Gone with the Wind

Scarlett O'Hara's ambitions develop within a Southern society transformed by the American Civil War and its aftermath. The security she once takes for granted gives way to urgent questions of survival, property and belonging. Her determination to preserve Tara becomes entangled with relationships whose emotional demands she does not always understand. Margaret Mitchell follows Scarlett through changing circumstances that expose the distance between her desires and the needs of others. Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler represent different attachments and expectations, complicating her efforts to control her future. Private decisions take place within a historical world shaped by slavery, war and unequal power. The novel explores persistence, self-deception and the cost of treating security as something that must be won at almost any price. Its portrayal of the Southern past reflects the perspectives and assumptions of its characters, inviting attention to the relationship between personal memory, social privilege and the upheaval of an established order.