Summary of "Gone with The Wind" by Margaret Mitchell

In the book Gone With The Wind written by Margaret Mitchell, a book of Drama filled romance, a young women named Scarlett O’Hara lived during the Civil War times in Atlanta, Georgia. She wants to move back to her childhood home in Tara because the Union Army is burning down the town of Atlanta. She is struggling to live in Tara because almost all the plantations have been burnt down and she is struggling to pay the taxes now that the winning Union Army raised the taxes.

Scarlett O’Hara raised up in a wealthy family from the south during the civil war times is truly in love with a man named Ashley Wilkes. He loves her but does not feel as if she truly knows what love is so he marries his cousin and tries to live a happy life with her. Scarlett is envious about the marriage but copes with it by marring Melanie the wife of Ashley’s brother Charles Hamilton. Scarlett has a kid from her now late husband and names the baby boy Wade. While in Atlanta, she wants to leave with Melanie because the Union is burning the city of Atlanta. So they leave Atlanta and head back to Scarlett’s family plantation “Tara”. As they struggle to pay the taxes due to the increase tax by the Union they find a way to make it and continue to live their through hard times.

Scarlett O’Hara is having to deal with a nation which is at war, the burning of Atlanta, Georgia which she lives in, the Union Army taking all that she loves from her which include plantation Tara, which happens due to the carpetbaggers who arrived shortly after the war. Scarlett is an amazing woman that has all the men in love with her. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his cousin, Melanie. Mammy warns Scarlett to behave herself at the party at Twelve Oaks. There is a new man there that day, and on this same day is when the civil war begins. Rhett Butler is in the room as Scarlett talks to Ashley about the love she has for him even though he loves her he can’t be with her because he does not believe she is old enough and doesn’t believe she know what love truly is. Scarlett does not realize that Rhett Butler is in the room with the two at that time. As the war begins Charles Hamilton Melanie’s brother proposes to Scarlett, she doesn’t want to marry him but she does in spite of Ashley in hopes to making him jealous. Throughout the past 2 months, Scarlett marries Charles before he ends up leaving to fight for the confederate in the war. Scarlett finds out that Charles dies of measles during the war, and then ends up finding out that she was pregnant. After Scarlett gives birth to her son Wade she becomes bored and depressed. She makes a long trip to Atlanta to stay with Melanie and Melanie’s aunt Pittypat. Living in the city is a perfect fit for Scarlett, and she begins to see Rhett a lot more. Rhett makes Scarlett mad with his directness and mockery. As the war continues, food and clothing run low in Atlanta. Scarlett and Melanie fear for Ashley’s safety. After the battle of Gettysburg, Ashley is captured and sent to prison, and the Yankee army begins closing in on Atlanta. Scarlett desperately wants to return home to Tara, but she has promised Ashley she will stay with the pregnant Melanie, who could give birth at any time.

Rhett Butler ask Scarlett if she will marry him and she says “oh yes”. After a honeymoon in New Orleans, Scarlett and Rhett return back home to Atlanta where they build a luxurious mansion. Scarlett and Rhett have a kid the named her Bonnie Butler. Rhett becomes very fond of his daughter and begins a successful campaign to win back the good citizens in Atlanta, and keeps Bonnie from being an outcast like Scarlett was. In the beginning of Rhett’s and Scarlett’s marriage they were as happy as ever, but Rhett become very bitter and different towards Scarlett. Scarlett start to lose feeling that she once had for Ashley, but Ashley’s jealous sister India finds that they are now friends and starts a rumor that they are having an affair. To Scarlett’s surprise, Melanie takes Scarlett’s side and refuses to believe the rumors. Bonnie Rhett’s and Scarlett’s daughter is killed in a horseback riding accident, Rhett becomes extremely sad and the marriage becomes very unstable. Scarlett finally realizes that she does truly love Rhett and Ashley wasn’t her one true love this whole time it was Rhett Butler. Rhett is saddened still and tells Scarlett that he has lost his love he once had for her, and leaves her. Not knowing what to do Scarlett makes up her mind to go back home to Tara to be with her childhood nurse and slave, Mammy, and think of a way that Scarlett can get Rhett back.