Ashley Bowman: Gone With The Wind

Gone with the wind was an award-winning and groundbreaking movie often known as one of the best-known films of all time. Gone with the wind tells a story of love, betrayal, and perseverance all during the civil war era. However, this story is so intriguing because it is told from the perspective of a white southerner, some could even consider it southern propaganda. The southern men are excited to go to war, the Yankees are evil and weak, and romance prevails despite being amid war. Yet through the eyes of Scarlett O’Hara, it seems we get a pretty close depiction of a women's role during the war.

Scarlett O’Hara is the main character of the film and much of what we see is from her perspective. While most of the movie is told through the white southerner, I found it surprising that scarlet’s character arc was realistic for most women during this time. In the beginning, we see that Scarlet is willfully ignorant of the war and things going on around her because, during this time most women were expected to not little to nothing about the war and deemed more attractive the less, they knew about it.

However, Scarlet is still her own person, she makes decisions in her best interest despite whether society deems them acceptable or not. For example, Scarlet dancing despite being in mourning was looked down upon by society, but she did it because she wanted to. Similar to how women began to explore their individuality and push society's boundaries with the majority of the men going off to fight in the war.

Finally, toward the end of the movie, we quickly start to see Scarlet become more diligent and involved in the war despite wanting to go back to her old life. We see her working in a hospital, delivering a baby, and traveling back home amid war. Scarlet was of course not 100% accurate to all women during the civil war but her story arc is loosely similar to many women during the war. Things like working in a hospital was realistic for many women during that time, women were heavily involved in the war, and some went even as far as becoming a soldier. They had to learn how to become the head of the house and many other tasks since their husbands were either dead or fighting in the war. While many people like myself did not enjoy Scarlet as a character it’s important to notice that her charter arc was realistic for both women in the north and the south.