Gone with the Wind

In the novel, North Georgia has only recently been settled by White settlers, and both rich planter families such as the O'Haras and poorer farming families such as the Slatterys grow cotton to accommodate the huge national demand for the crop. Cotton, Mitchell writes, "was the heartbeat of the section," a metaphor that underscores how important cotton was to the Southern states. Further developing this metaphor, she writes that the "planting and picking" of cotton were the "diastole" (the relaxed stage of the cardiac cycle, when the chambers of the heart fill with blood) and the "systole" (the contrasting stage, when the heart chambers contract). Here, Mitchell's metaphors suggest that the planting and picking seasons are a natural rhythm in the South, which depends upon this economically important crop. 

Despite the various restrictions placed upon women's public activities at this time, these three women "were the pillars of Atlanta," a metaphor that highlights just how important a role they play in determining social mores in the city's upper classes. Though they present themselves as a united front who agree on what does and does not constitute polite or "decorous behavior," Mitchell notes that they "disliked and distrusted one another as heartily as the First Triumvirate of Rome." Here, she alludes to a political alliance in the late Roman Republic between three prominent statesmen: Julius Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey. After the death of Crassus in 53 B.C.E., the alliance between Caesar and Pompey deteriorated into civil war. This allusion, then, suggests that these three prominent Atlanta women are united only for strategic and political reasons and feel no genuine warmth for each other. 

The doctor's letter invokes pathos, drawing on the emotions of his readers in order to convince them to banish Rhett from their society or even imprison him. His language is notably emotional as he calls on his peers to join him in condemning, "with the just wrath and vengeance of an embattled people," such "human vultures" as Rhett. Here, Dr. Meade's metaphor, which compares Rhett to a vulture, suggests that Rhett is profiting off of the misery and destruction caused by the war. Further, he refers to Rhett and others like him as "vampires who are sucking the lifeblood of the men who follow Robert Lee" and additionally characterizes them as "scavengers in our midst."

These various metaphors all suggest that Rhett, who has been running ships past the Northern naval blockade, is not motivated by any real desire to help the Confederate States, but rather by mere opportunism. Indeed, Rhett will gain immense wealth throughout the course of the war, though ironically, he becomes increasingly passionate about the Confederate cause just as its failure becomes undeniable. 

Ashley's response to the South's defeat in the Civil War is complex and ambivalent. He recognizes that the South was foolish to think it could win a war against the industrialized North, but he does not regret his own involvement. Further, he longs for the comforts he experienced in the Antebellum South while also recognizing that others did not share his experiences of the old social order that, he feels, has been destroyed. He tells Scarlett that "life was beautiful" before the war but also concedes that "maybe it wasn't so for everyone," subtly acknowledging the various classes of people, including enslaved people, who suffered under the social order to which he longs to return.

Using a metaphor, Ashley concludes that his old life was "a shadow show," both because of his investments in literature and history but also because the world of the Antebellum South was itself, in some way, a mere shadow, or a mode of social organization that could not possibly be sustained in perpetuity. After the war, the differences between the worldviews of the pragmatic Scarlett and the dreamy and idealistic Ashley become even more pronounced. 

The Wilkes family, Mitchell writes, were always a closely-knit and “clannish tribe," presenting themselves in public as “an unbroken phalanx of overlapping shields.” In this metaphor, the novel compares the loyalty of the Wilkes family to a phalanx. In Ancient Greece, a phalanx was a military formation composed of overlapping shields and weapons that presented a nearly impregnable defense to other armies. With some guilt, Scarlett realizes that she has undermined the close bonds of the family, which she knows must be particularly painful for Ashley.