Gone With the Wind

Gone With the Wind is a famous old movie set in the South during the Civil War. Although I had heard people talk about the movie and how it was a must-watch, I never ended up watching it. Finally, watching even just the first half made me realize it isn't just an old romance movie; it's about how people change in hard times, specifically through the main character, Scarlett.

Even after watching just the first half of the movie, Scarlett's character changed a lot. At the beginning of the movie, she was a wealthy woman who grew up privileged, but once the war hit, that all changed. While the movie is focused mainly on the wealthy white families, it skips over a big issue during this time, which was slavery. It doesn't show the full harsh reality of what it was like for slaves during this time. Although slavery is kind of skipped over, the movie still shows how people deal with the hardship and life getting hard, especially during a time of war. 

The main character, Scarlet, is a rich, spoiled white girl, focused on her looks and the attention she gets from people. Specifically, she wants attention from Ashley Wilkes, whom she believes she is in love with and wants to marry. However, Ashley Wilkes is set to marry Scarlett's cousin, Melanie Hamilton. Scarlett, knowing her cousin is marrying Ashley Wilkes, still wants and believes that she can marry him instead of her cousin marrying him. This shows how she doesn't really care about other people's feelings, as long as she gets what she wants. 

Even as the war starts and everything around Scarlet is falling apart, she doesn't really change. She still acts spoiled and expects to get whatever she wants, even when the world around her is at war and suffering. Instead of growing up and maturing, and realizing how serious the situation is when the world around her is suffering, she continues to only think about herself and what she wants from others. 

Even when her Mother, Ellen O'Hara, dies, she still doesn't show any signs of maturing or growing up. She is stuck focusing on her own desires and wants, rather than the collapsing world around her. This shows that Scarlet can't learn from or accept what is happening around her, and change, she has to stay the same and try to live her old life that isn't there anymore. 

While watching the movie, there was one big thing that stood out to me, which was how little it showed of slavery. The movie mainly focuses on the rich white families and their problems, missing a big part of life back then, which was the slaves and how they lived and were treated. 

The character Mammy, played by Hattie McDaniel, is shown as a strong and smart woman who really keeps everything together, but it doesn't show the harsh reality of what her life was like as a slave. The movie makes it as if she were treated as part of the family and that she was treated fairly, but looking at history, that obviously isn't true. The movie tries to portray the South as an elegant and almost dramatic place, but it ignores what was really happening in the South during that time, which was slavery. 

While Gone With the Wind does a good job of showing emotional struggles, it also feels more like a fantasy version of history during this time. The movie focuses mainly on the rich white people and what their lives were like during this time, it doesn't show the full truth of what this time is like in the South.