In Another Day: The Historical and Cultural Relevance of Gone With The Wind

Rentz, Cody (2014) In Another Day: The Historical and Cultural Relevance of Gone With The Wind. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Dr. David Wharton from Southern Studies, The University of Mississippi.

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Abstract

Although it was a massive success in its time and won a Pulitzer Prize, critics today tend to discard Gone with the Wind as a piece of low-quality, racist, historically inaccurate literature. However, the novel, through no intent of its author, parallels the Great Depression in many ways, a fact that likely contributed to its popularity. As such, the novel can be a useful tool in studying the culture of the 1930s. To study the cultural connections, I began by reading the novel, watching the film, and speculating as to the connections to Depression-era culture. I then researched the author, Margaret Mitchell, to learn the perspective from which she wrote. I read William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! to put Gone with the Wind in comparison with other literature of its time. I also researched 1930s culture to provide background for my comparisons. I then performed my own literary analysis of Gone with the Wind from a historical perspective, using my previous research as a basis. I discovered that there are many parallels between the novel and the era. I also compared the novel, the film adaptation, and 1930s culture to explore the cultural information that can be gleaned from the film as well.

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