Warning: spoiler
I just deprived myself of a full night’s sleep to finally finish reading Gone with the Wind. What a mistake! That has to be the worst ending to the longest book I’ve ever read! Agh! I still can’t believe how it ended. Even though you completely hate Scarlett by the end of the book, you pull for her the whole time and you just want her to come to her senses more than anything. Then, when she finally does, it’s too late! Agh! Why didn’t anyone tell me it was a tragedy!? As much as Scarlett deserves what she finally gets (or doesn’t get), you SO want her to get what she wants.
Okay, well now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I realize that, indeed, it was a good book. I truly loved it. I had never seen the movie or read the book so a few months ago I plucked a tattered copy from my parents’ bookshelf and, with my mother’s coaxing, started to read. I really wasn’t planning on liking it. I always thought it was a silly romance saga…which partly it is, but it’s so much more. It’s historical, it’s feminist, but more than anything, it’s a mirror of every emotion and reaction to our emotions that anyone’s ever experienced. It’s the story of tragedy and how individuals face that tragedy. It’s a social commentary not just on small towns, but on society as a whole. Now that I’m over my complete and utter shock of the ending, I can appreciate it. It’s a lesson on what happens when you allow yourself to become completely jaded, hide your own emotions and blind yourself to those of others. I guess that lesson couldn’t have been taught so well had the book ended differently. And speaking of being jaded, I guess Margaret Mitchell couldn’t have left the door open to a sequel if it hadn’t ended like that. I still think I would have preferred a Hollywood ending, though.
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5 comments:
It's still one of my favorites. I love the ending! It was perfect and there is NO room for a sequel!
Now you have me interested. Bring the book home at Christmas and I will try to take it off our shelf and read it.
Dad.
I'll take it home for you, Dad. You'll get bored with the love story part, but probably like the war part. It was opposite for me. :)
Melanie, you are right. Now that I've had more time to swallow it, I realize that the ending is perfect.
Isn't it true that someone other than Margaret Mitchell wrote a sequel? That's just not right!
Yes, someone wrote a sequel and it was made into a very bad tv movie. I have it taped, if you ever want to watch it. I had definitely hoped for better.
But is it better than A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? If you say it's close I'll definitely read it.
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