Almost everyone has at least heard of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind, which first came to bookstores in 1936. It was a huge success and has been loved by readers ever since. It is a story of hope and gumption, as well as grief and despair. It is written in such a way that many audiences are willing to look past the fact that it follows characters who own slaves, fight for the confederacy, and stand for ideas that are against almost all of today’s values. This has led to controversy about the morality of those who adore it since it asks readers to root for racist plantation owners and confederate soldiers. Is one’s ability to tolerate the offensive racial stereotypes in the novel a compliment to the author’s skills or a troubling sign that humans are willing to throw away their morals for the sake of entertainment? In either case, the novel is still relevant today because it challenges readers to consider another perspective, which is crucial in arguing one’s own point.

One of the most impactful moments in Gone With the Wind is the scene right after Scarlett discovers that Melanie is giving birth. Scarlett rushes to find Dr. Meade and she must stumble through rows of dying soldiers, where “some lay stiff and still but many writhed under the hot sun, moaning. Everywhere, swarms of flies hovered over the men, crawling and buzzing in their faces, everywhere was blood, dirty bandages, groans, screamed curses of pain as stretcher bearers lifted men. The smell of sweat, of blood, of unwashed bodies, of excrement rose up in waves of blistering heat until the fetid stench almost nauseated her [. . .] She shrank back, clapping her hand to her mouth feeling that she was going to vomit. She couldn’t go on. She had seen wounded men in the hospitals, wounded men on Aunt Pity’s lawn after the fighting at the creek, but never anything like this. Never anything like these stinking, bleeding bodies broiling under the glaring sun. This was an inferno of pain and smell and noise . . .” (Mitchell 347). With such brilliant imagery and sensory detail, it is easy to grab readers’ emotions and make them temporarily forget the horrible system the confederacy fought for. Humans are programmed to empathize with those who are in pain, even when the people feeling the pain have committed terrible deeds. Humans love stories and enjoy being fooled. They purchase books because books allow people to believe they are somewhere else, and someone else. In this scene, the readers are Scarlett and they are afraid. They are searching for the one person who can help them among a vast expanse of dying people who are either straining to stay alive or begging to die and end the pain. Deep down, readers know that the person they’re rooting for supports slavery and that even without the slavery, Scarlett is not a very compassionate human being in the first place. Yet, powerful writing often manages to gain the audience’s sympathies nonetheless. This is one of a sequence of passages where Scarlett is afraid and desperate to find help, but is dismissed. When she finally finds Dr. Meade, he tells her he cannot possibly deliver Melanie’s baby when there are thousands of soldiers dying in front of him. Scarlett is left only with Prissy to help her and she soon learns that Prissy knows nothing about delivering babies even though Prissy had claimed to know a great deal. This leaves Scarlett entirely helpless: “for a moment her mind refused to accept the truth, but when realization finally came over her that Prissy knew no more about midwifery than she did, anger went over her like a flame. She had never struck a slave in all her life, but now she slapped the black cheek with all the force in her tired arm” (Mitchell 352). Most readers likely know they should be on Prissy’s side because despite whatever lie she may have told, she does not deserve to be slapped and forced into following Scarlett’s orders. No human being should be forced to serve another or treated as property no matter what the circumstances. Prissy is a victim of racism and entitlement, as are all the other enslaved persons in the novel, no matter how happy they appear to be. For all the excuses the southerners give to defend slavery, the truth is that it is never right to own another person and make them do someone else’s bidding. Nonetheless, as this story is told from Scarlett’s perspective, readers still feel scared and frustrated for her when she realizes she must deliver the baby blindly. They hold their breath as Mitchell describes how “Melanie moaned whether she wanted to be brave or not, and sometimes she screamed. When she did, Scarlett dropped her head into her hands and covered her ears and twisted her body and wished that she herself were dead. Anything was preferable to being a helpless witness to such pain” (353). Readers wait in suspense as the following pages bring more danger to Scarlett and her allies, as Rhett and Scarlett race past the burning Atlanta, barely making it to safety. The combination of complex characters, pacing, imagery, and plot are what convince readers to buy into Scarlett’s view of the world.

Another famous passage in Gone With the Wind is when Scarlett lies in the middle of a field amidst the ruins of Twelve Oaks, dirty and exhausted, trying to push the terror out of her mind, but “[t]he thoughts circled and swooped above her, dived down and drove tearing claws and sharp beaks into her mind. For a timeless time, she lay still, her face in the dirt, the sun beating hotly upon her, remembering things and people who were dead, remembering a way of living that was gone forever — and looking upon the harsh vista of the dark future.

“When she arose at last and saw again the black ruins of Twelve Oaks, her head was raised high and something that was youth and beauty and potential tenderness had gone out of her face forever. What was past was past. Those who were dead were dead. The lazy luxury of the old days was gone, never to return. And as Scarlett settled the heavy basket across her arm, she had settled her own mind and her own life.

“There was no going back and she was going forward” (Mitchell 407). This is the last chapter before the pages at Tara where Scarlett keeps her promise to herself by working on the plantation to keep food on the table for herself and her family. Readers empathize with Scarlett because of her ability to move forward after she loses practically everything. She suffers what many could hardly imagine, and she survives. In hindsight, this form of storytelling to gain sympathy is exactly the kind of tactic used by racists to justify slavery: by describing the suffering of the plantation owners after the Union stormed through their land, destroying everything. In the context of the way this book was written, readers do feel for Scarlett and her family, and they do resent the Yankees who took everything away from them. The depiction of the Yankee soldier who enters the home, attempting to steal from the O’Haras is such that readers view him as a villain. It is heavily implied that his intent is to rape Scarlett. Readers are relieved when, “[b]efore he could even fumble at his belt, [Scarlett] pulled the trigger” (Mitchell 433) of her gun, killing him. Most readers admire her bravery, even though in reality, the Yankees were the ones who wanted to free people of color in the South, and the enslaved people of color were not happy nor eager to help their white owners in the way that this novel implies. This is not to say that all Yankees were good. Certainly there were Northerners who took advantage of the poverty happening in the South, and it is accurate that Sherman’s army did do horrible and unnecessary damage to the homes of Southerners. Perhaps there actually were some slave owners who were kind to their servants, but even then, no amount of kindness can justify the act of depriving human beings of their basic rights. If anything, Gone With the Wind challenges readers to see the world as more than just good and evil. Those who are on the “evil” side may have good intentions and they may be great mothers like Ellen O’Hara, and kind wives like Melanie, and spirited fighters like Scarlett. Likewise, those who are on the “good” side can be thieves, can cause suffering. Gone With the Wind may be a romanticized fantasy of plantation life, but it does reveal how complex humans can be and why so many people disagree on what is “good”or “bad” in the world. Ashley Wilkes describes how “[t]he first time I went into action — it was at Bull Run, you remember — I saw my boyhood friends blown to bits and heard dying horses scream and learned the sickeningly horrible feeling of seeing men crumple up and spit blood when I shot them” (Mitchell 498). In this quote, there is no indication of good or bad, just suffering on two sides who believe they are supporting a good cause.

The novel continues with more emotionally relatable events that place readers on Scarlett’s side. Scarlett is almost raped simply because she travels without an escort for her successful lumber business and is told by one of her peers, “You don’t care about being protected! If you did, you’d never have exposed yourself as you have done all these months, prissing yourself about this town, showing yourself off to strange men, hoping they’ll admire you! What happened to you this afternoon was just what you deserved and if there was any justice you’d have gotten worse” (Mitchell 739). This will likely make any woman’s blood boil because most women have felt discriminated against at some point, especially at work. No matter who the woman is and what misdeeds she has done, it is never just for her to be attacked and assaulted for not “knowing her place.” Slave owner or not, no one deserves to be raped. This is an issue women still struggle with today and certainly struggled with when the book came out in 1936. While feminist themes do not excuse the racism in the novel, they are written so powerfully that there is no denying the book was ahead of its time in that regard. One cannot forgive or forget the offensive portrayals of people of color in the story, but a novel lead by women — strong, able women — was groundbreaking at the time of its publication. It is also important to note that Scarlett is only one example of a feminist in Gone With the Wind. While Melanie is gentle and the perfect housewife on the surface, she is fierce in ways that Scarlett could never be. Scarlett finally understands this when Melanie is on her deathbed: “Yes, Melanie had been there that day with a sword in her small hand, ready to do battle for her. And now, as Scarlett looked sadly back, she realized that Melanie had always been there beside her with a sword in her hand, unobtrusive as her own shadow, loving her, fighting for her with blind passionate loyalty, fighting Yankees, fire, hunger, poverty, public opinion and even her beloved blood kin. Scarlett felt her courage and self-confidence ooze from her as she realized that the sword which had flashed between her and the world was sheathed forever.” (Mitchell 936–937). Melanie is proof that women do not need to be physically strong in order to qualify as feminists. Melanie has a strong heart, as well as a strong mind. She thinks quickly on her feet and manages to fool the Yankees into releasing Ashley rather than arresting him and his friends after their attempt to avenge Scarlett’s attack. Melanie supports Scarlett even when the rest of her peers are disgusted by Scarlett’s behavior, and she treats Belle Watling, the local sex worker, as an equal when no one else will. Melanie recognizes Belle as a human being and thanks her for protecting Ashley. Even when Belle tells Melanie she does not have to speak to her in public, Melanie responds, “I shall be proud to speak to you. Proud to be under obligation to you. I hope — I hope we meet again” (Mitchell 762). Unlike many of the other women in Gone With the Wind, Melanie is not concerned with preserving her reputation; if she believes something is right and noble, she stops at nothing to protect it. Scarlett is a feminist in the sense that she defies gender expectations, but Melanie’s feminism comes from her support of other women and her loyalty towards the women she admires. One should also realize that Belle and Mammy are fantastic examples of feminists in the novel. It is true that they are mostly presented as side characters and plot points, which reminds readers that there is certainly still plenty of prejudice in the book. However, while Mitchell may not have intentionally written these characters to represent female empowerment (after all, both Belle and Mammy are viewed as inferior by the other characters), their independent opinions and actions prove otherwise. Belle is like Scarlett, in fact: she runs her own successful business and ignores her neighbors’ judgements. She makes a living for herself, which allows her to put food on the table and care for her son. Mammy, while technically still the O’Haras’ property, is one of the wisest characters in the novel. Only she and Rhett Butler can see through Scarlett’s manipulative plotting, and she demands Scarlett’s respect. Some may say that if Mammy had any respect for herself she would leave or insist on being paid, but it is unfair to blame Mammy. Mammy is aware of her freedom after the war and when Scarlett claims she is forgetting her place, Mammy reminds Scarlett, “Ah is free, Miss Scarlett. You kain sen’ me nowhar Ah doan wanter go. An’ w’en Ah goes back ter Tara, it’s gwine be w’en you goes wid me” (Mitchell 784). Mammy refuses to follow Scarlett’s demand that she leave. This is because Mammy cares about the O’Haras, as unrealistic as the situation would be in real life. There is no denying that the implications that all slave owners were charitable and that slaves wanted to stay with their owners is misleading at best, and reinforces harmful stereotypes, but if readers look at Mammy as an individual, her tenderness underneath grit and snark are remarkably admirable qualities.

It is also important to remember that the upcoming war with Germany and the Nazis was only three years away when Gone With the Wind was published. While the United States would not enter the war until 1941, Americans were aware of Hitler’s rise to power, and perhaps the idea of a Southern perspective of the Civil War was intriguing because it gave people the chance to understand evil, and why good people may support evil ideas. It is also intriguing to American readers today who struggle to understand the political climate that began after the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Many liberal Americans do not comprehend why anyone would want to support Trump, but if his supporters have a naive and twisted view of him the way Scarlett’s family viewed the South and slavery, it is easier to comprehend why one’s peers — who are good parents, or generous churchgoers, or kind hosts — could support someone with such horrible and prejudiced views. In addition to the tensions rising in Europe during the 1930s, Americans were also experiencing their own dilemma. The chapters with Scarlett fighting to save Tara moved audiences in 1936 because of the Great Depression. Many Americans had lost their homes and money overnight due to the collapse of the stock market. A novel about overcoming poverty was inspirational at the time, and continues to be inspirational today. It inspired writer Meg Elison who, in her article “How I Bought Into Gone With the Wind’s Mythology of Whiteness” writes, “I read the novel again in college, my own post-war period. I had dropped out of high school and failed to launch. I had passed through several periods of homelessness, reading Gone with the Wind in starlight as it filtered through an olive grove, hoping not to be hassled by the cops. When I was hungry, I would read the passage about Scarlett’s hunger at post-bellum Tara, where she dreams of feasts of the past.” Elison’s article is an educated critique of Gone With the Wind that points out its flaws, but also credits it with her personal growth. It is thanks to her decision to read Gone With the Wind several times that she realized that “[i]t takes real work, as a white person, to realize the racism in which you have been steeped all your life. It takes re-reading the texts you hold most dear. It takes literacy and critical thinking and listening to people of color to realize that not only is Gone with the Wind fiction, but most of what you know is fiction. Your family history is fiction. Your elementary school textbooks are fiction. Your construction of yourself is fiction. We all have to read ourselves more than once. We have to proofread and edit ourselves. We have to rewrite ourselves every day. We have to learn to separate truth from fiction from fake news.” The very fact that Gone With the Wind is full of fiction is what makes it so important, especially today, when the United States is once again becoming heavily divided. In an episode of NPR’s All Things Considered, “Personal Reflections On Gone With the Wind,” writer Jesmyn Ward remembers, “I reconnected with a former classmate. She told me she remembered that Gone with the Wind had been my favorite book in seventh grade. Really? I remember being intrigued and pretty horrified. Was Gone with the Wind my favorite book as a teenager? No. Was it one that taught me about America, about the South, about how others saw me? Was it one that made me want to resist those expectations and become something more? Absolutely yes.” Mitchell’s novel is a tool that not only encourages people to understand their enemies, but to understand the flaws within themselves. We may not be able to agree with or forgive our enemies, but by understanding our enemies’ perspectives, we have a better chance of helping them understand ours.

Even with the questionable morals of the main characters in Gone With the Wind, the novel is relevant now and will continue to be relevant in the future because it challenges people’s beliefs and allows people to empathize with those they disagree with, which will further increase their chances of getting their own viewpoints across. When people realize that those on the side of “evil” can have admirable qualities such as determination, love, and compassion just like the the people on the “good” side, it is much easier to settle disagreements peacefully rather than through violence. True, there is no excuse for racism or any form of prejudice, but Gone With the Wind shows readers a perspective that southerners may have had during the American Civil War that allowed them to keep believing they were on the side of justice. After all, how could they live with themselves if they could not convince themselves they were in the right? Gone With the Wind may simply be an example of the type of fantasized delusion that white southerners used to cope with their misdeeds in the nineteenth century, but in allowing ourselves to understand delusions, we will be better equipped to penetrate them.