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
On a day in January 1866, Scarlett is in Ellen’s office writing a letter to Miss Pitty explaining again why she and Melanie can’t join her in Atlanta. It’s bitterly cold. Scarlett hears Will return from Jonesboro and calls him in. Inside, he asks how much money she has. She says she has $10 in gold. Will says that won’t be enough to pay the taxes. Scarlett argues that she already paid taxes, but Will explains that Jonesboro is full of Republicans and Carpetbaggers—Northerners who’d moved South—who are raising the taxes on Tara. Someone, perhaps Hilton, wants to buy Tara cheap when Scarlett inevitably can’t pay the taxes.
Now that the Civil War is over, Reconstruction begins in the South. Instead of leaving the South alone to get back on its feet after losing, the North sets up camp in the South and tries to rule it. Northerners and Republicans move South, looking to usurp land and claim power. The higher taxes threaten all the hard work Scarlett has done to rebuild Tara—she’ll have to adapt to the Northerners’ way of doing things if she means to keep going.
Themes
It’s unthinkable that Tara could belong to someone else. Scarlett has been so focused on operating Tara that she hasn’t paid attention to Reconstruction, the North’s attempt to rectify the South and integrate it into the Union. She knows about Carpetbaggers, Scallawags (Southerners who cooperated with the North) and the Freedmen’s Bureau; she knows that freedmen are becoming “insolent.” She’s heard Ashley say that the South is being treated like a conquered province, but she hasn’t paid much mind.
The South, although a part of the Union, still thinks of itself as an individual society. The North views the South as uncooperative to the Union, and therefore tries to integrate it by force. Tara, though, is pretty insular, so Scarlett hasn’t had to pay attention to what’s going on. The news about higher taxes, though, means that she has to pay attention and figure out how to navigate this new world.
Themes
Scarlett has no idea that all the rules have changed, and that Georgia is practically under martial law. The Freedmen’s Bureau is luring formerly enslaved persons from plantations and feeding them, promising them land, and telling them they’re just as good as white people. They rile them up with tales of white cruelty. Jonas Wilkerson, Tara’s old overseer, and Hilton, Cathleen’s husband, are head of the Bureau. They’re backed by the military and have the power to do whatever they want. Scarlett has been able to avoid them until now.
Scarlett and many white Southerners believe that white cruelty towards enslaved Black people is a myth. In this way, they attempt to defend themselves and the institution of slavery, and they firmly believe that Black people are not equals. Because of this, these white Southerners resist Reconstruction because it goes against their beliefs. Their resistance only reveals how deep their racism is.
Themes
Scarlett asks if it’s not enough that the North has won and turned Southerners into beggars. She thought her troubles would end with the war. Will says their troubles are just getting started. Scarlett is shocked to hear the taxes on Tara are $300. Will explains how no one who was a colonel in the Confederate army—in other words, every Southerner—is allowed to vote. “White trash” like Hilton and Wilkerson can vote, and they are running things. Now, a Black man can kill a white man and not get hung. Will could vote if he took the Yankee oath, but he didn’t agree to Reconstruction.
The Yankees take away Southerners’ right to vote so that they can’t vote to reinstate the South’s racist and classist policies. They also raise the taxes on the huge plantations so as to get them out of the hands of wealthy planter-aristocrats. Reconstruction severely limits the South’s desire to rebuild itself and return to its old way of life, where wealthy white people were at the top and enslaved Black people were at the bottom of the social order.
Themes
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Scarlett doesn’t understand what voting has to do with taxes and cries that they must borrow money from someone. Will, though, says nobody has money to lend. After a pause, he asks what they’re going to do. She asks where Ashley is. He’s in the orchard splitting logs. Will notes that Ashley doesn’t have money either, but Scarlett hurries to find him. Hopefully he’s alone; Scarlett has been very jealous since Ashley is always with Melanie these days. She wishes he were her husband. As Scarlett catches sight of Ashley, who’s wearing tattered pants and an old and too-small shirt of Gerald’s, she thinks that she hates to see him in dingy clothes doing manual labor. Ashley is too fine to be reduced to this.
Scarlett seeks Ashley’s help, hoping that he’ll be someone stronger and wiser than her—like a husband. She wants to have man in her life to handle these things that have traditionally been a man’s business, such as money and property. Scarlett sees Ashley as someone who should never work, even though she herself values work as a means to survive. She isn’t attracted to what Ashley has to be now, but to what he was in the past.
Themes
When he sees Scarlett, Ashley makes a joke about Abe Lincoln starting out splitting rails. Scarlett frowns at his making light of serious matters and tells him about the taxes. Ashley puts his coat around her and says the only person with any money is Rhett Butler. Scarlett had heard from Miss Pitty that Rhett is back in Atlanta and richer than ever. Scarlett calls Rhett a skunk and asks Ashley what will happen to them all. Ashley says he wonders what will become of the South and mentions other fallen civilizations. Scarlett says not to talk about the whole South and other nonsense when they are the ones suffering.
Rhett Butler is rich because he made his own money before the South lost the war. Anyone with a generational fortune, like Ashley and Scarlett, lost all their money when the Yankees burned their homes and took their food and enslaved persons. Therefore, Rhett’s scandalous modernity and practicality actually saved him from ruin. Scarlett remains unwilling to look at the big picture—everyone who was wealthy before the war is in a similar position. But she’s only focused on herself and on saving Tara.
Themes
Ashley takes Scarlett’s hands and kisses her calloused palms, saying they are the most beautiful hands he’d ever seen because they are strong. To her dismay, he drops her hands and tells her he can’t help her. His home and his money are gone; all he can do is try to farm. Every day, he feels more helpless. She doesn’t know what he means but loves that he is speaking his mind. Ashley says he’s only good at looking at dreams, and not at reality. He says he’s a coward.
Ashley admires Scarlett’s strength but can’t find the same strength in himself. Scarlett’s calloused hands represent her ingenuity during hard times; she is willing to sacrifice the beauty and softness of her pampered hands in order to survive. Ashley, on the other hand, is caught up in the beauty of the past and can’t face the harsh reality of the present.
Themes
Scarlett disagrees, reminding him of his bravery in the war. Ashley says that fighting isn’t about courage; even cowards are soldiers. Scarlett asks what he’s afraid of. He says he’s afraid of reality. He loved the beauty of the old life at Twelve Oaks, but that life is a shadow. Real things—like Scarlett—have always scared him. Scarlett asks about Melanie, and Ashley says she’s a dreamer too. Ashley continues that he thought he’d be content with a life of dreams, but he’s seen his friends die and saw what people were really like in the war. He realizes he can no longer be a spectator. His inner world of dreams has been destroyed, and there’s no going back to the old life.
Ashley says that the way life used to be was a dream, suggesting that there was an unreal quality to how perfect life was before the war. The Old South wasn’t reality; instead, the post-war world of hardship and every man for himself is reality. Gerald had once warned Scarlett that the Wilkeses were dreamy people. They could afford to be dreamy before the war, but now, Ashley’s inability to be practical is a major disadvantage.
Themes
Scarlett tells Ashley to not to be afraid they’ll starve. He looks at her admiringly, then his eyes get a “remote” look in them—he and Scarlett are always speaking different languages. He says he’s not afraid of starving, but of facing life without beauty of the old days. Scarlett is confused and thinks grumpily that Melanie would probably understand him. In her opinion, the only things to fear are starvation and homelessness.
Scarlett and Ashley are so different that they can’t even have a conversation. Scarlett is so practical that she can’t imagine what there is to fear besides physical suffering. Ashley, on the other hand, is so afraid of reality that even financial security won’t make up for the dream world he lost. The fact that they speak different languages is either a sign that they are made for each other, or a sign that they aren’t.
Themes
Ashley says he envies that Scarlett can face reality without wanting to escape it. Scarlett cries that she does want to escape. Grabbing Ashley’s arm, she says the South is dead and they should run away together. She’s tired of taking care of everyone and wants to go away with him. Scarlett says Ashley doesn’t love Melanie, and Melanie can’t give him more children—but Scarlett can. He grabs her roughly and says he doesn’t love her. They argue, but Ashley says he’ll never leave Melanie and Beau, and Scarlett will never leave her father and sisters.
Scarlett has put the old days so far behind her that she’s ready to run away and start a new life. She doesn’t care about honor, or any of the old manners of the past. Ashley maintains that he will never leave Melanie and Beau. It is unclear whether Ashley only denies Scarlett because he wants to do the honorable thing and be faithful to Melanie, or if he actually doesn’t love Scarlett.
Themes
Scarlett says she’s tired of her family, but Ashley offers to help her bear the load. She says there’s nothing to keep them here, but Ashley argues that honor will keep them here. Scarlett feels defeated. Heartbroken, she starts to cry, and Ashley holds her head against his chest. She changes at his touch, “magic and madness” filling her. He kisses her. Scarlett’s body melts into his, and she cries that he does love her.
Even though Ashley has claimed that he doesn’t love Scarlett, he obviously desires her sexually and isn’t worried about resisting his desire, This leads Scarlett to think that Ashley loves her, even though it is possible that Ashley only feels lust towards Scarlett. But Scarlett has never separated the two; recall how she’s always equated men wanting to kiss her with love.
Themes
Ashley says he wants to have sex with Scarlett. But he then shakes her so violently that her hair tumbles down and she feels her neck will snap. Ashley cries that they won’t do this again; he’ll leave with Melanie and the baby. Scarlett cries that he can’t leave, and Ashley’s expression turns savage. He admits he loves her courage and fire so much that he almost disgraced himself and had sex with her in the mud. She says that if he felt that way and resisted it than he doesn’t love her. He says she’ll never understand.
Ashley speaks in a language that makes everything sound beautiful—he honors Melanie, and he loves Scarlett’s fire and courage. However, when translated, it sounds as though Ashley lusts after Scarlett and loves Melanie purely. Scarlett, a much more straightforward thinker, believes that if Ashley can resist her, it means he doesn’t love her.
Themes
Scarlett becomes aware that it’s winter. Ashley’s expression is distant. She’ll never get close to him again. Scarlett says she has nothing left to fight for or love with him gone. Ashley picks up a handful of red mud and presses it into her hand. He says the land is left, and she loves the land more than she loves him. Looking at the clay, Scarlett thinks how much she loves Tara’s red earth, and how hard she’d fight for it. Looking at Ashley, she feels no emotion. She says he doesn’t have to go because she won’t throw herself at him again. As she walks away, she squares her shoulders. Ashley notices, and he’s touched.
When Ashley hands Scarlett the dirt, she realizes again that land is more important and lasting than love, as Gerald had once told her. Scarlett has now gone back and forth between land and love, unsure which is more valuable to her. When she doesn’t have love, she turns to the land, but some part her keeps pursuing Ashley. In this moment, the thought of Tara empowers Scarlett to realize she doesn’t need Ashley to feel powerful.
Themes
