.

Scarlett went to live at Atlanta with the hated Melanie who
had stolen her dream man. The two women lived in close
proximity and fought for survival as the war ravaged the
country. The able-bodied men were summoned to join the
causes of south. Wise Ashley had joined the war, fully
aware of the fact that south was destined to lose. Only the
scoundrel blockader, Rhett butler, made money out of the
contingency by running a business with the Yankees and he
turned fabulously rich.

The plantations were not worked and Scarlett?s people were
on the verge of starvation. Shedding the self-pity and
depression, the former belle took charge of the situation.
With bare hands, she cultivated the land to yield some crop
and kept the family sustained. The sickly Melanie also
searched in her reservoir of courage and gave her moral
support. Disaster broke when taxes were imposed on Tara -
her dwelling house. She needed money and the only man who
had excess of that, was Rhett. But he was in jail.

To captivate Rhett, Scarlett made dresses out of old
curtains and approached Rhett in jail. But Rhett had
cleverly kept his money out of the reach of Yankees, safe
in Europe. To save Tara Scarlett seduced Frank Kennedy ?the
old man who had eye for her own sister, Sullen. She made
him marry her. Tara was saved. The second husband also
died in a gallant act, leaving Scarlett free of bondage.

War was over and Rhett proposed Scarlett. The practical
woman could not ignore the rich man and also liked his
amusing company. She accepted him. Rhett spoilt her with
comforts and riches. He also allowed the spirited woman,
the freedom of running her business and maintain her
financial independence. But Scarlett was not yet over
Ashley, her childhood dream. She tried to play the
caretaker and protector of the idealistic man who lacked
the common sense to survive in a competitive world; with a
secret expectation that he would understand her worth.

Rhett the go-getter of modern America had deep respect for
the scholarly couple, Ashley and Melanie, and helped them
without hurting their sensitivities. But he also felt
ignored because of Scarlett?s obsession for Ashley. Rhett
showered his unreciprocated love on Bonnie, his blue-eyed
daughter.

To avoid having another child she slept in a separate room.
Humiliated Rhett assaulted her one night in desperation. It
liberated the women in her that unconsciously wanted to
surrender to a stronger spirit. Bonnie dieed in an accident.
Rhett, the powerhouse of confidence shattered but Scarlett
was too busy too notice.

Melanie died during childbirth. Ashley the lost man was now
Scarlett?s custody. She gave him emotional support but felt
pity for the broken man and realized that she was never in
love with that weakling. The eternal teenager had finally
grown up to her woman hood and recognized her true love but
the Hero had left.

But the fighter in her didn?t give up; she revisited Tara,
her root, to prepare for a new battle that would start
tomorrow.

The story had the background of the great American civil
war. Here two aspects ran parallel, beautifully interwoven.
On the broader aspect it depicted a resistance of the
Southerners, living in the realm of 19th -century kingly
ideas, to grow up to the maturity of equal status of
Mankind. In the parallel plane it showed the inner journey
of the immature girl to accept her own persona and the
realities of life. Both the struggles were painful and
prolonged- spanned through the entire period of the bloody
civil war.

Gone with the wind is the story of a time when gallantry
was the ultimate virtue for American men and women needed
an escort while courting a man

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