Scarlett O'Hara - I love you!

Rarely have I encountered a fictional character as powerful as Scarlett O’Hara. Yup, I’m talking about the main protagonist in Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Aren’t we tired of countless books in which the female lead is a direct incarnation of an angel? Kind-hearted, pretty, loved-by-all, great with kids, faithful etc tend to be some of the common traits of our leading ladies. The only things missing are the white dress and a wand! Scarlett O’Hara is beautiful too and that's where the similarity ends. She possesses none of the aforementioned qualities of our usual leading ladies (I would love to come across a book where the heroine is considered ugly).

Scarlett O’Hara is a classic example of how times can change a person. At 17, she is all bliss and then she learns that her boyfriend (referred to as ‘beau’ in the book) is going to marry someone else. Heartbroken and jealous she marries someone else only to become a widow in a few months. The Civil war between the Confederates and the Yankees starts to send the lives of all Southerners to a toss. Scarlett is caught in the proceedings where she loses here loved ones and is driven to abject poverty. She swears never to be hungry again at any cost and all her efforts go into earning more money. While her intentions are honorable, her methods to do so become highly questionable amongst the society and her friends. She almost becomes a mistress to a man for money; she tricks her sister’s fiancé into marrying her instead; she runs business whose operations are highly unethical. And she does much more. And finally she falls in love.

What’s so striking is Scarlett’s determination to get whatever she wants (not driven by greed but by past experiences). Bravery along with an attitude of don’t-care-what-society-or-husband-thinks is something that you don’t expect a female fictional character to be unless it is a villainous one. It is surprising that such a book written 70 years ago, set in events happening 1860s, can portray feminism in such powerful manner. Mighty impressive! Scarlett O'Hara, you rock!

About the book: Gone With the Wind is definitely a great read (literally too! 1000+pages!).It is not much of a love story as it is marketed ‘the greatest love story of our times’. You get a view into the American Civil war and how the war affected the southern United States and its practice of slavery. The book gets very heavy towards the end where tragedy keeps piling on, but Scarlett gets us through them.