An Analysis of Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind Essay Gone with the Wind, was about a young lady named Scarlett O’Hara whose life was impacted greatly by the events surrounding the Civil War and Reconstruction. It consisted of her going through rough times in order to live her life the way she did before the war started. The movie, Gone with the Wind was an accurate representation of the events surrounding the Civil War and Reconstruction because it showed how the Yankees were challenging the South, it demonstrated how difficult life was for the South during and after the war, and it showed how the South declined in supplies and slaves. Gone with the Wind was about a love story between Ashley Wilkes, Scarlett O’Hara, and Rhett Butler during the Civil War and Reconstruction. In the movie a Confederate soldier came up to Scarlett and told her of Sherman’s plans to devastate the South. This is accurate because of Sherman’s march on the South. General Sherman was going through the major cities of the South and devastating them. Scarlett’s overall panic is a representation of how the people in Atlanta reacted. Another scene that takes place in the movie was where Rhett, Ashley, Frank, and Dr. Meade went to a “political meeting”. This relates to my thesis by that the men went to abolish a gang apart of the KKK. The KKK was doing raids that involved money, getting blacks from voting, and trying to restore the Democratic Party. This invasion was just how the South was getting attacked. The KKK was tormenting people to try and restore their vision of how the United States should be at that time. My last scene is of Scarlett and her family picking cotton on Tara toward the end of the movie. There were no slaves helping them in any part or even being there at all. This is accurate to my thesis by that the slaves all left after the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced. This document told the slaves that they were free. This coincided with the movie by that it showed how life for the South and Scarlett’s were really impacted by the choices of Abraham Lincoln. He decided how the South would live by the acts and declarations he gave. This also showed the decline of their supplies in money. Losing the slaves to freedom cost the South 30 % of their nation’s wealth. Scarlett’s family showed how the South’s supplies and their slavery was adjusting to the actions of the war. I thought the movie was wonderful. It fully showed the South perspective toward the actions of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The movie, Gone with the Wind was an accurate representation of the events surrounding the Civil War and Reconstruction because it showed how the Yankees were challenging the South, it demonstrated how difficult life was getting for the South during and after the war, and it showed how the south declined in supplies and slaves.