Gone with the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell (Edexcel A-Level History): Revision Notes
Gone with the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell
Publication and critical success
Margaret Mitchell's epic novel about the American Civil War era was published in 1936 and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. The book achieved immediate commercial success as a bestseller and received critical recognition when it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, one of America's most prestigious literary awards. The novel's impact extended beyond literature when it was adapted for cinema in 1939, becoming one of Hollywood's most successful films of all time.
The 1939 film version achieved remarkable success at the 1940 Academy Awards (Oscars), winning nine awards including Best Film and Best Director. The film also marked a significant, though controversial, milestone in American cinema: Hattie McDaniel became the first Black American to win an Oscar, receiving the award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the character Mammy.
This historic achievement occurred against the backdrop of widespread racial discrimination and segregation in American society, making McDaniel's Oscar win both groundbreaking and deeply complex. She was not even allowed to sit with her white co-stars at the awards ceremony due to segregation policies.
Historical context of the 1930s
When Gone with the Wind appeared in 1936, the United States was experiencing profound economic hardship during the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programme was attempting to restore economic prosperity through social and economic reforms. The novel offered readers an escape into a romanticized version of Southern history that had "gone with the wind" - a world that no longer existed.
The racial climate of 1930s America was harsh and oppressive for Black Americans. By 1934, legal segregation had become firmly entrenched throughout the Old South (the former Confederate states). Black Americans faced systematic discrimination that reduced them to second-class citizenship. Many were denied their constitutional right to vote through intimidation, violence, and discriminatory laws such as literacy tests and poll taxes.
Racial tensions were not confined to the South. Serious race riots had erupted in northern and western cities, including a major riot in Chicago in 1919 and another in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921. These violent outbreaks demonstrated that racial prejudice and discrimination pervaded American society beyond the former Confederate states.
The novel's portrayal of Black Americans as content and loyal slaves proved controversial even at the time of publication, and criticism of the racist language and characterizations influenced what content appeared in the 1939 film adaptation.
The story and its setting
The novel opens in spring 1861, just before the outbreak of the Civil War. The protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara, is a young southern belle living on Tara, a large plantation in Georgia. She is cared for by Mammy, a Black nurse who essentially raised her instead of her biological mother - a common practice on wealthy plantations. This relationship becomes central to understanding how the novel portrays race relations in the pre-war South.
Unlike other enslaved people on the plantation, Mammy enjoys a privileged position that allows her to criticize Scarlett's behavior, particularly her flirtations with young white men. However, Mammy remains fundamentally subservient and exists solely to serve the white family. The novel presents her devotion as natural and unquestioned.
The Civil War years
The plot follows Scarlett through the tumultuous Civil War years. When war breaks out, she spitefully marries Charles Hamilton (brother of Melanie Hamilton) to hurt Ashley Wilkes, the man she truly desires who has married Melanie. After Charles dies of measles while serving in the Confederate army, Scarlett gives birth to their son Wade and moves to Atlanta to stay with Melanie.
During the war, Ashley is captured after the bloody Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 and imprisoned. The northern Union army advances on Atlanta, and Scarlett is pursued romantically by Rhett Butler, a charismatic businessman. On the night the Yankees (northern soldiers) capture and burn Atlanta in 1864, Melanie gives birth to her son Beau. Rhett helps the women escape through the burning city but then abandons them to join the Confederate forces.
The burning of Atlanta was a real historical event during General William Sherman's "March to the Sea" campaign. Mitchell's portrayal presents this military strategy as wanton destruction rather than a tactic to end the war and slavery.
Reconstruction and after
When Scarlett returns to Tara, she discovers devastation: her mother has died, her father has suffered a mental breakdown, and Yankee troops have looted the plantation. She takes control of rebuilding Tara, even killing a Yankee thief and extinguishing a fire set by a vengeful northern soldier. These episodes portray northern forces as destructive invaders and Scarlett as a defender of Southern civilization.
After the war ends and Ashley returns home, Scarlett faces new challenges. When authorities raise taxes on Tara to force out the family, Scarlett seeks financial help from Rhett Butler. Though initially imprisoned, Rhett secures his release and lends Scarlett money to purchase a sawmill, transforming her into a shrewd businesswoman despite Atlanta society's disapproval.
A critical incident occurs when a free Black man and his white companion attack Scarlett while she's traveling from the sawmill. That night, the Ku Klux Klan avenges the attack, and Scarlett's second husband Frank dies during the raid. The novel presents the Klan's violent vigilantism as heroic defense of white women and Southern society - one of its most historically damaging portrayals.
Rhett proposes to Scarlett, and they marry. Their initially happy marriage deteriorates as Rhett becomes bitter and indifferent. When their daughter Bonnie dies in a horse-riding accident, Rhett nearly loses his sanity. After rumors spread about an affair between Scarlett and Ashley (based on a misinterpreted friendly embrace), Scarlett realizes she truly loves Rhett. However, when she confesses her feelings, Rhett declares his love has died and leaves her. The novel ends with Scarlett, grief-stricken and alone, deciding to return to Tara to recover her strength in Mammy's "comforting arms" and plan how to win Rhett back.
Portrayal of race relations and slavery
Margaret Mitchell crafted a romanticized vision of the pre-Civil War South as an idyllic paradise. Her portrayal centers on a world of elegant social events where wealthy white men play the role of chivalrous cavaliers. This supposedly noble society depends entirely on the labor of subservient Black workers - some toiling in cotton fields, others serving as domestic servants in grand plantation houses.
The novel's very title suggests nostalgia for a lost world destroyed by the Civil War. Mitchell portrays enslaved people as well-treated, generally cheerful, and content with their subordinate position. She depicts them as loyal to their white masters, rewarded with gifts when they work hard. This representation is historically false and served to justify racial oppression.
The main field worker character, Big Sam, exemplifies this portrayal: he only leaves Tara when ordered by his white owners and later risks his life to save Scarlett from attack, demonstrating what the novel presents as natural loyalty to white masters.
Negative portrayal of northern forces
The novel consistently portrays northern forces who fought to end slavery in an extremely negative light. Northern troops marching through Georgia are depicted as pillaging destroyers rather than liberators. When Union soldiers ransack Tara, Scarlett kills two intruders - one Black, one white - presenting her as a heroic defender rather than examining the complex moral issues of the war and slavery.
Ashley Wilkes, presented as the ideal Southern gentleman, serves as an officer in the Confederate army fighting to preserve the slave system. After the South's defeat in 1865, the novel portrays Ashley joining the Ku Klux Klan as a defender of white people living under northern military occupation.
Glorification of the Ku Klux Klan
This glorification of the Ku Klux Klan - a terrorist organization dedicated to white supremacy through violence and intimidation - represents one of the novel's most controversial and historically damaging aspects. The KKK was responsible for lynchings, murders, and systematic terror against Black Americans throughout the South.
The "Mammy" stereotype
The character of Mammy embodies a deeply problematic racial stereotype. She has helped raise Scarlett and serves as her personal domestic servant. Significantly, the novel never reveals Mammy's real name - she is defined entirely by her function serving the white family. The "Mammy" figure has been a controversial and harmful portrayal throughout American cultural history.
Mitchell presents Mammy as completely content with her enslaved status. She appears to "belong" to the white family with no life, aspirations, or relationships of her own - the novel mentions no Black friends or family for her. While Mammy has authority to scold Scarlett for misbehavior, this serves to reinforce rather than challenge the racial hierarchy. Mammy exercises power only within the narrow confines of managing her white charge's personal conduct.
Both Mammy and another enslaved character, Prissy, are portrayed as clearly uneducated. Prissy appears particularly negatively, depicted as stupid, squeamish, and dishonest. These characterizations reinforced damaging stereotypes that Black people were intellectually inferior and required white supervision - without acknowledging that teaching enslaved people to read was illegal in most Southern states.
Evidence from the novel
Primary source quotes from the novel reveal its racial attitudes explicitly:
Evidence of Racist Ideology in the Text
From Chapter 9, a white character named Melly dismisses concerns about slave revolts during the Civil War:
And as for all this talk about the militia staying here to keep the darkies from rising— why it's the silliest thing I ever heard of. Why should our people rise! It's just a good excuse of cowards.
From Chapter 28, Scarlett's thoughts about enslaved people:
Negroes were provoking sometimes and stupid and lazy, but there was loyalty in them that money couldn't buy, a feeling of oneness with their white folks which made them risk their lives to keep food on the table.
From Chapter 31, northern troops discussing post-war Reconstruction:
Wilkerson and Hilton furthermore told the negroes they were as good as the whites in every way and soon white and negro marriages would be permitted, soon the estates of their former owners would be divided and every negro would be given forty acres and a mule for his own.
From Chapter 42, Scarlett's slaveholding neighbors arguing against using convict labor:
Slaves were neither miserable nor unfortunate. The negroes were far better off under slavery than they were now under freedom, and if she didn't believe it, just look about her!
These passages demonstrate how the novel presented slavery as benign and enslaved people as better off under bondage than freedom - a position historians recognize as fundamentally false and serving to justify racial oppression.
Reactions and criticism
The portrayal of race relations in Gone with the Wind generated immediate criticism from America's Black community. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attempted to organize a boycott of the film version by Black audiences, recognizing how the story misrepresented history and reinforced damaging stereotypes.
Changes made for the film adaptation
David O. Selznick, the Hollywood producer who brought Gone with the Wind to cinema, recognized he could not remain completely faithful to the novel's most racist elements. He stated he had no desire to produce an overtly anti-Black film. Consequently, significant changes were made for the 1939 film:
Key Modifications for the Film Version:
- All direct references to the Ku Klux Klan were removed from the screenplay
- Explicitly racist language appearing in the novel, including words like "darkies" and the n-word, did not appear in the film dialogue
- Walter White, secretary of the NAACP, provided Selznick with detailed information about how the novel misrepresented the Reconstruction period of American history
- White worked with Selznick to reduce the most overtly racist elements
Lasting impact and historical significance
Despite these modifications, the film version still presented a fundamentally biased view of how plantation slavery operated before the Civil War and how enslaved people were treated. The story reinforced harmful portrayals of Black Americans as naturally suited for menial roles, inherently loyal to white people, and intellectually inferior due to lack of education (without acknowledging that teaching enslaved people to read was illegal in most Southern states).
The novel and film both reflected and reinforced racial attitudes held by many Americans, particularly in the Old South. By presenting slavery as benign and plantation life as idyllic, Gone with the Wind contributed to historical myths about the "Lost Cause" - the false narrative that the Confederacy fought for noble principles rather than to preserve slavery, and that slavery itself was not cruel or exploitative.
The work's enormous popularity - both as a bestselling novel and blockbuster film - meant these distorted representations of history reached millions of Americans and people worldwide. This helped perpetuate damaging stereotypes and historical misconceptions that Black Americans and civil rights activists had to combat in subsequent decades.
Key Points to Remember:
- Gone with the Wind (1936) romanticized the pre-Civil War South and portrayed slavery as a benign institution with happy, loyal enslaved people
- The novel glorified the Ku Klux Klan and presented northern forces fighting to end slavery in a negative light
- The "Mammy" character represented a harmful stereotype: a Black woman with no identity beyond serving white people, presented as content with subordination
- Despite winning prestigious awards (Pulitzer Prize, nine Oscars), the work faced immediate criticism from the NAACP for its racist portrayal of Black Americans
- The film version removed some overtly racist language and Ku Klux Klan references, but still reinforced damaging stereotypes and historical myths about slavery
- The work's massive popularity meant these distorted representations of race relations reached millions, influencing how Americans understood their history and perpetuating racial prejudice