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Wade Hampton Hamilton
Bonnie Blue Butler is Rhett and Scarlett’s daughter. She was originally named Eugene Victoria, but Rhett christens her Bonnie when Melanie says her eyes are as blue as the Bonnie Blue Flag. She is charming and vivacious, except at night in the dark when she wakes from terrible nightmares and only Rhett can comfort her. She idolizes Rhett, and she rides around with him on his horse. Rhett dedicates himself to securing Bonnie’s future, which he does by switching political parties. As Bonnie grows, she comes to love riding, so Rhett gets her a pony and teaches her how to jump. At the end of the novel when Bonnie is four years old, she tries to jump too high and falls, breaking her neck and painfully reiterating Gerald’s death. Rhett later tells Scarlett that he loved Bonnie because she reminded him of what Scarlett might be like if Scarlett were to love him back.
Bonnie Blue Butler Quotes in Gone with the Wind
The Gone with the Wind quotes below are all either spoken by Bonnie Blue Butler or refer to Bonnie Blue Butler . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 60 Quotes
She had never before known this type of fear. All her life her feet had been firmly planted in common sense and the only things she had ever feared had been the things she could see, injury, hunger, poverty, loss of Ashley’s love. […] Those fears had never weighed her down as this feeling of wrongness was doing.
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Bonnie Blue Butler Character Timeline in Gone with the Wind
The timeline below shows where the character Bonnie Blue Butler appears in Gone with the Wind. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 50
...the baby Eugene Victoria, but when Melanie says the girl’s eyes are blue as the Bonnie Blue flag, her name becomes Bonnie Blue Butler.
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Chapter 52
Shortly after Bonnie’s first birthday, the Butlers are gathered in the sitting room. Scarlett pores over her account...
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...never considered how his choices would affect Wade, and he is going to make sure Bonnie never has to suffer for her parents’ choices. He plans to make sure Bonnie gets...
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...poor manager for ruining her children’s reputation with good people. He says he won’t let Bonnie be rejected in respectable social circles. Scarlett insists Bonnie will be fine since their family...
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...she worked to start her business. Then, he asks her advice for how to get Bonnie to stop sucking her thumb. Mrs. Merriwether deduces from this that Scarlett is a bad...
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Bonnie grows up quickly, looking more and more like Gerald every day. Her only problem is...
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One night, Rhett is out late, and Lou puts Bonnie to bed. At some point, her lamp goes out, and Bonnie wakes screaming in terror....
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Scarlett scolds Rhett for humoring Bonnie; If he let her scream, she’d get over her fear. Rhett says Scarlett is an...
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Chapter 54
...her family with a divorce. He announces he’s going to New Orleans and is taking Bonnie with him. When Scarlett insinuates that he’ll take Bonnie to places like Belle’s, he shouts...
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Chapter 56
...When Scarlett’s anger at Rhett calms down, she starts to miss him. She also misses Bonnie.
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...of Rhett when her Aunt Pauline writes to say Rhett visited her in Charleston with Bonnie. She writes that she’d heard Rhett was a brute and a cheat, but was pleasantly...
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One day, Rhett and Bonnie return. Scarlett runs from her room to greet Bonnie and hugs and kisses her daughter,...
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Chapter 57
When Scarlett returns from Tara, she looks healthy. Rhett and Bonnie meet her at the train, Indian feathers stuck in their hair from a game they’d...
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Chapter 58
...about her, but now she feels he doesn’t care at all. He focuses only on Bonnie. Scarlett, who likes to be the center of attention, is jealous. Rhett hangs out with...
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...Georgia to leave. Rhett says he doesn’t believe in politics, but he’s doing this for Bonnie’s sake. He starts toward his room where Bonnie is calling him, but Scarlett stops him...
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...them. But now, Rhett is friends with the Old Guard again. He rides around with Bonnie, and Scarlett feels left out.
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Chapter 59
Bonnie runs wild. When Rhett took her to New Orleans, he allowed her to stay up...
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When Bonnie turns four, Rhett buys her a Shetland pony that she names Mr. Butler, and Scarlett...
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A week later, Bonnie begs for a higher bar. Rhett tells her she can’t jump higher until she’s six,...
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Three nights after Bonnie’s death, Mammy walks to Melanie’s house. In the kitchen, Mammy says she wants to tell...
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...wrong? Mammy continues: Mammy went into Rhett’s room to tell him it’s her fault that Bonnie’s afraid of the dark; once, when Bonnie wouldn’t go to bed, Mammy had told her...
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Chapter 60
...She feels like she can’t blame Rhett or apologize to him for saying he killed Bonnie.
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...think that Scarlett is heartless. Nobody knows how hard Scarlett works to feel better after Bonnie dies. Her new friends drift away, not understanding the hardships she’s experienced. She wants to...
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Chapter 62
...and she’s always been so mean to him. How could she have said he killed Bonnie? She had to lose everything to realize she loves Rhett. He is “passionate and earthy,”...
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Chapter 63
...wanted her to call him, but she didn’t. He channeled his love for Scarlett into Bonnie, who loved him back. When Bonnie died, everything ended.
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