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Summary
Summary
There are two portrayals of Scarlett O'Hara: the widely familiar one of the film Gone with the Wind and Margaret Mitchell's more sympathetic character in the book. In A Study of Scarletts, Margaret D. Bauer examines these two characterizations, noting that although Scarlett O'Hara is just sixteen at the start of the novel, she is criticized for behavior that would have been excused if she were a man.
In the end, despite losing nearly every person she loves, Scarlett remains stalwart enough to face another day. For this reason and so many others, Scarlett is an icon in American popular culture and an inspiration to female readers, and yet, she is more often than not condemned for being a sociopathic shrew by those who do not take the time to get to know her through the novel.
After providing a more sympathetic reading of Scarlett as a young woman who refuses to accept social limitations based on gender and seeks to be loved for who she is, Bauer examines Scarlett-like characters in other novels. These intertextual readings serve both to develop further a less critical, more compassionate reading of Scarlett O'Hara and to expose societal prejudices against strong women.
The chapters in A Study of Scarletts are ordered chronologically according to the novels' settings, beginning with Charles Frazier's Civil War novel Cold Mountain; then Ellen Glasgow's Barren Ground, written a few years before Gone with the Wind but set a generation later, in the years leading up to and just after World War I; Toni Morrison's Sula, which opens after World War I; and finally, a novel by Kat Meads, The Invented Life of Kitty Duncan, with its 1950s- to 1960s-era evolved Scarlett.
Through these selections, Bauer shows the persistent tensions that both cause and result from a woman remaining unattached to grow into her own identity without a man, beginning with trouble in the mother-daughter relationship, extending to frustration in romantic relationships, and including the discovery of female friendship as a foundation for facing the future.
Author Notes
Louisiana native Margaret D. Bauer, is the Ralph Hardee Rives Chair of Southern Literature at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, USA where she was named one of ECU's ten Women of Distinction in 2007 and received the university's Lifetime Achievement Award for Research and Creative Activity in 2014. She is the author of The Fiction of Ellen Gilchrist, William Faulkner's Legacy: "what shadow, what stain, what mark," and Understanding Tim Gautreaux.
Reviews (1)
Library Journal Review
In this work it is clear that, unlike Gone with the Wind's Rhett Butler, Bauer (Rives Chair of Southern Literature, East Carolina Univ.; Understanding Tim Gautreaux) "gives a damn" about Scarlett O'Hara. The author questions why the fairly negative depiction of Scarlett in the movie version varies so greatly from the original character found in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 Civil War-era novel, winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Bauer argues that Scarlett is an admirable character who is better off without Rhett. In a series of essays, she provides a more "sympathetic reading" of Scarlett and examines other works Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, Ellen Glasgow's Barren Ground, Toni Morrison's Sula, and Kat Meads's The Invented Life of Kitty Duncan that share similarities with Mitchell's epic. Pieces are arranged in chronological order according to the settings of the novels examined. Bauer discusses many themes (e.g., motherhood, sacrifice, death) but accentuates the subject of friendship found among the female characters in all these works. She compares these relationships to Melanie and Scarlett's deep bond. Bauer succeeds in demonstrating that Scarlett was misunderstood and selfless and should be admired for her altruistic actions. VERDICT This work will appeal to all Gone with the Wind fans and readers of American Southern literature. Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| List of Abbreviations | p. xi |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Chapter 1 In Defense of Scarlett O'Hara | p. 18 |
| Chapter 2 Gone with the Men: Scarlett and Melanie Redux in Cold Mountain | p. 34 |
| Chapter 3 "Put your heart in the land": An Intertextual Reading of Barren Ground and Gone with the Wind | p. 59 |
| Chapter 4 Sula: "More Sinned against than Sinning" | p. 90 |
| Chapter 5 "Disregarding the female imperative": Kat Meads's Kitty Duncan, a 1960s-Era Scarlett O'Hara | p. 116 |
| Afterword | p. 138 |
| Bibliography | p. 145 |
| Index | p. 153 |
