Ap English 1996 Essay Prompt

Writers use many tactics to get across to their readers. In order to get the moral of the story or the overall theme of the book, they might write about the main character reaching an epiphany of some sort that reveals the focus of the story. Writers tend to end their story with a happy ending in which the main character experiences a spiritual reassessment or a moral reconciliation. In Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, the main character, Scarlett O'Hara, undergoes a spiritual reassessment and moral reconciliation. At the start of the novel, Scarlett is a high spirited girl concerned mostly about her looks and holding the attention of everyone. She does not really appreciate the little things in life because she has so much available to her. She feels the need to make herself seen by everyone and heard by everyone. There is one encounter where she is talking with two of the handsome boys in town; however, the boys begin to diverge from the topic of her to the topic of war. This angers Scarlett because the attention is no longer on her. She continues this child like behavior for most of the novel. However, her first encounter with Rhett Butler changes Scarlett's life forever. When Rhett first meets Scarlett, he is intrigued by her beauty and the way she carries herself. Contrary, to how Rhett feels; Scarlett sees him a low life nothing that does not deserve her attention. Therefore, their time with each other is very short. However, as the novel progresses, their paths cross again. During this time, the Civil War is at its peak; and being that the characters are Confederates, everything is falling apart for them. Scarlett begins to grow out of her childish ways. Now that she sees the hardships of the Confederate soldiers at the hospital she works in, she begins to realize that life is more than dinner parties and corsets. When she meets Rhett again she is in a terrible condition and is in need of his help. He tells her that in order