Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Gone with the Wind, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Civil War and Reconstruction
Looking Forward vs. Looking Back
Classism and Racism
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness
Women and Power
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Scarlett is achy and sunburned. At breakfast, Gerald tells everyone to wait until Mrs. O’Hara comes. Scarlett wonders if he lost his mind. She can’t think about it though; there’s too much to do. She leaves breakfast and finds Pork shelling peanuts on the porch. He tells her the horse died and that the cow was about to have a calf. She tells Pork to take Prissy to hunt down the one hog that’s left. Pork says that’s field hand work, and he’s a “house nigger.” Scarlett tells him to catch the sow or get out. Tears come to Pork’s eyes. Ellen wouldn’t have said that.
Even though Scarlett has gotten to Tara, her problems are far from over. She realizes that in order to survive, everyone is going to have to pull their weight. The way things were before the war started—with certain tasks designated to certain enslaved persons—is only a structure that works when times are prosperous. During hardship, everyone must work as hard as they can. This is painful for Pork, who seems to take pride in believing that he’s better than an enslaved field hand.
Themes
Scarlett says anyone at Tara who won’t work can join the Yankees. She asks Pork about the corn and cotton. He says the Yankees spoiled everything, except a few acres of cotton, three bales’ worth. Three bales is no more than the Slatterys raised! Scarlett asks if anyone found food at the other plantations. Pork explains that no one has left Tara. Scarlett decides to go to Twelve Oaks and send Dilcey to the McIntoshes, ignoring Pork’s warning that it’s too dangerous with the Yankees around.
Scarlett is aghast to find that they only have as much cotton as the Slatterys. In times past, everyone in the County looked down on the Slatterys for growing hardly any cotton and for accepting charity. Now, the war has left the wealthy plantations as poor and needy as the Slatterys: even Scarlett is now planning to look for food from the neighbors. The war has dissolved divisions between the rich and poor.
Themes
Scarlett grabs Mammy’s bonnet and thinks of the pretty green bonnet Rhett gave her. The road to Twelve Oaks is strewn with litter from soldiers. Scarlett wonders why she’s tripping on pebbles when her feet are meant for dancing. She’s been pampered her whole life, and now she’s hungry and hunting food like an animal. Scarlett passes the cemetery where Ellen is buried and then the ruins of the Slatterys’ house, where that “nasty Emmie” who killed Ellen lived.
Before the war, Scarlett loved beautiful clothes. Even during the war, all she cared about was getting out of her black mourning clothes. Now, it’s degrading for her to be wearing a faded bonnet and tearing her slippers on rocks. She is experiencing real poverty and hunger for the first time, and nothing else matters. Her anger covers up the difficult fact that the war has changed everything.
Themes
At the bottom of the hill, Scarlett takes off her slippers and bathes her feet in the river. Then she trudges across the river towards Twelve Oaks. Within the circle of twelve oaks are the ruins of John Wilkes’s house. Scarlett sits down on a fallen pillar. She once hoped to be the mistress of this house. She watched Ashley marry Melanie here, and Charles proposed here. Scarlett hopes Ashley is dead so he’ll never see this awful sight. Ashley’s children will never know Twelve Oaks. Putting these thoughts aside, Scarlett checks the garden and then the small gardens by the enslaved persons’ houses. She finds cabbages, turnips, beans, and peas, enough for a proper meal tonight. Starving, she takes a bite of a bitter radish. She lies down in the grass and throws it up.
The burn site of Twelve Oaks represents everything that is gone. Scarlett’s dreams for her life were centered at Twelve Oaks, and several of her most defining moments occurred here. Now that it is gone, Scarlett must fully confront the fact that nothing of her past exists anymore. Now that the war has swept through and changed the world, life will never proceed in the same way that it had, and Scarlett won’t be the same person. Scarlett realizes that life is different now—it will require new rules, new strategies, and new dreams. This is a bitter, difficult thought—it’s as difficult to accept as the bitter radish is to eat.
Themes
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Scarlett has never had to so much as pick up her own stockings and now, she’s too weak to move. Nobody knows or cares. She thinks of Gerald, Ellen, Ashley, and the old houses. The past is gone, and a harsh future lies ahead. Scarlett stands up, her head held high. She decides the past is past; she must go forward. Scarlett heads back to Tara with a basket of vegetables, vowing to never go hungry again. The next few days are quiet at Tara. Tara feels like a desolate island separate from the war and the rest of the world.
When Scarlett rises from the garden, she decides once and for all that she will never look back. This decision becomes a coping mechanism for her. Further, it represents Scarlett’s tenacity and her will to survive—she believes the only way to survive is to look forward and take action rather than dwell on the past.
Themes
Scarlett focuses on getting food. Everyone at Tara complains of hunger except Melanie, who tells Scarlett to give her portion to Dilcey. Her selflessness irritates Scarlett. Wade acts very strange, but Scarlett doesn’t realize he’s constantly terrified. His life has vanished, and he thinks the Yankees are after him. Whenever Scarlett yells at him, he remembers the time she spanked him when Atlanta was burning. Wade now avoids Scarlett and spends all his time with Melanie. Scarlett is troubled by Wade’s behavior but doesn’t have the energy to coddle him. She’s jealous when Melanie is kind to him. Once, she finds Wade jumping on Melanie and slaps him. Wade bawls and Melanie tries to comfort him, but Scarlett is firm. Mammy looks on disapprovingly.
Scarlett becomes so focused on the practical task of getting food that she ignores everyone’s emotional problems, particularly Wade’s. She can’t sympathize with him. And yet, Scarlett seems to wish that she felt close to him and is jealous of how close he is with Melanie, suggesting that she wants to feel the love between mother and child but that she simply can’t achieve it. Similarly, she wants to be just like Ellen—a great lady—but has never accomplished it.
Themes
Scarlett is in charge at Tara. She’s afraid, and so she didn’t allow anyone to show fear or weakness. She’s often mean, but she feels that if she’s too nice, no one will pull their weight. With Ellen dead and the enslaved persons gone, Scarlett insists that everyone work. Suellen and Carreen argue that they can’t do manual labor because it’s against how they were raised, and Ellen would never make them. They think Scarlett is mean—and Scarlett does enjoy bullying everyone. It helps her forget how bitter she is that everything Ellen taught her is useless. Instead of teaching her to be kind, Ellen should’ve taught her to pick cotton and plow a field like an enslaved person. It helps that Ellen had not foreseen the collapse of the civilization she’d raised her children to be a part of.
Now that the war has changed everything, no one has the same role that they had in the old society. Before the war, women in Scarlett’s wealthy class never had to work for anything they needed; the men managed all business affairs, and the enslaved persons did all the manual labor. Now that they are poor, however, these roles no longer make sense; everyone must work if they want to survive. As Scarlett realizes that what Ellen taught her was useless, and questions whether Ellen was the role model Scarlett always thought she was. Her sisters, though, cling to the past and refuse to work.
Themes
Scarlett’s feelings for Tara don’t change. Even after a hard day of work, she returns to Tara with joy. She loves the red earth and the sprawling trees. Unlike Rhett, she thinks wars are fought for land, not money. Land is the only thing worth fighting for. Now that Ellen is dead, Ashley is gone, and Gerald has lost his mind, Tara is all that matters to her. Gerald had said this once, but she’d been too young to understand. Now, she’ll do anything to hold on to Tara.
The only thing that hasn’t been changed by the war is Tara itself—or at least, the shape of the property. Scarlett used to focus more on love, but now, she only cares about saving Tara. She is empowered by her determination to hold on to her land—a traditionally masculine focus. Her coming of age is linked to her taking on this more masculine role.
Themes
