Gone with the Wind: Chapter 38 Summary & Analysis

Scarlett is afraid Yankees will take everything she has. She doesn’t want to lose everything now when the mill is just starting to earn money. In the spring of 1866, she puts all her energy into the mill. She hates the Yankees and the “impudent free negroes” but keeps her mouth shut, not wanting to end up in jail. She’d never risk everything by joining the Ku Klux Klan. In June, she’ll be too pregnant to go out. It’s already scandalous that she’s out and about now, but she wants to get the mill in order before she goes into confinement in June.

Scarlett puts all her hopes in the mill. Lumber is in high demand as Atlanta rapidly rebuilds. Scarlett oversees the operation of the mill and sells lumber in town. She goes out in the streets in a pretty green outfit that conceals her pregnancy and talks business with customers. Sometimes she plays the part of a helpless lady who needs money, but other times she resorts to immoral tactics to win customers. Sometimes she tells prospective customers that her competitors’ lumber is trash, and she sells poor-quality lumber at a high price whenever she can get away with it.

Sometimes, Scarlett feels bad for these lies and thinks of what Ellen would say. But Southern chivalry protects her bad behavior: a lady can disrespect a man, but a man will never disrespect her back. Once, one of her lumber competitors talks back. In retaliation, Scarlett steals his customers, drives him to bankruptcy, and buys his mill at a cheap price. Then she looks for a trustworthy person to run her second mill. She doesn’t want anyone who’s unemployed, because she believes those people lack “gumption.” But all the hardworking men, such as Tommy Wellburn and Kells Whiting, are already employed.

One day, Scarlett pulls up beside Rene Picard’s pie wagon and asks Rene to work for her. Rene refuses, and their friend Tommy says Scarlett wasn’t raised to run a mill. Tommy says everyone’s doing what they must, so she should employ a Carpetbagger. She says she doesn’t want to hire a thief. Rene and Tommy say all the trustworthy Southern men have better things to do than work for a woman. Scarlett feels that Tommy and Rene are united against her. Tommy recommends she hire Hugh Elsing, but Scarlett says he doesn’t have enough “gumption”—the most important quality in a person. But eventually, Scarlett hires Hugh. He’s bad at business, but he is honest. She wants to hire a man named Johnnie Gallegher. They get along well and he understands business, but he’s busy for now.

Scarlett sends half the money she makes to Tara, a third to Rhett, and she hides the rest around the house. Frank puts up with her tantrums because he knows pregnant women often have outbursts. No one knows that she has tantrums because she wants to be financially secure before she has her baby and before taxes are due at Tara again.

It scandalizes Atlanta that Scarlett operates the sawmill and leaves her house during her pregnancy. But even worse, she does business with Yankees and enjoys it. Scarlett hates the Yankees as much as everyone, but she wants to make money, and being nice to Yankees helps her do this. Many Yankee officers are building homes and need lumber. Scarlett pretends to be a refined Southern lady in distress, winning their affection. She finds making friends with Yankees easy, as they’re lonely and interested in learning about the South. The officers’ wives invite Scarlett over for tea. They’ve read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and want to know if what it says about slavery is true. Did enslavers really keep bloodhounds to hunt runaway enslaved persons? Did enslavers keep enslaved women as concubines? Scarlett resists mentioning how there have been more mixed-race babies since the Yankees came.

One day, Scarlett sees how wide the gap between North and South is. She is driving with Peter when three Yankee wives hail her. One says her nurse went back North because she couldn’t stand to live around “naygurs,” and asks if Scarlett has any suggestions for where to get a new nurse. Scarlett suggests she find a country “darky” who doesn’t belong to the Freedman’s Bureau. The Yankee woman says she doesn’t trust her babies with a Black person. Scarlett, remembering Mammy’s gentle hands, thinks how these strangers had no idea how comforting Black people are. She tells the woman her opinion is odd considering that the Yankees freed the “darkies.” The woman says Black people “give her the creeps.”

Scarlett realizes Peter is breathing heavily. One of the wives points at him and laughs at that “old nigger swelling up like a toad.” Peter has never been called “nigger” by a white person. His starts to cry, his pride hurt. Scarlett thinks it is unforgivable that these women insulted Peter; she believes they deserve to be killed. Scarlett says proudly that Peter is family and drives away.

Scarlett sees a tear trickle down Peter’s nose. She feels sad for him; it’s as though someone had been mean to “a helpless child.” Peter says he did his best to care for Pitty all his life. Scarlett says he’s like the Angel Gabriel, and then silence falls. Scarlett thinks how stupid Yankees are not to know that Black people need to be “coddled like children.” Yankees freed Black people and now wanted nothing to do with them. Scarlett trusts “darkies” more than she trusts white people. She thinks of Mammy, Dilcey, and Pork who have stuck by her despite the promises the Freedman’s Bureau made them.

Scarlett says aloud that the Freedman’s Bureau set Peter free, but Peter says he won’t let “trash” free him. He says Pitty will be upset when he tells her Scarlett let Yankees insult him. Scarlett says she didn’t, but Peter argues that she has no place dealing with Yankees. He expects Miss Pitty won’t let him drive Scarlett anymore after this. He says it does no good to deal with Yankees if it alienates your own family. Scarlett knows he is right and thinks resentfully of her neighbors. Why does everyone care what she does? When she has money, she’ll be kind and generous and everyone will love her as they loved Ellen. She doesn’t realize that she has no real desire to be charitable, and only wants people to think she’s charitable. From then on, Scarlett drives herself around town.

Scarlett works hard all May. The only person who seems to understand what she does is Rhett Butler. He’s often out of town, likely dating some woman, and when he is in town, he’s at Belle Watling’s saloon. He no longer calls at Pitty’s, but Scarlett runs in to him in town all the time. Sometimes he hitches his horse and drives her buggy. Although he doesn’t seem to want anything from her, she wonders if these meetings are on purpose. He doesn’t bring up Ashley or the humiliating scene in the jail, and they talk happily for hours without running out of things to say.

On one of these drives, Scarlett complains that everyone in town gossips about what she does. Rhett says it’s because she’s daring to be different from other women, and her success makes the men jealous. She says she’d be starving if she didn’t do what she was doing. Rhett says Atlantans expect her to starve proudly like they do. The other ladies who sell things don’t enjoy the work and don’t succeed on purpose, which keeps them respectable. He says the penalty for making money in an unladylike manner is loneliness.

Scarlett does feel lonely. She says she’s never had female friends. Rhett points out Melanie approves of everything she does. Scarlett remembers privately that Melanie had even approved of her murdering the Yankee. Scarlett says that Melanie has no sense. If she did, says Rhett, she’d realize Scarlett loved Ashley and wouldn’t approve of her anymore. She curses him. Rhett says no one of this generation would understand her, but her grandparents would probably be proud. Scarlett laughs, remembering her Grandma Robillard who’d married three times.

Rhett says his grandfather made lots of money as a pirate. When his grandfather died in a saloon brawl, his children were relieved, but Rhett always admired him. Rhett says Scarlett’s children will approve of her only if they experience hardship. Scarlett wonders what her and Rhett’s grandchildren will be like. Smirking, Rhett asks what she means by their grandchildren. Scarlett blushes, suddenly aware of her big stomach which she’d tried to hide under a robe.

Scarlett tells Rhett to get out of her buggy. She becomes suddenly nauseous and vomits. She wants to die of embarrassment. But Rhett tells her not to be ashamed; he knows she’s pregnant. He starts to say that’s why he’s been driving her, but stops. He gently mocks her modesty and says pregnancy is perfectly normal. She should be proud. Scarlett makes a face and says she hates babies. Rhett says they are different because he likes babies. Scarlett is surprised, but then remembers how well Rhett got along with Wade. Rhett says she shouldn’t be driving alone. She might be raped or robbed, and this would rile up the KKK and make the Yankees crack down on Atlanta. He tells Scarlett to keep a pistol with her offers to drive her when he’s in town.

Scarlett asks if Rhett is trying to protect her. Rhett jokes that he’s deeply in love with her but is too “honorable” to pursue her; but just like Ashley, his honor fails sometimes. Scarlett tells him to shut up. Rhett says seriously that he wants get Scarlett a gentler horse than won’t harm her. She wonders why he is being so kind. Then he teases her again, and she sends him out of her buggy.

Scarlett thinks Rhett is irritating and bad-mannered, but he intrigues her. During these months, Scarlett takes to sneaking sips of brandy throughout the day. She hides this “unwomanly” habit by gargling cologne. When she lies awake at night afraid of the Yankees and missing Ashley, she feels she’ll die without whiskey. She misses Tara and decides to visit in June. Then she gets a note from Will saying Gerald is dead.