Tribute to my favorite book

I have re read Gone with the Wind for the nth time and have no qualms in admitting that this book has formed a significant part of my “emotional evolution” (a yucky yet highly satisfying term I heard recently). While there is plenty I could say about the book and the hundreds of elements that have influenced me, I will satisfy myself for now by capturing some of the most revealing (and, to me, unforgettable) lines written about Scarlett’s thoughts and actions, especially in her interactions with Rhett. In all my adolescent excitement when I read them for the first time in 1993, these were THE clues…..

“Thereafter, when they talked it over, they always wondered just why they had failed to notice Scarlett’s charms before. They never arrived at the correct answer, which was that Scarlett on that day had decided to make them notice.”

“Too often she had surprised him when he looked at her with a yearning and sadness that puzzled her. She knew he loved her. Why did he not tell her so? That she could not understand. But there were many things about him that she could not understand. “

“ ‘Sir’, she said, ‘you are no gentleman’. ‘An apt observation’, he answered airily, ‘and you, miss, are no lady’ “.

“What have I done? Deep in her, under layers of hurt pride and cold practicality, something stirred hungrily. An adult emotion was being formed, stronger than her vanity or willful selfishness. She loved Ashley and she knew she loved him and she had never cared so much as in that instant when she was Charles disappearing around the curved graveled walk. “

“Oh, why was she different, apart from these loving women?..What a lonely feeling it was..At first she tried to stifle the thoughts, but the hard self honesty that lay at the base of her nature would not permit it.”

“ ‘Oh I don’t care! I don’t care what they say!’, she whispered, as a sweet madness swept over her. She tossed her head and sped out of the booth, tapping her heels like castanets….’ “

“There was something exciting about him that she could not analyze, something different from any man she had know….something in the impertinence and bland mockery of his dark eyes that challenged her spirit to subdue him.”

“Nor did she see that under his influence she had come a long way from Ellen’s teachings. The change had been so gradual, the flouting of one small convention seeming to have no connection with the flouting of another….”

“ ‘And then, too’, he continued softly, ‘I was waiting for the memory of the estimable Ashley Wilkes to fade’ “.

“She stamped her foot impotently because she could not think of anything else to do…He was close behind her and she could hear him laughing softly to himself. That sound stiffened her spine.”

“…except that Ellen was not there. Scarlett felt a small pain in her heart as of nerves numbed by a deep wound, struggling to make themselves felt again. She must not let them come to life now…”

“I know no lady drinks spirits, but today I’m no lady, Pa, and there’s work to be done tonight”

“Hunger gnawed at her empty stomach and she said aloud, ‘ As God is my witness, the Yankees aren’t going to lick me. I’m going to live through this, and when it’s over, I’m never going to be hungry again. If I have to steal or kill – I’m never going to be hungry again.’ “


‘In the dim grayness of the parlour, she fought a quick decisive battle with the three most binding ties of her soul – the memory of Ellen, the teachings of her religion and her love for Ashley….But all these things went down before the merciless coldness of her mind and the goad of desperation. “

“He said quickly, ‘My God, Scarlett, you cant mean that you….’, and his hands closed over hers in so hard a grip that it hurt.

..’Look at me’, he said finally, raising his head and his voice was very quiet, ‘and drop that demure expression’. “

“No one in the world could say that foolish word of endearment as caressingly as Rhett. She raised her tormented eyes to his face and somehow found comfort in the blank inscrutability she found there.”

“Rhett, sometimes I did try so hard to be nice to people and be kind to Frank, but then the nightmare would come back and scare me so bad I’d want to rush out and just grab money away from people…”

“Scarlett O’ Hara, you’re a fool!

Before she could withdraw her mind from its far places, his arms were around her….She felt again the rush of helplessness, the sinking yielding, the surging tide of warmth….And the quiet face of Ashley was blurred…”

“She did not understand Rhett, nor did she trouble to understand him, though there were things about him that puzzled her. There was the way he looked at her sometimes, when he thought she was unaware…she frequently caught him watching her, an alert, eager, waiting look in his eyes”

“But I do grudge him your heart and your mind. He doesn’t want your mind, the fool, and I don’t want your body. But I do want your mind and your heart, and I’ll never have them, any more than you’ll ever have Ashley’s mind.

Yes, I’m sorry for you – sorry to see you throwing away happiness with both hands and reaching out for something that would never make you happy”

“Scarlett stopped short, her mouth open, and her eyes went swiftly to the other three….she started to cry out:’ But, of course, it’s made me happy!’ But, somehow, she couldn’t speak. “

“ ‘He never really existed at all, except in my imagination’, she thought wearily”

“Suddenly she was standing at Tara again with the world about her ears, desolate with the knowledge that she could not face life without the terrible strengths of the weak, the gentle, the tender hearted”

“I’ll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. After all, tomorrow’s another day”