Gone with the Wind

The next morning, Scarlett is achy and sunburned. At breakfast, Gerald tells everyone to wait until Mrs. O’Hara comes. Scarlett wonders if he lost his mind. She can’t think about it though; there’s too much to do. She leaves breakfast and finds Pork shelling peanuts on the porch. He tells her the horse died and that the cow was about to have a calf. She tells Pork to take Prissy to hunt down the one hog that’s left. Pork says that’s field hand work, and he’s a “house nigger.” Scarlett tells him to catch the sow or get out. Tears come to Pork’s eyes. Ellen wouldn’t have said that.

Scarlett says anyone at Tara who won’t work can join the Yankees. She asks Pork about the corn and cotton. He says the Yankees spoiled everything, except a few acres of cotton, three bales’ worth. Three bales is no more than the Slatterys raised! Scarlett asks if anyone found food at the other plantations. Pork explains that no one has left Tara. Scarlett decides to go to Twelve Oaks and send Dilcey to the McIntoshes, ignoring Pork’s warning that it’s too dangerous with the Yankees around.

Scarlett grabs Mammy’s bonnet and thinks of the pretty green bonnet Rhett gave her. The road to Twelve Oaks is strewn with litter from soldiers. Scarlett wonders why she’s tripping on pebbles when her feet are meant for dancing. She’s been pampered her whole life, and now she’s hungry and hunting food like an animal. Scarlett passes the cemetery where Ellen is buried and then the ruins of the Slatterys’ house, where that “nasty Emmie” who killed Ellen lived.

At the bottom of the hill, Scarlett takes off her slippers and bathes her feet in the river. Then she trudges across the river towards Twelve Oaks. Within the circle of twelve oaks are the ruins of John Wilkes’s house. Scarlett sits down on a fallen pillar. She once hoped to be the mistress of this house. She watched Ashley marry Melanie here, and Charles proposed here. Scarlett hopes Ashley is dead so he’ll never see this awful sight. Ashley’s children will never know Twelve Oaks. Putting these thoughts aside, Scarlett checks the garden and then the small gardens by the enslaved persons’ houses. She finds cabbages, turnips, beans, and peas, enough for a proper meal tonight. Starving, she takes a bite of a bitter radish. She lies down in the grass and throws it up.

Scarlett has never had to so much as pick up her own stockings and now, she’s too weak to move. Nobody knows or cares. She thinks of Gerald, Ellen, Ashley, and the old houses. The past is gone, and a harsh future lies ahead. Scarlett stands up, her head held high. She decides the past is past; she must go forward. Scarlett heads back to Tara with a basket of vegetables, vowing to never go hungry again. The next few days are quiet at Tara. Tara feels like a desolate island separate from the war and the rest of the world.

Scarlett focuses on getting food. Everyone at Tara complains of hunger except Melanie, who tells Scarlett to give her portion to Dilcey. Her selflessness irritates Scarlett. Wade acts very strange, but Scarlett doesn’t realize he’s constantly terrified. His life has vanished, and he thinks the Yankees are after him. Whenever Scarlett yells at him, he remembers the time she spanked him when Atlanta was burning. Wade now avoids Scarlett and spends all his time with Melanie. Scarlett is troubled by Wade’s behavior but doesn’t have the energy to coddle him. She’s jealous when Melanie is kind to him. Once, she finds Wade jumping on Melanie and slaps him. Wade bawls and Melanie tries to comfort him, but Scarlett is firm. Mammy looks on disapprovingly.

Scarlett is in charge at Tara. She’s afraid, and so she didn’t allow anyone to show fear or weakness. She’s often mean, but she feels that if she’s too nice, no one will pull their weight. With Ellen dead and the enslaved persons gone, Scarlett insists that everyone work. Suellen and Carreen argue that they can’t do manual labor because it’s against how they were raised, and Ellen would never make them. They think Scarlett is mean—and Scarlett does enjoy bullying everyone. It helps her forget how bitter she is that everything Ellen taught her is useless. Instead of teaching her to be kind, Ellen should’ve taught her to pick cotton and plow a field like an enslaved person. It helps that Ellen had not foreseen the collapse of the civilization she’d raised her children to be a part of.

Scarlett’s feelings for Tara don’t change. Even after a hard day of work, she returns to Tara with joy. She loves the red earth and the sprawling trees. Unlike Rhett, she thinks wars are fought for land, not money. Land is the only thing worth fighting for. Now that Ellen is dead, Ashley is gone, and Gerald has lost his mind, Tara is all that matters to her. Gerald had said this once, but she’d been too young to understand. Now, she’ll do anything to hold on to Tara.