The novel “Gone with the wind” is a work of fiction written by Margaret Mitchell. The book tells the story of Scarlet O’Hara who starts of as a young woman only interested in suitors and romance.  After two marriages and the loss of the civil war by the South, Scarlett is depicted as a strong-willed woman who seeks to ensure her survival and that of her family’s plantation. The novel portrays relationships, the every day’s lives and ideals that characterized the Southern culture.  The novel contributes significantly to America’s history by demonstrating the changes that took place in Southern culture as a result of the Civil War.

The constant death seen in the novel, demonstrates the changing southern culture. To begin with, Scarlett’s first husband, Charles dies when he falls ill while fighting in the war (Mitchell 111).  Once the war has come to an end, Scarlett’s mother also passes away (Mitchell 337). This signals the eventual collapse of the southern way of life. Scarlett’s mother passes away and all her southern beliefs also die with her. Scarlett’s second husband also dies when he is avenging his wife’s attack by the Northerners (Mitchell 688). This signals the North’s victory and ability to corrode the Southerner’s way of life. In addition to Scarlett’s parents and husbands, other people close to Scarlett also die. Melanie’s death, for instance, demonstrates that the Southern past culture has passed on to accommodate a new way of life.

At the novel’s beginning, Mitchell paints the picture of the south prior to the Civil War. The Southern culture was depicted in the everyday lives of most southerners. These individuals formed a planter society, where a significant amount of importance was placed on land. By owning large tracts of land, Southerners were able to plant crops such as cotton which allowed them to lead wealthy lifestyles. The Southerners’ dedication to farming contributed to the South’s nickname, “the Cotton Kingdom” (Konecna 20).

The division of class in the South was highly signified by land ownership. Individuals who belonged to the first class were regarded to be the most powerful members of the Southern society (Konecna 22). Most of these individuals owned large plantations. In order to ensure that their farms were well-tended to, they required slaves who worked as farmhands. In this manner, white people who owned more than 20 slaves were considered to be the wealthiest and the most powerful (Konecna 22).

The middle class was comprised of families that owned small plantations, while these individuals owned land; it was too small to warrant the need for manual laborers. As a result, the middle class rarely owned slaves and instead chose to work on their farms without the help of slaves. The lower class in the South was comprised of individual who did not own land. These people would live in caves and out in the open (Konecna 22).  Both the middle and low class individuals were regarded as the poor white, commonly referred to as the “white trash”. In Mitchell’s novel, she uses the Slattery family to offer evidence of the white trash. Mitchell describes the Slattery family as being less superior to the black individuals who worked as slaves in plantations (41). Even the slaves looked upon the Slattery family with “unconcealed scorn” (Mitchell 41). This demonstrates that they also felt that they were more superior to the “white trash”.

While poor people received little respect prior to the Civil War, their position in the society improved greatly after the Civil War was over. Emmie Slattery’s social status is significantly changed when she marries Jonas Wilkerson (Mitchell 451). Jonas Wilkerson was a Yankee who formerly worked as the overseer in the Tara plantation. It becomes evident that the Civil War has changed the southerners’ way of life. Those who belonged to the lower class suddenly rose to either the middle of upper class in the Southern society.

In addition to the changes experienced by those who previously belonged to the “white trash” class, the significance of class in southern culture also diminished after the war. Before the war, marriage between individuals was greatly determined by class. For instance, Ashley, Scarlett’s love interest, is engaged to be married to his distant cousin, Melanie (Mitchell 7). The two are engaged because they come from the same social status. After the war, marriage between individuals was no longer dictated by social class. Most Southern women, after the war, were forced to marry to men who belonged to a lower social class (Hacker, Hidle and Jones 39). People got married for money and love (Hacker et.al. 42). Later in the book, Scarlett accepts a marriage proposal from Rhett who had no social standing and was disliked in her Southern community (Mitchell 708).

The role and status of the Southern woman was a significant part of the Southern culture.  Prior to the Civil War, women lacked any social status. Their position in the society was greatly undermined. Women were mostly confined to the domestic realm. Further, women also lacked any political and economic power (Konecna 39).  This traditional role and status of women in the Southern society is evident in the book’s main character, Scarlett. When speaking with Stuart and Brent, Scarlett refuses to engage in talks regarding the forthcoming Civil War. She pretends to be bored and disinterested in the conversation because of its political nature. As a result, the boys became even more impressed by Scarlett (Mitchell 4). This is because her attitude towards war was clear sign of her femininity (Mitchell 4).

During the war, women took on more different roles and their status in society was improved. Scarlett, the book’s main character, is able to rebel against the traditional role that had been prescribed to Southern women.  Scarlett begins to run a business and becomes a successful woman. Most importantly, other women begin to take on more important roles. For instance, Ellen, Scarlett’s mother, takes charge of Tara to ensure that it would be productive enough to help the confederates (Mitchell 114).  Other women began to fill in the job positions that had been left open by the men who were at war. For instance, women worked in hospitals, taking care of injured soldiers (Mitchell 128). This elevated the position women held in the South. The working woman represented a stark contrast to the traditional southern culture.

Clothing also formed an important part of the Southern traditional culture. Prior to the civil war, dressing was used to fulfill a communicative role. The manner in which an individual dressed would show his social status (Miettinen 45). As a result, individuals in the south judged the social status and wealth of other people by analyzing their clothes. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that the cultural ideals associated with dressing in the south changed after the Civil War. Prior to the war, the upper class identified itself by dressing in fancy clothes.

After the war, however, upper class women no longer placed any importance on fancy clothes. These women continued to wear their old and mended dresses (Mitchell 399). In contrast to the upper class, women who had previously belonged to the lower class were now dressing in fancy clothes.  In the past, fancy clothes had signaled importance, power and class. After the Civil War, dressing in a fancy manner signified “new money” (Miettinen 46). This is especially evident in Emmie Slattery’s case.  Her new dress does not grant her the respect and treatment she expected. On the contrary, Scarlett mocks her and even chases her away from Tara (Mitchell 451). Fancy clothing had become transformed and was seen as a privilege for the former “white trash”.

The economy of the south also signifies the southern culture. At the book’s beginning, social standing is linked to an individual’s lands. Towards the book’s end, the Civil War leads to the disruption of the Southerner’s cotton culture. As a result, people decided to seek out other means of income. At the beginning, Scarlet gets married to wealthy men. The men die and this demonstrates their inability to keep up with the changing dynamics of the new Southern world (Chernomas 231-2). Her first husbands came from families that owned plantations. This factor proved useless after the Civil War. Finally, Scarlett is married to Rhett, the only gentleman who was able to offer her economic stability after the Civil War. Unlike her first two husbands, Rhett was a merchant, whose economic abilities were not constrained by factors such as the abolition of slavery (Chernomas 232). This presented a clear shift in the Southerners’ culture.

Mitchell’s “Gone with the wind” is a novel that portrays the changes that took place in the South following the civil war. The most significant of these changes was a shift in the southern culture. In traditional southern culture, land and clothing were used to measure an individual’s social status and wealth. Women were only required to remain at home and attend to their domestic chores. Class was also an important determiner of spouses and influenced marriages in the South. After the Civil War, the Southerners’ culture was changed, women ventured out of their domestic spheres, the “white trash” attained an improved social class, people no longer married from the same social class and plantations were no longer the only source of sustenance. Fancy clothes and the possession of plantations were no longer used to signify social standing.  The southern culture had become transformed by the Civil War.

Works Cited

Chernomas, Robert. What’s a Girl to do When her Mode of Production and the Potency of the Men who Ran it Are Gone With the Wind? – The Historical Materialist Melodrama of Scarlet. Journal of Psycho-Social Studies. 45.2(2011):229-44.

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