Gone With the Wind Tragedy

The novel “Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell was immortalized and sprang to life in the Hollywood classic movie starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable and a cast of other memorable actresses and actors. It brought the story of the Civil War to life. It gave us romance and most of those who hold the novel in their hands cannot put it down because they won’t know how things will turn out between Scarlett and Rhett. What will happen between Melanie and Ashley? Will Tara survive the Civil War and how sad it is that while Tara does survive Ashley’s beautiful home Twelve Oaks does not.

Now I have to see this memorable novel on the banned book list. What is this world coming to? Are we meant to become a society that does not want others to know about the history of the U.S.? Are we putting romance on the back burner? To do what? Become a robot society who just goes about their work and their daily lives and nothing else matters? No culture, no literature, basically nothing that would take us out of our ordinary lives and let us step into another world so that we could rejuvenate ourselves.

If I had a child of grade-school age and she or he came home and said, “Mom, you know that movie you and dad enjoy watching now and then, “Gone With the Wind? Well, it is from a novel that is on the banned book list”. I would probably feel faint at first and feel my anger rise. Then I would tell my child to wait until the weekend and we would all watch the movie together. I would then explain the history and about why the movie itself is a classic and I would make sure my copy of “Gone With the Wind” was on my bookshelf.