Gone With the Wind

After years and years it has passed me by never bothering to check out what it was I was reading the UK's BBC top 100 reading list. One of them was Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, a 1000 page reading fiesta full of well. So there I went and bought Gone With the Wind and I have to say it was amazing, satisfying, interesting and rendering read. I have never for once looked in and out at something and realized what a fantastic read it was, of course it was a far cry from the movie starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh (which I liked and did not like at the same time, if only I was given the opportunity to remake it!). The book had its characters in a deeper light than did anything else. There it was the image of the South, I have to admit, racist, prejudiced, sexist and everything else permissible during when it was written (1936) and the setting of the book during the late 18th century American Civil War. What I found amazing are the characters of Uncle Peter and Mammy who actually 'owned' their masters and mistresses. Just as Scarlett's other, Ellen remarked that they should treat darkies like children, so did they Mammy and Uncle Peter considered their masters and mistresses their children that they have to take care of. Mammy's constant caring and cringing of Scarlett and Ellen while Uncle Peter's protecting of Aunt PittyPat. They were free blacks taking care of their weak masters and vice versa. One part of the movie which I loved was when Scarlet was driving around with Uncle Peter and meeting the Yankees wives. One of them asking where she could find a nanny, Scarlett saying that they could pick any darkies. The Yankee wife exclaiming hotly that she would never ever put her child with a 'nigger'. Uncle Peter, hurt and pained while Scarlett defending him by saying he was family. Either way slavery or freedom both contained connotations of pain for either side of people. In the book, the Southerners feared one day that a darkie will lead their nation (hahahahaha!!! They should reprint the book again in commemoration of Barrack Obama's presidency earlier this year). Things have greatly changed, since then but change will always come with pain, now I'm remembering the movie Luther when he revolutionized Christianity with his own sect. But either way, I liked Ashley although he was an idiot, and Scarlett who for me was kind of evil but impressive woman (any person who would rather either of their children to die in replacement of one dead child scares me), I admired Rhett for his kindness towards Wade Hamilton which was nonexistent in the movie. And Melanie I really liked for her soft exterior and extremely strong interior. And I loved the ending when Scarlett was pained by the death of Melanie. I think the racists today from the KKK are those hanging on to the past of wealth and cotton fields and romance with wealth deriving from slaves. Whatever the case it showed one side of the story, to balance it out one should read The Color Purple and Beloved.