Gone With The Wind, Literally. Review on Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

This book by Margaret Mitchell is an all time classic. My brother recommended the book to me. He was all gung-ho about the ‘so-called-classic’.

I was not convinced initially that I could make myself to read the book, as it is a very big book. Somehow he convinced me that once I got going I could go through with it.

Well, I did finally manage to read it fully. It took me more than a month. And it feels like I wasted such a long time. I could have done 100 things with all that time.

The story talks about the civil wars of the US and revolves around a character called Scarlett O Hara. She is the most beautiful girl in the country with all the guys hovering around her for her attention. But she is jealous and cunning. She does acts that are below her family and the high morals and principles, which her righteous mother upholds.

Ashley, her sweetheart goes and marries one of the pale looking girls around. What does she do in retaliation? She marries the first guy she meets. Then he goes to the war and dies. He leaves her a child and she is most unhappy about it. She leaves the country and goes to Atlanta city. There she is courted by a publicly hated Rhett Butler, who is an unscrupulous businessman. This is most disliked by everybody as she is in her early days of widowhood.

The war hits the town. She flees to the country. There the story revolves around the struggle she does single-handedly, as her mother is dead and father is a bit nutty. This goes on about 1/4t of the book and then she returns to Atlanta again.

She then lures Frank, the guy who was going to marry her sister and marries him, as she needs money for herself and her family including her child. She starts her own business as well. Frank also dies trying to revenge the attack on her by a black negro.

She then marries Rhett Butler who was courting her from the first time he met her. Well they hit it off initially as both evils compliment each other. She has another child. And Rhett reforms. That triggers off a lot of fights and arguments between them.

At the end, Scarlett also reforms after they lose their second child. That is the story.

The good thing about the book is that it has its share of violence, romance, sex, sentiments required. It is a typical fiction novel. It revolves around the civil war and tries to tell how futile war is and how harmful it is to civilians.

Coming to the negatives about the book. It is too long a book, which twists and turns in every possible angle and continues endlessly for no purpose at all.

It tries to glorify the slavery prevalent in America at those times. The hidden message is that negros are better off being slaves and they are a threat to society if left on their own.

The narration of the story is very ordinary and does not have any dramatic events.

Over all, the book is not worth being called a classic or even a ‘must-read’. It is an ordinary fiction, and a long one in that.