Gone with the Wind question

A headstrong, opportunistic and self-centered but intelligent young woman grows up and survives the American civil war and the reconstruction period while her way of life disappears around her. And there are two (or three) important men in her life. I read it in three days when I was 12.

Gone With the Wind was a love letter to the southern way of life in the 19th century. It's equal parts tragedy, comedy, racism and philosophical debate on human values. Moreover, the book is clearly an epic masterpiece that deserves all the accolades (good and bad) it has received. For whatever its worth, the world will never see another author like Margaret Mitchell write and publish a controversal book like GWTW.

Some people have suggested that Mitchell's tome was indeed a reaction to Uncle Tom's Cabin depiction of slavery. I don't think that is the case, and if it was, she clearly missed the mark. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a great anti-slavery book that was meant to scandalize and galvanize the nation on the issue of slavery. Yes, it was anti-slavery propaganda, and it worked as intended. According to many historians, the book helped plant the seeds for the Civil War.

That being said, GWTW is a massive, Pulitzer Prize novel that has captivated many generations of readers (myself included). And the film adaptation was equally awesome ... Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable will always be Scarlett and Rhett.

It's about a lot of things... I think? The characters are largely metaphorical representations of the North, the South, and what was lost during the war, from a Southern perspective.

But I think you have to have some Confederate blood to understand all that... Yankees will just be waiting for Clark Gable to carry Vivian Leigh upstairs to bed, and highschool English teachers will be groping around under the bed looking for a racist...

I was told the book was a reaction on Uncle Tom's Cabin, to show that slavery wasn't always as bad as depicted in Beecher Stowe's tale, or at least that not all slave owners treated their slaves as badly...
Anyway, I loved the book: unforgettable characters, great story, all this against the background of one of the biggest upheavals of that period.
Scarlet may have been a selfish brat at the beginning of the book, but showed strength and endurance while the world as she knows it crumbles around her. The other characters are equally unforgettable: Melanie, Ashley, Mammie, even Aunt Pittypat...

This is THE epic romance in American Literature. So if you don't care about Scarlett/Rhett and/or Confederate Heroics for about a thousand pages, you're not going to like this book. But I'm a southern boy at heart I guess and I liked it a lot.

About a family during world war 2........