"Gone with the Wind" Reflection

In class, we watched half of a classic movie by the title, "Gone with the Wind." This movie portrays a beautiful, but confusing love story with the main character Scarlett and many different men that she marries, but does not love. 

Almost everyone you ask has either heard of this movie or seen it, but I had never. I thought it sounded boring because it was about the civil war between the North and the South, but it actually ended up being very entertaining. 

I really enjoyed Scarlett's character as she was very bold and charismatic. She is a very beautiful girl and all the boys wanted her to marry them. First she married a man named Charles Hamilton to make the man she truly loved, Ashley Wilkes , jealous. While I believe Ashley loved her as well, he married someone else. Their love was a confusing story that I would like to know more backstory on. Marrying Charles did not end up like she intended it to. Charles ended up dying a few months later in war and she was left a young widow. 

Throughout the marriage of Scarlett and Charles, a man by the name of Rhett Butler was constantly flirting with Scarlett, and even wanted to marry her. Scarlett did not like Rhett at first for he was a good bit older and liked to tease her. Their love story continued throughout the whole first half of the movie until Rhett saved Scarlett, her slave Prissy and Ashley's wife, Melanie Hamilton, and their baby.  He drove them to safety while fighting through angry Northerners. While I do not know the final result of their story, they had a kiss scene right before the intermission, and I have not yet been able to watch the second half. 

The love story was very prominent in this movie, but that is not why we watched it. We watched this in the intent of learning more about the Civil War and slavery at that time period. There are many scenes showing slavery in them, one of my favorites being with Scarlett and her personal slave, Mammy. Scarlett was often quite rude to her, but you could see how much she truly cared for her in a later scene when they are reunited. This movie shows the harshness of owners to their slaves. One scene shows Scarlett hitting one of their family's young slave, Prissy because she did not do what was asked. Another scene shows everyone running out of fright of the North, while the slaves were just walking along because no one cared if they lived or died. 

Overall, I really enjoyed watching this movie, and I am going to end up watching the next half.