Gone with the Wind is a historical novel by Margaret Mitchell that tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, a young southern woman, during the Civil War. It describes how people coped with the war during this time period. As illustrated by Gone with the Wind, the civilians had to cope with the death of family members and the soldiers' transformation when they returned from war. Moreover, the civilians had to deal with drastic changes in their way of life and the restrictions that came with those changes. Through this, Margaret Mitchell describes how the Civil War did not only affect the soldiers' who fought, but the whole southern community especially the women. In her novel, Margaret Mitchell explains how the women's responsibilities became more important when the men left for war, even though their rights did not evolve much and how those women dealt with these changes. When the war starts most of the men leave except for the children, the seniors and the sick. The women then have to take over the control of their homes and continue the business of their husbands or fathers. In Gone with the Wind, the beginning of the war will be a huge change in Scarlett's life. She leaves for Atlanta when her husband goes to war to visit Melanie and Aunt Pittypat. There she sees wounded soldiers and is asked to do tasks that would have never occurred to her before. She has to nurse the wounded in the soldiers' hospital and is disgusted by this voluntary work. The young woman's mother, Ellen O'Hara, dies soon after the beginning of the war and her father, Gerald, falls into depression and insanity. Scarlett decides to come home to Tara when the taxes are raised on her family's property. She had been used to a carefree life, and finds herself in ch... ... middle of paper ... ...er. They blame the newly freed black people for their misfortune and use the excuse that black people pose a sexual threat to white women to create the Klu Klux Klan. The men have hard time adjusting but slowly the South builds itself back up even with the North's power over their lands and lives. During the Civil War, the civilians, though not directly exposed to the battlefield, experienced one of the hardest and harshest events of their life. In Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell describes how the civilians fought their own war at home and how they coped with this huge change in their life. Through Scarlett, this story narrates how the civilians coped with the numerous deaths of dear ones, the metamorphosis of the soldiers when they came back and how they adapted to their new way of life as well as how they dealt with the loss of firmly established culture.
Gone with the Wind is a novel that is set during the civil war. During the second part, the protagonist Scarlett reads a letter that was sent by a confederate soldier named Ashley. The letter talks about his opinion on the war and the reason he fights. Ashley joined the war with the hopes of fighting for States’ Rights and preserving the old ways. However, once the fighting started he realized that the old ways are not going to come back, “And I belong in those old times. I do not belong in this mad present of killing and I fear I will not fit into any future, try though I may.” He is not happy about fighting in the war, and he does not have confidence
The author points out that southern societies did evolve, however, they resented this evolution. Foner uses the example of Southern Unionists to illustrate this point stating that, “In 1865, Southern Unionism, of whatever kind, did not imply a willingness to extend civil and political equality to the freedmen.” (Foner, 87) This resentment continues throughout the book, and shows that while evolution of Southern society happened, it was met with contentment, and individuals hope that things would go back to the way they used to be, hoping for the plantation slave way of life to return. This is most evident when Foner discusses the Ku Klux Klan, stating that “The Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired the restoration of white supremacy.” (Foner,
The most critical issue raised by the North’s victory was the South acceptance of transition of freedom for former slaves. Since most of southern whites did not agree with the idea of freedmen, they created several ways to foreclose the blacks to exercise their rights. The South utilized dirty tactics to preserve the idea of slavery, such as laws as the black codes, lynching and other violent ways promoted by groups known as Ku Klux Klan.
In the historical narrative Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, Nicholas Leman gives readers an insight into the gruesome and savage acts that took place in the mid-1870s and eventually led to the end of the Reconstruction era in the southern states. Before the engaging narrative officially begins, Lemann gives a 29-page introduction to the setting and provides background information about the time period. With Republican Ulysses S. Grant as President of the United States of America and Republican Adelbert Ames, as the Governor of Mississippi, the narrative is set in a town owned by William Calhoun in the city of Colfax, Louisiana. As a formal military commander, Ames ensured a
Another unique aspect to this book is the constant change in point of view. This change in point of view emphasizes the disorder associated with war. At some points during the book, it is a first person point of view, and at other times it changes to an outside third person point of view. In the first chapter of the book, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien writes, “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity (2).
Kara Walker’s piece titled Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred b 'tween the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart represents discrimination on basis of race that happened during the period of slavery. The medium Walker specializes in using paper in her artwork. This piece is currently exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art. Even though this artwork depicts slavery, discrimination is still an issue today in America, the country where people are supposedly free and equal. Even though slavery ended in the 19th century, we still see hints of racial discrimination for African Americans in our society. Walker uses color, image composition, and iconography to point out evidence of racial inequality that existed in the
It is inevitable when dealing regularly with a subject as brutal as war, that death will occur. Death brings grief for the victim’s loved ones, which William Faulkner depicts accurately and fairly in many of his works, including the short story “Shall Not Perish” and The Unvanquished. While the works differ because of the time (The Unvanquished deals with the Civil War while “Shall Not Perish” takes place during World War II) and the loved ones grieving (The Unvanquished shows the grief of a lover and “Shall Not Perish” shows the grief of families), the pain they all feel is the same.
... and slavery left millions of newly freed African Americans in the South without an education, a home, or a job. Before reconstruction was put in place, African Americans in the South were left roaming helplessly and hopelessly. During the reconstruction period, the African Americans’ situation did not get much better. Although helped by the government, African Americans were faced with a new problem. African Americans in the South were now being terrorized and violently discriminated by nativist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Such groups formed in backlash to Reconstruction and canceled out all the positive factors of Reconstruction. At last, after the Compromise of 1877, the military was taken out of the South and all of the Reconstruction’s efforts were basically for nothing. African Americans in the South were back to the conditions they started with.
...as Mary Ann in the novel show that women can do so much more than sew and cook. Without women, all wars would have been a lot harder. Although men tend to keep a macho facade in order to calm others (such as the women in their lives), inside they may be like glass, easy to break. A society set on the ideal stoic, fearless warrior who acts ruthlessly and saves the damsel in distress (also showing that women are weak) obviously is one where doomed to sexism. Without the comfort and inspiration, men would have deteriorated in the face of death. All and all, women provided the needed comfort, nursing, “manpower”, and love that the soldiers of Vietnam need, something that helped them endure the havoc of war. O’Brien’s expert use of the feminist lens allows the reader to know that women indeed were a powerhouse in the Vietnam war, without whom, men would have perished.
Margaret Mitchell's romantic epic, Gone With the Wind, owes its remarkable popularity to the climate of sudden self-destruction and dreariness the Depression created. The Old South's grandeur, coupled with its Civil War-era decadence, provided much-needed escapism for readers, as well as paralleling the U.S.'s own plight in the 20s and 30s. In addition, Scarlett O'Hara's feminist role, her devotion to her land, and her indomitable optimism lent hope to those who had lost faith in the American Dream.
America's bloodiest and most deadly battle was The American Civil War. America was never the same after the civil war. America changed and became a different nation. The civil war is noted as one of the most meaningful, impacting, and important events in America’s history. The Civil War was fought between the northern and the southern states. However, its impact was felt by the entire nation politically, economically, and socially. This war cost over 600,000 lives and divided the nation.
“Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. The unhappy man who has been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart… To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty… and to procure for their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted.” - Benjamin Franklin. When Benjamin Franklin said this, he was speaking in 1789 promoting the abolition of slavery so long before the civil war. He was one of the many abolitionists that had been fighting for freedom years before the main events of the abolition movement during the abolition movement. Dred Scott was served wrongly by slave owning judges. The Abolition Movement and The Dred Scott decision are about people standing up for others being treated wrongly.
Dunne, Jemima, and Paula Regan, eds. The Civil War. New York City: DK Publishing, 2011. Print
Only a short time later after the Civil War the Ku-Klux-Klan was formed. Members of this racist secret society went after the war against traders from the north, which was rumored to want to hit from the defeat of the South profit. Also on former slaves who had transferred political offices in the South, the Klan made chase. Even today, there is a noticeable gap between North and South.See 1
I have learned that the Ku Klux Klan was in response to the Southern bitterness towards blacks having won freedom from slavery in the aftermath of the civil war. Congress had passed the Reconstruction Acts which divided the South into 5 military districts, each under a general. New elections were to be held in each state with freed, black, male slaves being allowed to vote; this infuriated Southerners. The first branch of the Ku Klux Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, around 1865, the name Ku Klux comes from the Greek word, Kuklose, meaning circle. The Klan was a secret organization founded by 6 ex-confederate veterans, they considered the Klan to be a secret social club, not knowing what a violent organization it would turn into. They decided to make their Klan costumes as odd as possible. Klan members would be dressed in white sheets and their faces would be covered with white masks. These ex-soldiers would ride through the town, make jokes and act silly, this made former black slaves to believe that the ghosts of the Confederate dead had risen to reclaim their land. Many Southerners began to join the Klan and harm former black slaves. Soon these night rides turned into violent night rides and lynching’s. Once the Klan began to make a name for itself, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the famous cavalry leader, became the leader of this invisible empire. The Klan was effective in keeping blacks away from the voting polls. The Klan was coming under increased attack by Congress and the Reconstruction state governments. The leaders of the Klan realized that the Klan’s end was near as an organized force.