TOMMOROW IS ANOTHER DAY!

                        At times you need a book.  A big book --- a book that will take you out of yourself and draw you to its bosom like your grandmother used to do.  A book that will pull you into the story and sweep you along with larger than life characters and a plot so full of twists and turns that you can't wait to turn the pages.  A book in which the main characters have so many problems that yours seem minor by comparison.   A book that will wrap its cover around you and comfort you while you laugh and cry.

                   You need GONE WITH THE WIND.

                   No matter how many times you have read it before, you need to read it again, now.  And if you have never read it, this is the time to pull it off the shelf and plunge into the trials and tribulations of Scarlett O'Hara.

                   The above statement that Scarlett O Hara, the protagonist says, is not just any statement; it’s a powerful truth. I can say that after reading this book, I have actually started believing in this. U always can hope for something good that can happen the next day. Nothing is the end of life for Scarlett

                   This is a story about the metamorphosis of a carefree, frivolous teenage girl into a powerful, self-sufficient woman, with the backdrop of the American Civil War. The whole story revolves around this one character; about how she lives in the times before, during and after the war; what she goes through; how she survives through it all. One can’t help but notice how she takes control of her own life, as well as, the ones holding on to her. She does feel sorry for herself, which is quite often because of her desires from life. Yet, she never lets it break her knees and she still survives all tragedies, her mantra being “I will think about this tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day”.

                   Scarlett is a stubborn woman, who thinks she is right in whatever she does, or, at least she is doing better than others. There are many different shades to her character, if you ponder. She is selfish, yet caring at times. She is witty, yet ignorant at times. She is a complex persona, but very intriguing nonetheless. In other words, she is very much like the modern woman – strong, yet weak; ruthless, yet emotional.

                   Gone With the Wind is also about Born Survivors. Margaret Mitchell focuses on only those who are born survivors will really prosper during times of true hardship. A born survivor is one who will do anything to survive, at any cost. They will get down in the dirt and work like a dog just for a day's meal; they will take something from someone else just so that they and their own can live. These people may have social advantages or they may be poor farmers. The key element in their make-up is that they want to survive, they need to survive. Not only do these people live, they prosper as well. They take whatever they can find and mold it into something that will help them get ahead in life. These are the born survivors.

                    Those who are not born survivors are lacking that one key element; they don't have the need or the want to get down and dirty and get the job done. Most of these people will either fall through the cracks or they will live out the rest of their lives on a hand to mouth basis. They aren't able to look ahead, to plan, to scrimp and scavenge and do whatever it takes to survive.

                   Most of the Southern gentlemen in Gone With the Wind are not born survivors. And raising good cotton, riding well, shooting straight, dancing lightly, squiring the ladies with elegance and carrying one's liquor like a gentleman were the things that mattered. One such gentleman is Ashley Wilkes. While Ashley is adept at the things that matter, he was born of a line of men who used their leisure for thinking, not doing, for spinning brightly colored dreams that had in them no touch of reality. Ashley comes home from the war a changed person. He tries to help Scarlett and the others with the farm work, but he just isn't able.  'I wonder not only what will become of us at Tara but what will become of everybody in the South. In the end what will happen will be what has happened whenever a civilization breaks up. The people who have brains and courage come through and the one's who haven't are winnowed out.’ Ashley realizes that he doesn't belong in this new life, the new South. He knows that he is out of place and it scares him. While Ashley Wilkes is scared of his new life, Scarlett O' Hara is not. 'You, Scarlett are taking life by the horns and twisting it to your will .’

                    Early in the story Scarlett is portrayed as a pampered Southern belle. Her soft white hands are soon calloused and freckled, though. Scarlett does everything when the war is over. Her mother is dead, so Scarlett not only does the menial work, but she also supervises the household as well.  'I've struggled for food and for money and I've weeded and hoed and picked cotton and I've even plowed until I can't stand it another minute.’ Scarlett does stand it however, because she is a born survivor and she will stand anything to keep her land and her folks safe.

                   Later in the story, Scarlett is living in Atlanta. She buys two saw mills as a money making project, because she is still needing to survive. Scarlett is willing to risk social standing to survive; because she is successful the matrons of society look down on her. Rhett Butler tells Scarlett, 'All you've done is be different from other women and you've made a little success at it. As I've told you before, that is the unforgivable sin in any society. Be different and be damned! Scarlett, the mere fact that you've made a success of your mill is an insult to every man who hasn't succeeded.’ Scarlett, a born survivor, is succeeding where others are failing.

                    Another example of a born survivor is Rhett Butler. Rhett believes that people can either sit to whine about their circumstances or they can do something about it. This philosophy is why Rhett succeeds at surviving when his father kicks him out at the age of sixteen. Instead of perishing, Rhett uses his talent as a gambler to support himself. Eventually, the war starts and Rhett finds other means of surviving.  During the war, Rhett survives by being a blockade runner. He also tries speculating and profiteering, both of which he is highly successful at. The matrons of Atlanta are highly disturbed by Rhett's success. He is involved in many unscrupulous activities, but he thinks nothing of it. Scarlett observes of Rhett,  ' All you ever do is finance Carpetbaggers in their thieving and take half the profits and bribe Yankee officials to let you in on schemes to rob us taxpayers.’ Rhett knows that there is money to be made during the building of a civilization and during the fall.  Rhett is willing to risk his neck participating in unscrupulous activities to survive an get ahead in the new South.

                   Some of the characters in Gone With the Wind are born survivors and some are not. Ashley is lost without his world of hazy dreams while Scarlett and Rhett take things and use them to their advantage. Scarlett and Rhett, born survivors, will live and prosper, and Ashley will simply fall by the wayside because he is not a born survivor.

                   GONE WITH THE WIND is also one of the greatest love stories ever written. On one side we have Scarlett’s love for Ashley, who would go to any heights or downs to get him. And on the other side we have Rhett Butler the only man strong enough for her.

Fast forward to the last scene:

"Oh, my darling," says Scarlett, "if you go, what shall I do?"

"I wish I could care what you do or where you go," Rhett replies as he's walking upstairs to pack, "but I can't ...Frankly My dear, I don't give a damn!!."

                   The sad ending is almost beside the point because the love story between Rhett and Scarlett is one of the greatest ever told. Gone With the Wind is about two enormously flawed people who don't fit into their society's norms, but have a near-perfect understanding of each other. Both are cunning and ruthless. Both are strong and determined. Both take their own destinies in hand, and to hell with what society thinks of them. Most importantly, both admire those qualities in the other.

                  

                   They're a perfect match, if only Scarlett hadn't been too bullheaded to recognize it for the first thousand or so pages of the book.

                  

                   Rhett Butler throughout the book, nurtures and supports her, loves her, without ever announcing it. Through his actions, time and again, he proves just how much he loves her. He encourages her to speak her mind, to come out of the fake mourning for her first husband, to build her mill after the war is over, to forgive herself for the circumstances surrounding her second husband's death. Though Scarlett stubbornly clings to her "love" of Ashley Wilkes, it is Rhett she repeatedly turns to for comfort and guidance, Rhett she admires for his clear-eyed thinking, and Rhett, not dull Ashley, who awakens her sexually.

                  

                   They are each other's match. They deserve each other. Belong together.

                   What could be better than watching them struggle against the inevitable? And what about the heartbreaking emotional subtext? Like when Rhett proposes and swears he doesn't love Scarlett, yet watches her alertly as he waits for her answer?

                   The book cast a spell over me.  While I watched Scarlett as a young girl, flirting with every boy in the county, followed her to Atlanta at the beginning of the war, saw her deliver her sister-in-law's baby, flee the city while it burned, return home to pain and heartbreak, and heard her say, "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again," I was reminded of just how strong we can be.  Infact, after reading the book, I would strongly suggest you to watch the movie by the same title – the classic starring Vivien Leigh. Very rarely can one find a movie, which does absolute justice to the text it’s based on.