Gone with the Wind is a book which gives an understanding and different dimension to the game of survival.
Is it
merely the struggle for survival that has been covered in the entire book?
I doubt because it is a complete destruction of an civilisation and the entire reconstruction of another civilisation which nobody is able to come to terms to.
The leading lady of the novel is
Scarlett Ohara who is the epitome of stubborn will power wanting to dig her heels and fight the demons, be them of her own or created by the brutal surroundings. the sea change she undergoes for mere survival is a stunning saga. from her initial childlike obstinacy of throwing herself away to marriage when she is not able to get ashley to her cold-hearted marriage with frank, she sure comes a long away. she is well aware that frank is actually engaged to her sister suellen but she deliberately destroys the alliance as she needs to save everybody from destruction in the new system. the willful girl simply vanishes in front of the
reader''s eyes and is replaced by a hard hearted woman who doesnt want to be hungry in her life ever again and puts her conscious on tomorrow to brood. she only goes ahead to confirm the tenacity any woman has and it is through the womenfolk any society holds to its roots and survives, but the question still lingers as to what does she get out of this fight? it is very easy to blame the surroundings in which scarlett develops her attitude but to be honest the destructions and reconstructions of the civilisations have always been there and even if the story has to take place today the outcome of scarlett ohara would not be any different.
the only person who sees her through and through is rhett butler, who probably can do so because he is the same material. he lets her go when she can take care of herself very well but makes it a point to be there when she needs him. he is equally cold when he says" more money is made during the destruction of the civilisation than maintaining it or reconstructing it" and he goes all out for his pursuit. he is shameless enough to admit and shameless because it takes awful guts to stand on your feet and admit a thing like this when the rest of the society would prefer to persih for the priciples it holds so dear to itself.
both of them are the sides of the same coin. cant do without each other yet are incomplete without each other. the irony is when they both come to realisation of this inevitable truth both of them have done enough damage to each other.
most of the time the reader is compelled to think if the book have had an happy ending. to be true it could not have ended on a happy note. when two people who are fundamentally alike but refuse to acknowledge and when they do, they do in the most adverse circumstances possible, they dont have a choice but to separate. rhett has to leave because of the bitterness of his endeavours of winning scarlett at any cost. he spoils her like a brat, caters to her whims and fancies and even disreputes her when it comes to the most womanly matters such as upbringing of children. he wants her yet he cant hold her.
scarlett has to let him go because all her life she wants the true love to beckon her. when it does she has no strength to go ahead and take it. the truth dawns on her like awakening from a dream and the reality is too harsh. in reality she wants rhett to stay but rhett doesnt want to out of tiredness and fatigue of trying to hold.
often it is said if scarlett doesnt harden so much would she have been anytbody different? she would have hardened with whatever she goes through. where mere food makes a person walk miles, where murder for mere survival is essential and no more greasly, where breaking and matching alliances and relations is all with an idea of existence and not love or due exigencies of relations and when even the ultimate realisation of true lovin life also comes at the bitter end.
all that remains in the readers mind is the tragic end of the book where irrespective of losing her love and life to rhett she is compelled to say " i would think about it tomorrow". and the reader can sense that it is not out of habit, but out of the personal tragedy of losing someone, losing the purpose of life, fighting a losing battle and coming to terms with the unbearable loss.
that makes the story of all the rhetts and scarletts between us so identifiable and compelling to read