Gone With the Wind

This 1939 drama, Gone with the Wind, has been one of the biggest icons for the South throughout time. There are three different representations of the south; the pristine, the good ole hillbilly, and the scary hillbilly. For an accurate model of the south, in my opinion, would be to put the three together and see what you get. However, I am only going to analyze part of the pristine today. As most people know, Gone with the Wind is a lengthy movie. However, it can be summarized quite shortly. Scarlett O'Hara is a strong headed southern belle who is in love with Ashley Wilkes. Ashley loves Melanie. Scarlett marries a man to get back at Ashley. All of the men go to war. Scarlett’s husband dies so she goes to visit Melanie who ends up getting pregnant. Scarlett births Ashley and Melanie’s baby and takes them “home”. There is practically no “home” left and Scarlett’s mother is dead. Scarlett’s father is crazy and Scarlett makes a vow to never go hungry again. She ends up marrying her sister’s beau and getting him killed; thus leaving room for Rhett Butler, the other man. Scarlett marries Rhett, has a child that dies and ruins their marriage (although Scarlett did that mostly herself). Melanie dies and Scarlett finally realizes that she loves Rhett, but it is too late. Rhett has had it with Scarlett and leaves, so Scarlett goes back “home” to Tara in Georgia.
There are many many southern stereotypical characteristics within this film. Naming them all would take ten pages or more. What really interested me was how Rhett portrayed the “other,” Ashley and Melanie were the level headed Southerners, and Scarlett represented the stubborn go nowhere South. Rhett was distinguished early in the film as the other when the women were talking about that rumor about him that spread like wildfire. Rhett tried to love Scarlett, tried to make her see reason. Rhett exhibits the way that the North tries to teach the South. The South (Scarlett) is too stubborn to see reason or even to have the want to see reason. Scarlett portraying the South would of course have to survive off of nothing, stab her sister in the back by marrying her beau, and speak against the authorities when she was supposed to pay taxes. Another thing to be noted is Scarlett’s wardrobe throughout the film. In the beginning, as shown in the picture above, she is in white with a little stab of red; the purity and splotch of impurity is screaming through this scene. Throughout the film as the South loses the war Scarlett dresses in darker tones, and not just to mourn her husband’s deaths. Scarlett’s purity is stripped from her by the “other” and the color of her wardrobe represents this.  The major attribute to Scarlett’s portrayal of the South would be when at the end she goes back to Tara. The stereotype that all Southerner’s stay in the South and specifically stay home has a role in this. However, I see this act as the stereotype that Southerner’s go in circles and do not ever better themselves because of their stubborn pride. Scarlett begins at Tara and ends at Tara. Ashley and Melanie really add to the film by being the level headed Southerner type. They bring in a love triangle and portray the South in a way such that if the South would let go of their pride and accept that the South is not the only thing in the world would be like. Overall this film ties in the three characters of the pristine version of the South and also demonstrates the many stereotypical characteristics of the pristine South. ~ Autumn McMunn