Gone with the Wind: 80%

Less than 200 pages to go!

I feel very accomplished but I love the story so much that I wish it were several more thousands of pages. I love the style of writing, the characters, the details and the way that everything is connected. Scarlett ended up in Atlanta begging Rhett for money, trying to sell herself, and eventually got married to Frank Kennedy because he had money. She then bought a couple of sawmills and ran them to make money. One day on the way to one of the mills, she got attacked and Frank ended up dead trying to avenge the attack as part of the Ku Klux Klan. Scarlett was sorry, not that she had killed Frank (indirectly), but that she was going to hell. Then Rhett proposed to her while Frank was dead in the parlor. Ridiculous.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! I'm sad I only have a couple hundred pages to go :(

There's not much to say about this section, although I was drawing parallels between Scarlett and Gatsby in terms of getting a plan to make money and doing anything to make that happen. Both, now that I think about it, are in love with someone who is married. But Scarlett carries through with her goal and having known hunger never wants to be without money.

However, I am not sure why she is blaming herself so much for Frank's death. While I understand that she disobeyed him when he asked her to stop going out to the mills because it was unsafe. Scarlett, in turn, talked to Frank to make sure he was not part of the Klan. Therefore, both disobeyed the requests of the other, and both got hurt for it. Unfortunately Frank didn't make it out of his attack alive, but in my opinion it was not solely Scarlett's fault that he had been killed. If he had listened to Scarlett, he would not have been involved in the Klan. At the same time, if Scarlett had not visited the mill, she wouldn't have been attacked. Perhaps being a gentleman, Frank had to seek revenge, but Scarlett did not want that either; on the evening of her attack she wanted Frank to stay home and comfort her. Therefore, I believe Frank's death is just as much Frank's fault as Scarlett's.

I'll be honest. I have seen the movie start to finish at least twice, but have watched the first half and the last 5 minutes many times. Therefore, the ending piece is a little fuzzy. I'll watch the movie at some point after finishing the book. I can remember parts from the movie as they happen in the book but I can't remember details much, especially related to the Scarlett and Rhett marriage, which consumes part 5, where I am now in the book. I remember that they lived richly, had a child who died, Rhett got drunk and pushed Scarlett down the stairs, and of course the "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Other than that, I can't say I remember much about them as a couple.

That being said, here's my prediction. Rhett and Scarlett are two people who are not well respected or received in Atlanta, mostly because they have taken opportunities that were given to them that others did not take. Displeasure with Scarlett also has to do with the fact that she is a woman doing work for men, showing herself in pregnancy, etc. (That whole bit really annoys me, not that I would consider myself a feminist by any means, but people know about sex and that sex leads to babies and that pregnancy happens and leads to women the size of trucks, so....what is the big deal? It happens to everyone, why can't they go shopping or for a walk? And men have to be like, "Oh, gee, Mrs. So-and-so, what a surprise, a baby!" while thinking in their head like 'oh, I haven't seen her in a while, she must be knocked up!' What's the big deal? But that's besides the point.) and that she is being 'indecent.' They both don't care about their reputations or what people think, but both are concerned with their appearances, having luxurious things, etc. So, based on that, their marriage will be more like a facade. Their relationship, besides being about passion, is more of a love-hate relationship, which, when combined with passion can only end badly. I'm thinking they will live some time with luxury but at some point Scarlett will have to either give up on Ashley or leave Rhett altogether for her to be happy (We all know what happens in the end, who are we kidding?). Thinking back, I can't remember a time when Scarlett was ever truly happy. Even in the very beginning she was pining for Ashley and never did she get her chance.

Yeah, so, a third unhappy marriage, but this more fun than the other two. I'm interested to see if Scarlett ends up in Atlanta, seeing as how she and Rhett are bound to live in the lap of luxury (while Atlanta cleans up and becomes a nice place again, which is inevitable if they live there due to the Scarlett-Atlanta foil). And I want to know what happens to her children Wade and Ella, since they don't exist in the movie.

I have been thinking the whole book about who my favorite character is. IT IS DIFFICULT! I'll elaborate later if I get to it, but I love Scarlett, for as stupid as she seems she actually has some sense except about love. I love Rhett for his frankness, the way he is matter of fact about everything. The third character I love, which I discovered today, is Mammy. There was something she said in the chapter I read today that really struck me. Maybe I'll add it next time, but it was something about even though she is free, she still represents Miss Ellen and she was not going to let Scarlett go off unsupervised and find someone else to raise Ellen's grandchildren. The way Mammy protects the family that she grew up with is a story that often gets lost in the movie and in civil war stories in general. I mean, I grew up in New York (state, not city) so I didn't grow up with the same set of civil war attitudes as those raised in the south, but the message I got was that all slaves hated being slaves and hated their masters and after the emancipation proclamation, all the slaves ran away and came up north to work except for the ones that ended up as sharecroppers. While most of the O'Hara's slaves ran away, and freed slaves were some of the criminals in Atlanta, Mammy, Pork, Dilcey, and Prissy still stayed with the O'Hara's out of loyalty. I was unaware that loyalty of this kind existed in the south between slave and master. My view of slavery pretty accurately matches those of the reported northerners in the book who asked Sam of the bloodhounds and beatings. At the same time, I realize that Mitchell grew up in the south and that her story may be skewed also. Even if slave loyalty was extremely rate, it still draws attention to Mammy as a character and makes me admire her for her devotion to Ellen (who, by the way, represents the old south, thus why she is dead and Scarlett is less like her every day--I love symbolism!)

It's really too bad that Mitchell didn't write more books or a sequel or something--I know there's a sequel but I'm afraid to read it...this book seems so complete (minus the phillipi thing, haven't found out what that is yet) and the writing is so good that if the sequel sucks I'd hate to ruin this book for myself. Currently it may be surpassing even my favorite book, Anna Karenina. We'll have to see with these last 190 pages!