Second Check-in: Gone with the Wind Readalong

The second week of the Gone with the Wind readalong has come and gone and we’re now officially halfway through the book! Its been 2 weeks and 413 pages, with 412 to go!

Remember, if you still want to join, you totally can!

Here’s the book reading schedule: 

Start: March 1
Stop 1:  March 8 at end of chapter 14 (page 209)
Stop 2: March 15th at end of chapter 30 (page 413)
Stop 3: March 22nd at end of chapter 44 (page 629)
End: March 31st (page 825)

And here’s the discussion post schedule: 

First blog post: March 9
Second blog post: March 16
Third blog post: March 23
Fourth blog post: March 31

THOUGHTS/NOTES™

• So Ashley’s back, on furlough from the army and yay! But also I’m getting sick of Scarlett constantly mooning over him.
• Scarlett: “What did a girl like Melanie know of love?” BITCH WHAT DO YOU KNOW? You’ve been mooning over someone’s husband for like 3 or 4 years and have personally admitted to enjoying teasing men and making them fall for you, because its fun — you don’t know love! You like the games.
• LMAO Ashley and Melanie run off to the bedroom the first chance they get and then it finally hits Scarlett that he’s Melanie’s husband.
• Shit, why do I suddenly feel sorry for Scarlett? She made Ashley a present for him to go back to the army.
• I knew it, I knew this bitch would kiss Ashely — okay, I don’t feel sorry for her anymore.

• Now we get a long winding explanation of how expensive everything is in the South now, because of the war, and like … I’m supposed to feel sorry for y’all? You all started this war because you can’t let go of your slaves, went into the war with like a couple of bullets per man and are surprised you’re losing?
• “The south had always lived by selling cotton and buying the things it did not produce, but now it could neither sell nor buy.” Again, I’m supposed to feel sorry for that bitch? How many slaves are being abused because the war is about to come to an end, and their “owners” know the South won’t win?
• Scarlett, Scarlett, Scarlett … please stop thinking that Ashely is going to come to his senses and fall in love with you. He loves MELANIE, and I absolutely love them together. “Oh, when the war is over …” And then what Scarlett? How can you and Ashley be together when he doesn’t love you and he’s married? I’m about to scream.

• Now she’s going as so far as to thinking she can convince Ashley to get a divorce. In this tiny Christian/Catholic town in the 1800s, she thinks Ashley is going to get a divorce.
• MELANIE IS PREGNANT OMG YAY! I’m so happy for her.
• HAHAHA Scarlett is surprised that Ashley and Melanie had sex?? SCARLETT THEY HAVEN’T SEEN EACH OTHER IN LIKE 2 YEARS, WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY WERE DOING?
• *Big gasp* Ashley is missing in action, if he dies I’m going to throw this book out a window.
• Oh thank god, he’s just a prisoner on Rock Island. Apparently he was given the chance to join the Yankee side and refused.
• Scarlett said, out loud, why didn’t he join and then desert and come home, and Melanie said she rather he die than lose his honour. Quietly, Rhett said to Scarlett he would have done that if it meant he didn’t die, because he’s not a gentleman. Scarlett and Rhett are very similar people — obviously they are better suited together than Scarlett and Ashley.
• We’re up to Part Three! 

• Aww, Rhett really likes Scarlett’s son, little Wade. That’s so cute!
• Margaret Mitchell paints a very vivid picture of life in the South during this period, it feels like she was actually there.
• She talks about how it’s a “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight” and that definitely rings true. Especially because so many soldiers are deserting and going back home because their families are starving without them.
• Hnnnnhhnn I’m so uncomfortable with how Mitchell constantly portrays black people, it’s as if the slaves and white people are one big happy family.
• Like some slaves are being sent to the front to dig ditches, and on the way there, they recognise Scarlett and go up to her and shake hands with her. Then, the white captain who’s leading them fondly smiles at them as they try to explain to Scarlett what they’re doing — like sure, okay, of course that would have happened.
• Oh gosh, Rhett goes on for a while about how Scarlett “should be kissed” and I’m currently fanning myself.

• Ok, this is the point where the book starts to get really good.
• So the Yankees are about to siege Atlanta and the city is forced to evacuate. However, Melanie is really close to having her baby and she can’t be moved so Scarlett stays with her while their Aunt Pittypat leaves for Macon.
• THEY’RE SO DELUSIONAL! I can’t deal with how delusional the South is. Like, don’t worry, I know our city is being attacked right now but we’re the South, we’re so strong, no one can defeat us. Just because you desperately want something to happen won’t make it happen, please face the truth.
• Holy shit.
• Holy shit.
• Holy shit.
• RHETT JUST ASKED SCARLETT TO BE HIS MISTRESS OMG 😮. I wasn’t expecting that? This is a romance, set during the American Civil War and written in 1936 — and here we have a man asking a woman to be his mistress? Wow. I love Rhett.
• Scarlett thought he wants to marry her, but he just wants to sleep with her! Her response is so amazing too, because all she says is all she’d get from that would be children she didn’t want, and he laughs because a proper lady would have slapped him and made a scene!!
• Melanie is about to have her baby! This whole chapter is stressing me out, because the Yankees are invading and they can’t find a doctor for Melanie!
• I JUST FOUND A MANDELA EFFECT*** IN GONE WITH THE WIND! So you know that famous quote “Miss Scarlett, I don’t know nothing bout birthing no babies.” THAT’S NOT THE QUOTE! The real quote in the book is, “Miss Scarlett, I don’t no nothing bout bringing babies.” Mind blown.
• *** Mandela effect: an observed phenomenon in which a large portion of people misremembers a significant event or shares a memory of something that didn’t actually happen. The first occasion of this happening was found by Fiona Broome, a researcher, who discovered that a significant number of people at a conference in 2010 shared her memory of Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s — when he was actually released from prison in the 90s.

• Melanie has the baby and Scarlett delivers him. Finally, she thinks to send for Rhett to help her leave Atlanta for Tara. He shows up and he’s hilarious about the fact that half the city is burning.
• Ok this is where it gets confusing. Because halfway to Tara, Rhett suddenly gains a conscience and decides to join the war?? He tells Scarlett that he loves her and that he needs to be a man and help the city.
• I don’t get this frame of mind at all, because that’s not Rhett Butler — he doesn’t care about other people, certainly not about the war, so why would he leave Scarlett, Melanie, Prissy and the children? Hmm. I don’t get his train of thought.
• Lmao, he kisses Scarlett and asks her to have sex with him, before he leaves. That’s typical Rhett.
• So they manage to get to Tara, with Scarlett saving them as she took charge. When they get there, they find out that of the 100 slaves they had, only four remain — yay, good on the other slaves! — and that Scarlett’s mother had died from typhoid.
• Scarlett is now the mistress of Tara and she becomes quite a bully — she likes to tell people off and see them in fear. She’s become quite a strong woman, as she has the whole household on her shoulders, but she can be a bit difficult too.
• I don’t like the way she treats her son — he’s like three or four and she expects him to accept the war the same way an adult would? He’s a toddler, he’s scared! He doesn’t understand what’s happening and she just hits him and tells him off. Poor baby.
• Why am I feeling sorry for them? Okay, the Yankees stole everything from them — their food, animals, jewellery — and now Scarlett has to be in charge because her dad has kind of lost it. While the Civil War liberated so many people, you kind of feel sorry for the people who were just living their lives in the South … although a lot of them were slave owners, but not all (the people Scarlett calls “white trash”). Damn you, Mitchell!
• SCARLETT JUST KILLED A MAN. I REPEAT, SCARLETT JUST KILLED A MAN.
• What book am I reading? I thought this was a romance?
• Anyway, she killed this Yankee solider because he was a deserter and about to rob them, and then she buys the body on her property. But now they have his horse, money and some food! And life is better for a while.
• Until some Yankees come back.
• This whole scene is awesome because you just have this young, nineteen-year-old girl, standing on her porch with a baby in her arms and a child at her side, fending off soldiers who want to rob them. Incredible.

• They find out that Atlanta has been burned and that the war is officially over. The confederate soldiers are coming home.
• I find it so interesting that, now that a lot of young men have been killed, women are in charge of the household and businesses now. Scarlett needs to think about selling cotton, paying taxes, and keeping her family alive. She’s become really strong, I’m really enjoying her character development.
• A young man named Will shows up at their house, seeking refuge. They nurse him back to health, although he’s lost a leg, and he falls in love with Scarlett’s sister Careen.
• Omg, omg, omg, omg.
• ASHLEY IS BACK ASHLEY IS BACK ASHLEY IS BACK!!! 
• All I ask is: please don’t let Ashley and Scarlett get together — Melanie and Ashley are clearly meant to be together.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON GONE WITH THE WIND? Are you liking Scarlett’s character development? Who’s your favourite character? Mine’s Melanie! Let me know!

The next discussion post will be up March 23! Happy reading!