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
Two weeks later, a huge blister swells on Scarlett’s foot. She worries about who will look after Tara if she gets gangrene and dies. She’d hoped Gerald would return to normal after a week or so, but he still doesn’t remember that Ellen is dead. Ellen had been Gerald’s whole reason for living.
Although Gerald was the master of Tara, his helplessness after Ellen’s death reveals how much the plantation’s success relied on Ellen. This suggests that despite Ellen’s focus on turning Scarlett into a proper, ineffective lady, she was herself a major force—the exact opposite of what she wanted Scarlett to be.
Themes
The house is quiet that day. Everyone except Scarlett, Wade, and the three sick women are out looking for the hog. Scarlett can’t bear the silence because it reminds her of the dead people she passed on the road to Tara. She sits looking out the window, her skirt pulled above her knees. She soaks her swollen foot in a bucket. If it wasn’t for her foot, she could go hunt the hog herself. The others are so lazy. But once they eat the sow, then what will they eat? They have no money, and the horse is dead. Scarlett decides that when her foot is healed, she’ll walk to Jonesboro and find a neighbor who can help.
Ever since arriving at Tara to find her old life gone, Scarlett has kept herself busy with constant plans for acquiring food and securing the future. She doesn’t like silence because it forces her to think about death and all the horrors she has seen. They have so little to eat that she thinks always of the next day, never feeling secure in the present. This keeps her mind racing forward, never settling on any deeper sorrows. She also continues to look down on other people she perceives as weak, which means she never has to empathize with them.
Themes
Scarlett tries not to cry; crying is only useful if there’s a man around to take pity on her. Suddenly, she hears hooves. She looks up and sees a Yankee cavalryman dismount, a long pistol on his hip. The awful things Yankees are rumored to do to women and children race through Scarlett’s mind. The Yankee enters the house and goes towards the kitchen. Scarlett thinks of their precious food and decides she can’t let him steal it. She gets Charles’s pistol and slips off her shoes. She tiptoes into the hall and down the stairs, hiding the pistol in her skirt. The Yankee asks who’s there in a shout, but he puts his pistol away when he sees Scarlett is female. Scarlett shoots him in the face, killing him. She can’t believe she murdered someone—but she’s glad she did. It feels like revenge.
Scarlett’s fear for her own safety in the hands of a Yankees battles against her fear of hunger and the Yankee stealing Tara’s food. She ultimately decides that hunger is the only thing to fear and decides to confront the Yankee herself. In one way, her sex makes her more vulnerable—the Yankee considers her weak and easy to take advantage of. However, this becomes her advantage: the Yankee doesn’t consider Scarlett a threat, and this gives her the opportunity to kill him. Scarlett is realizing how to use her sex to gain power.
Themes
Scarlett hears dragging footsteps and a clanking upstairs. She looks up to see Melanie in a tattered nightgown, dragging Charles’s sword to the landing with pride in her eyes. Scarlett realizes that Melanie is just like her—and suddenly, Scarlett doesn’t hate Melanie. She admires her for being willing to kill the Yankee too. Underneath Melanie’s gentleness, Scarlett sees courage. Carreen, Suellen, and Wade call out, scared. Melanie sticks her head in their room and tells them Scarlett was cleaning Charles’s pistol and it went off. Scarlett is thankful Melanie is such a good liar.
In a turning point in her feelings towards Melanie, Scarlett realizes that Melanie—although sweet and obedient—has the same fierce pride and courage she has. Her admiration for Melanie is momentarily stronger than her jealousy of her; it is enough to make Scarlett feel camaraderie with Melanie rather than division. This suggests that Scarlett admires women who are brave, and also that she might be able to love Melanie independently of her promise to Ashley.
Themes
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Melanie drags herself downstairs. Scarlett tells her to go back to bed, but Melanie says they must hide the body. If the enslaved persons find out, they might turn on Scarlett and run away. Scarlett decides to drag the body outside and bury it where they dug up the whiskey. Melanie offers to help but Scarlett tells her to go back to bed. Melanie kisses Scarlett’s cheek and says she’ll clean up the blood. Melanie asks if it would be dishonest to search the Yankee’s backpack, and Scarlett says no, feeling jealous and in awe of Melanie.
Scarlett’s admiration for Melanie’s bravery increases so that she actually feels jealous of Melanie. Not only was Melanie willing to kill the Yankee, but she’s willing to steal and lie in order to protect Scarlett and help everyone at Tara survive. Scarlett wonders if Melanie is even more tenacious than she is.
Themes
Scarlett finds a wallet full of money in the Yankee’s pocket. She imagines all that she’ll buy with the money. Melanie finds a huge pile of gold trinkets in the backpack. Scarlett grabs the Yankee’s boots and starts to drag the heavy body. She asks Melanie for her nightgown to wrap round his head so he doesn’t bleed in the yard. Melanie blushes, but Scarlett promises not to look. Melanie undresses, hiding her body with her arms.
Scarlett and Melanie have gained power in this moment. They ruthlessly kill a man who threatened them, take his money, and conceal the evidence. Again, their femininity is helpful in this situation, rather than something that makes them weak: it makes it less likely that anyone will suspect them of murdering a Yankee.
Themes
Limping, Scarlett drags the body down the porch. Melanie sits hugging her knees to her breasts. It irritates Scarlett that Melanie is thinking of modesty in a time like this. Then she feels ashamed. Melanie is weak, but she was so brave. She had, like all the Wilkeses, that “intangible, unspectacular courage” that Scarlett doesn’t understand and can only admire. Scarlett shouts at Melanie to go back to bed. Melanie says she’ll clean up the blood, so Scarlett shouts that she won’t care if Melanie kills herself.
Melanie’s courage is subtle, and that is why Scarlett hasn’t noticed it before. On the outside, Melanie is frail and timid, but she has a strong sense of pride and loyalty to those she loves. For a while, Scarlett only tolerated Melanie because she’d promised Ashley she would take care of her; now, Scarlett is actually concerned with Melanie’s health.
Themes
Scarlett collapses the arbor on top of where she buries the body. Afterwards, everyone assumes the Yankee’s horse is a stray. Surprisingly, Scarlett doesn’t feel haunted by the man’s ghost. She grins, wondering what everyone would think of her if they knew what she’d done. Scarlett feels strong—she’s developing a shell of hardness.
Far from feeling bad about killing the Yankee, Scarlett uses the act as a reminder that she can do anything. She knows now that she will never let others take from her what is hers, and that she is capable of defending herself and providing for herself no matter the threats she faces.
Themes
When her foot heals, Scarlett takes the horse to see if the Fontaines are still in the County. She plans to ask Dr. Fontaine about Melanie, who still isn’t better after her baby’s birth. The sight of the Fontaines’ yellow house makes Scarlett happy. Grandma Fontaine, Young Miss, and Sally step out to greet her. The Yankees hadn’t reached them because their house is far off the road. They still have food, but all their enslaved persons ran away. Dr. Fontaine and Joe are dead, and old Dr. Fontaine, Tony, and Alex are still in the army.
There are only women home at the Fontaines. With the men away at war, women are left to manage the home and defend their families. This necessitates a role reversal. Before the war, men would manage the plantations and protect the women. Now, with the men protecting the South on the larger scale, women have to protect themselves.
Themes
Inside, Scarlett asks the Fontaine women for news from Atlanta. All they know is that Sherman captured it. They haven’t seen a newspaper in weeks, but rumor is the Yankees are resting their men in Atlanta. The Fontaines apologize for not visiting Tara sooner, but they’d assumed it burned since they’d seen fire. Scarlett explains that their cotton burned; all they have now is a few acres, and nobody to pick it. Grandma Fontaine suggests Scarlett pick it. Scarlett says that would make her a “white trash” field hand. Grandma says she’s ashamed that Ellen taught Scarlett that manual labor makes a person “white trash.”
Scarlett still holds on to the pre-war notion that only certain classes of people do certain kinds of work. At Tara before the war, the enslaved persons picked the cotton. Only white people who were poor, like the Slatterys, picked their own cotton. Even though the O’Haras are now on the Slatterys’ level—having three acres of cotton—Scarlett still maintains that picking her own cotton reduces her to the class of “white trash.”
Themes
Changing the subject from Ellen, Scarlett asks about the Calverts and the Tarletons. She learns that the Yankees didn’t raid the Tarletons’, but they did raid the Calverts’ and convinced all their enslaved persons to run off with them by promising them silk clothes. The Yankees and the enslaved persons also had sex, resulting in “yellow babies.” The Calverts’ house was saved because Mrs. Calvert has a Yankee accent. Grandma Fontaine says Cathleen Calvert has no pride and was embarrassed, just like a Yankee.
The Fontaines disdain the Calverts for escaping the Yankees’ wrath with Mrs. Calvert’s Yankee accent. Although this affiliation with the Yankees helped the Calverts survive, the Fontaines think that it meant a much greater loss: the loss of pride and of Southern identity.
Themes
The Fontaines ask Scarlett why Tara wasn’t burned. Scarlett knows they’ll ask about Ellen soon, and she doesn’t want to talk about her since she knows she’ll cry. Scarlett tells the story of the Yankees making Tara their headquarters. The women say it’s the first time they’ve heard of a Yankee doing a good thing. Scarlett asks them if they could spare some food. They say they’ll give her half. Scarlett insists that’s too much, but they say that’s what are neighbors for.
Scarlett is still avoiding the subject of Ellen’s death, both with others and in her own private thoughts. In order not to succumb to grief, she has pushed thoughts that are too sad out of her mind. This allows her to focus on the task of survival. This coping mechanism is slowly making her more and more incapable of emotion.
Themes
As Scarlett leaves, Grandma Fontaine steps out with her and asks what’s wrong at Tara. Scarlett decides she can tell the truth without crying. She explains that Ellen died of typhoid, that Gerald has lost his mind, and that Melanie is sick and needs a doctor. Grandma Fontaine presses her further, and Scarlett tells the story of her escape from Atlanta, and how she’d thought if she could just get home, she could rest. But Ellen is dead, and there’s so much work to do.
Scarlett empties her bottled up feelings to Grandma Fontaine. Ever since she got back to Tara, she’s been the head of the household, taking care of everyone. With no one alive who’s stronger and wiser than her, she has no one to tell her hardships to. It’s a relief to be able to share her emotions with someone, suggesting that Scarlett doesn’t entirely want to bottle up her emotions: she’s doing it out of perceived necessity.
Themes
Grandma Fontaine says after a woman has faced the worst, she doesn’t fear anything anymore. When she was a child, the Indians invaded her home, killing her family in front of her. She warns Scarlett to keep something to fear and something to love, because a woman who doesn’t feel fear or love is unnatural. Scarlett becomes impatient; old people always talk about irrelevant things. Grandma Fontaine tells her she’ll never have no burdens.
Grandma Fontaine’s advice is essentially that a person needs to hold onto what makes them human: their emotions. Scarlett has been so focused on survival, pushing all her emotions aside and always looking ahead, she does seem to be developing the “unnatural” hardness that Grandma Fontaine is talking about.
Themes
After Scarlett’s visit to the Fontaines, Tara had fried eggs and ham for breakfast. They catch the sow which means pork for winter, and Pork plans to go to Jonesboro on the horse and buy clothes. The cotton flourishes in the warm weather, growing to be four bales’ worth. The Fontaines’ kindness helps Scarlett feel better. She vows to repay them in the spring.
Scarlett’s spirits rise over the simple pleasure of growing her own food and forging a small community with her neighbors. She feels now that not only can Tara survive, but that they might be able to slowly pull themselves up into a state of prosperity.
Themes
Scarlett doesn’t intend to pick any cotton herself, as it would put her on the same level as the Slatterys. However, no one else wants to pick it. Mammy and Pork declare they aren’t “yard niggers.” Scarlett sends them to pick anyway, but they are so slow that she has them do other tasks. Next, she has Suellen, Carreen, and Melanie pick. Melanie faints and Suellen refuses, saying Ellen would never make her pick cotton. Carreen picks Suellen’s share, but she’s frail and picks slowly. She’s sad because Brent died, but Scarlett doesn’t know this.
Scarlett tries to hold on to the archaic notions of class that dictate who does what on a plantation by insisting that she, as the mistress of the plantation, not do it herself. Mammy and Pork are even more insistent than she is that they are too high class to pick cotton, even as enslaved persons—being above the field hand class is how they feel good about themselves.
Themes
So, Dilcey, Prissy and Scarlett pick the cotton. Dilcey works hard and whips Prissy when she is lazy. Scarlett tells Dilcey she won’t forget how helpful she is. Dilcey says it’s the Indian in her, but that Prissy is flighty because she’s all “nigger” like her Pa. Scarlett feels more cheerful as they pick the cotton. She’s sure Tara and the South will get rich again. With the money from the cotton, she’ll buy back her enslaved field hands, or she’ll hire them. And maybe next spring the war will be over. Then they can prosper.
Dilcey thinks Black people are too ill-bred to work hard outside of the enforced system of slavery. She believes black people will only work hard when they’re forced to, in other words. Since she is part Indian, she believes she understands the meaning of hard work and survival. In this way, Dilcey asserts the inferiority of Black people and the need for the institution of slavery to discipline them.
Themes
