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 summer after the war ends, Tara has lots of visitors, as Confederate soldiers ride the railroad to Atlanta and make their way south on foot. For the most part, they aren’t bitter, and are happy to be going home after a hard fight. Old and young, rich and poor, half-starving and lice-ridden, many missing limbs or bearing scars, they stop at Tara for rest and food.
Even after the South loses the war, the soldiers are still cheerful. This suggests that, although the South was materially defeated, they weren’t defeated spiritually. Their cheer also implies that the North hasn’t entirely conquered the South.
Themes
Mammy boils blackberry roots for the soldiers’ indigestion, saying it wasn’t the Yankees who beat them but their bowels. She has the lice-ridden soldiers strip and wash with lye soap while she boils their clothes, and she doesn’t let them in the beds. They sleep in the parlor, destroying the velvet rug with their boots. The girls ask the soldiers for news of Ashley, but there is none. The soldiers try to comfort Melanie by saying it’s a long walk from Rock Island, and maybe Ashley had no boots. Scarlett hates to think of Ashley without boots, reduced to the level of these other dirty soldiers.
All this time, Melanie and Scarlett haven’t known if Ashley is alive or dead. Scarlett likes to think of Ashley as he was before the war—relaxed, clean, and high-class. This suggests that her feelings for Ashley are like the sentimental feelings many Southerners have about the old days. It is possible that Scarlett romanticizes Ashley the way the South romanticized the Cause.
Themes
One afternoon Scarlett, Melanie, Mammy, and Prissy are about to cut into a watermelon when they hear a horse coming. They argue over whether to hide the melon or share it. Scarlett takes charge and hides it. Prissy cries that it’s Uncle Peter. They all run to greet him. Peter starts scolding Melanie and Scarlett for not returning to Atlanta to keep Miss Pitty company. He says they should be ashamed. Melanie and Scarlett burst out laughing that Peter rode all this way just to scold them. Mammy and Peter argue as Melanie and Scarlett laugh. Finally, Melanie asks if Miss Pitty asked Peter to bring the girls back with him. Peter then remembers his real reason for coming: he has a letter for Melanie. Ashley is alive and walking home.
Uncle Peter’s visit is a reminder of Atlanta—the second main setting of Gone with the Wind. Peter and Mammy—the two head enslaved persons of Tara and Atlanta—meet, which symbolizes a conflict between the country way of life and the city way of life. Atlanta, as a bustling city, and Tara, as a fertile landscape, both offer different versions of the South’s resiliency and rebirth after the Civil War. And with the news that Ashley is on his way, Melanie and Scarlett won’t have lost everything in the war.
Themes
Melanie faints and Mammy catches her, telling Peter not to touch her. Everyone swarms around Melanie, but Scarlett looks at the letter Peter waves. She snatches it, tears it open and reads the words addressed to Melanie: “Beloved, I am coming home to you.” Tears pour down Scarlett’s face. She runs to Ellen’s office and collapses on the sofa, kissing the letter, and repeating its words
Scarlett still loves Ashley so much that she believes everything he does is for her rather than Melanie. Although she has recently warmed to Melanie and sees her as more than a pretty face, her feelings for Ashley still lead Scarlett to betray her.
Themes
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It could be months before Ashley reaches Tara, but everyone hangs around in the house because they don’t want to miss him when he arrives. The weeks drag on, and Scarlett fears something happened to Ashley. When she first read his letter, she felt his words were for her. But as time goes on, she knows they were really for Melanie. She wishes Melanie had died in childbirth so that Scarlett and Ashley could marry and raise Beau—Melanie’s son—together. Soldier after soldier comes through Tara. Scarlett resents that they eat Tara’s food and waste her time.
Before Ashley’s letter, it seemed that Scarlett was growing out of her petty jealousy towards Melanie and developing real care for her. It almost seemed that friendship might overcome Scarlett’s obsession with Ashley. However, now that Ashley’s return is imminent, Scarlett’s cruelty and selfishness returns.
Themes
Scarlett set the table sparely when soldiers came. Once, she catches Melanie giving her food to the soldiers. Scarlett tells her to stop; Melanie is too weak not to eat. Melanie says being generous with the soldiers gives her hope that someone is being a kind hostess to Ashley on his journey home. Scarlett is ashamed and puts more food on the table after this. Once, a young soldier dies on their porch. As they bury him, Melanie cries and wonders if somewhere, someone is burying Ashley.
Melanie’s actions shame Scarlett and make her act less selfishly. However, she only manages to be selfless when Ashley is somehow involved: she is more generous with the soldiers when Melanie reminds her that Ashley is a soldier relying on hosts’ kindness. Scarlett is only selfless when there’s something in it for her—in this case, Ashley.
Themes
A soldier named Will Benteen arrives with pneumonia and has to be put to bed. He has a wooden leg, and Scarlett and Melanie can tell he’s of a lower class. When he recovers, he wakes to Carreen praying beside him. Careen sits with him throughout his recovery, praying constantly. This annoys Scarlett, who believes praying is useless—God only gave her hardship and feels she owes God nothing. Once, when Scarlett complains to Will about this, he explains that Carreen finds comfort in praying for Ellen and for Brent, whom she got engaged to while Scarlett was in Atlanta. Scarlett had no idea. She insists Carreen will get over it, just like Scarlett got over Charles, but Will disagrees. Will stays at Tara after he recovers to pay the women back for caring for him. Scarlett hopes he’ll marry Carreen, but Carreen is too heartbroken to marry.
Near the beginning of Gone with the Wind, Scarlett had struggled with her spirituality. She had deeply admired Ellen’s religiosity and viewed her mother as the Virgin Mary. She’d hoped to be as religious as her mother one day. However, just like Ellen’s teaching, Ellen’s religiosity has also ceased to be useful during these trying times. Scarlett has lost so much and suffered so many hardships that she can’t believe in God. This leads her still farther away from being like Ellen one day and makes her even less able to sympathize with Carreen’s need for religion.
Themes
One day, Will, Scarlett, and Melanie sit on the veranda. Melanie has been happier since she heard from Ashley, but she’s still weak and sickly. Dr. Meade has said that another baby would kill her. Will pulls shows them a Confederate bill he found in town. Confederate money is worth nothing now; Mammy is using it to seal cracks in the attic. But Will brought the bill because of a poem written on the back that told of “a storm-cradled nation that fell,” meaning “nothing on God’s earth now.” Melanie is touched and wants to save it forever. Scarlett scoffs, saying she hopes she has lots of Greenbacks to give Wade when he grows up.
The fact that Scarlett feels no sentimentality about the outdated Confederate bill shows that she’s ready to move on to the future. She wants to make money, and she doesn’t care if that means acquiring Greenbacks (the Yankee currency) instead of Confederate bills. This suggests that Scarlett is willing to comply with the North in order to reestablish her wealth. Just as she sees no value in the outdated Confederate bill, she sees no value in prideful poverty.
Themes
Looking up, Will sees a soldier coming. Scarlett grouses that hopefully this one isn’t hungry, but Melanie rises and turns white. Scarlett grabs her but Melanie throws off her hands and runs down the drive. Scarlett’s heart stops as she sees Ashley with his blonde beard. She takes a step forward, but Will restrains her. Will reminds Scarlett that Ashley is Melanie’s husband, looking at Scarlett with pity.
Although Scarlett has transformed since she last saw Ashley, her feelings for him are as intense as ever. This suggests that Ashley represents the last part of Scarlett that hasn’t changed, and that he is her link to the old days and her old self.
Themes
