And when I finished the last page of the book which
had been haunting me from last couple of weeks, I felt as if once again I am
having a experience of something which has been so amazing.
Many a times when some things you like beyond limit,
they stay in your thoughts for longer time. And the same happened with me with
this one. I couldn’t take it out of my mind for two days, thinking about the
consequences, happenings and my own opinion of this.
“gone with the wind”
I think many of you may have not read this book, as
it’s a very old piece of literature, set in 1860’s and published in 1936. But I
find myself very lucky that I started reading it , finished it and learnt so
many things from it.
The first thing which hit me after I was rereading
the last line of the book,
“she will think about these things tomorrow, not
today. After all tomorrow is another day”
And then it slowly came to me, that whatever scarlet
had done her entire life, whatever wrong decision she had done, she hadn’t
thought about them. She always kept them for thinking for tomorrow. But her
tomorrow never comes to her. The pile of things goes on in the list to think
about them in tomorrow and she never ever gave a second thought to them and in
the mean while everything was destroyed , just merely “Gone with the wind”.
When I first started reading the novel, I found
scarlett very amusing at first, doing things on her own, as they pleased them
giving the hell with the world look to everyone, even to those who had cared
about her honestly.
Her this attitude comes with her early widow hood,
and her struggle for life, a struggle to keep the people alive for whom she is
responsible.
She makes a good heroin by being fierce, and
confident and not afraid of anything but fear of losing something. Till the
middle of the book. She carries on her mischievous behavior by her attitude
driven by the unending urge to satisfy on something.
But then for all I understood, the real heroin of
the book is Melanie. Often mistaken by us as the saint women who is little
crazy to not be able to see how scarlett behaves with her, and how she never
ever had appreciated her for her kind heart. And did things which were done
only for the promise she gave to Ashley.
Melanie who seeks everything good in everyone,
accepting people as they are and even keeping their images in her head intact
even if she hears any wrong doing of them. The biggest thing she does is that,
she never ever judge by the things people talk about them. I was crying my eyes
out when she defends scarlett and Ashley even after she hears that her husband
and her sister-in-law betrayed her. How can be someone so faithful on their own
belief that people they love can never betray us.
We rather do the exactly opposite thing as we seek
for the reasons that, when and how our own people may betray us, and that will
be the end of our good behavior towards them. But Melanie… Oh Melanie. She
shook our beliefs by being so blinded to her faith and trust, that the people
who have betrayed us feel ashamed of their behaviors.
Melanie, who looks pale and small but has a heart of
lion, brave enough to be ready to kill a person who is threat to her family.
Melanie who is not really beautiful but believes that her husband loves her, no
matter what may come.
Melanie who is sweet enough to even talk to a bad
women, just because she thinks of her as nothing more than a person.
And even after all the up and down she goes, she stays
steady as the rock on her love towards people, even when they betrayed her,
even when they are bad by their reputation, even when they make her feel a
little frighten, she still seeks for the soul in them. The soul of the person
which lies deep within, hidden under the layers of the pretending, or show off
of what they are not, often resulting into their bad reputation, she look at
them as clear as the clear drop of water, even when they are mutilated by the
wrong things they have done.
Rhett who is a non-gentleman who speaks only of
truths, even when its bitter and far too naked for the people to hear. I loved
the way he make us see what scarlett really is. He reads her like a slate, even
guessing her thoughts right. But still loves her deeply regardless of her
childishness, her lack of interest in him as her lover, her tantrums and
inability to understand how to handle people without hurting them.
Another most important thing which book depicts as,
how love can be complicated and how we often misunderstand what lies in our
heart actually. The moment scarlett agrees that she was in love with a person
she just made up, she looked at Ashley as mere actor acting the character she
made up. But reality is far from what
she had thought and it startles her at the end, when he sees what Ashley really
is. And all her imaginations, love leaves her the very minute when his real person
get revealed in front of her.
And here scarlett and Melanie displays us two
different sides of a same coin. As Melanie tries to love what people really
are, and scarlett is loving how she want people to be.
And at the end, of course Melanie wins as she seek
the truth.
We often make our own assumptions about people who
meets us, and try to cling to them as gradually we understand them. I have
often experienced this that many a times, the people who we hear bad gossips
about turned to be as pleasant as a person can be, or even opposite side as the
people we thing will be having the good nature but they turn out to be the
exact opposite.
I think for this the melanie’s way of looking at
everyone as a clean piece of paper, and even though our opinions get violated
by any situation we shall write only the good things about them on the paper. Then
there will be no two sides, rather it will be plain as the truth and also acceptable.
I enjoyed
reading every bit and every line of the book, suckling it as a candy, taking in
its beautifulness and understanding. To a great piece of literature. “Gone with
the wind”.
