Gone With the Wind - my unhealthy obsession.

I have always loved Gone With the Wind. I fell in love with it the minute I started reading it, and I could feel deep in my bones that I would carry the story with me forever. It's been about three years since I first finished it and during that time, the afterglow of that exhilerating story did dim somewhat.

Until I picked it up again. And now I'm absolutely obsessed. I think human beings love tragedy. Tragic endings leave a much greater impression on our foolish, sentimental hearts than a happy ending riding away into the sunset ever could. 

But that's not the only reason I'm a diehard fan of GWTW. The story SPOKE to me on so many levels. I could relate to almost all of the characters. Annoyingly, I could relate most to Ashley Wilkes. And he's supposed to be the weakest character in the novel. It's not that I would've done what he did with Scarlett and Melanie. But everything he said, oh man, EVERYTHING he felt about the passing away of the old South and their beautiful, slow way of life, and his fear of facing and adjusting to the harsh, new world he found himself in...all of it spoke to my soul. Which is funny because I haven't experienced war or the death of a civilization. But reading it made me feel so nostalgic for a world that existed back before computers and technology came and revolutionized it all into something ugly and cold and insensitive.

It's not that I'm against change. Change is good, we've all heard that cliche and I believe that wholeheartedly. In fact, at times I worry that I accept change too easily, only to realize the consequences of it too late in life, when there's nothing to be done about it. But I've never accepted change the way Scarlett does in GWTW, facing it head-on, with a fighting spirit. Rather, I have always RESIGNED myself to it, knowing that I have no choice but to live with it. Which is exactly what Ashley does. I sometimes fear the future because I wonder if I'll have the strength to take a stand when the time comes the way Scarlett did. I wish I was like her minus all the meanness and selfishness.

It's amazing really what Margaret Mitchell managed to do in her book. Ashley and Rhett are parallels of each other. I mean, they believe in the same things...the futility of war, their nostalgia for the era gone by...but their attitude is all different. Rhett is determined to carve his path out of the remnants of the old South, but Ashley is just getting by. And in a way, you could say the same for Scarlett and Melanie. They're both very brave, courageous women, but Melanie has a nobility of spirit that Scarlett never possessed. Her courage outmatches Scarlett in that she manages to hold on to the underlying characteristics that defined southern society which Scarlett was so quick to discard in the face of difficulty. 

Having said that, I don't agree with the author entirely. First of all, regardless of how nostalgic the reader is made to feel for a land of rolling red hills and plantations stretching as far as the eye can see and the soft laughter of negro slaves from the 'slave quarters' while the white folks gorge on barbeques, every girl wearing hoop skirts and surrounded by her 'beaux', slavery is wrong and sick and cannot be justified. I don't believe in the loving, affectionate relationship Margaret Mitchell has portrayed between master and slave. All human beings are equal before God, so I don't think the South could have ever won this war. They were always going to lose. The dark side could not possibly have emerged victorious. I also didn't understand her idea of 'gumption'. If only Scarlett has gumption in the novel, then this survivors' quality basically amounts to pushing all the bad thoughts to the back of your mind whenever you're confronted with them and lusting solely after money. Kind of a crude description but in essence, that's what Scarlett did throughout most of the book. I think it was Melanie and Rhett who really had the quality Margaret Mitchell talked about when she said she wanted to write a story about people who had gumption and those who didn't.

There's so much more I want to say about this story but it's past 2 am and it's my favourite time of the year...exams are starting next week-_- so I'll stop here.

For now :P