Gone with the Wind

[anb163]

Gone with the Wind is one of my favorite books. My English class has to write a research paper on a book, and I have decided to do it on this. It can't just be about the book or the author but some deeper subject. I was thinking about the events in the author's life that inspired the novel. Does that sound like a good idea? Our teacher told us to look on the internet for topics so I figured I would ask the people who know everything. Do you have any other ideas? Thanks for your help.

 

[reddixie]

OR just a thought how about the Civil War and the impact it had on most American families? I love that book, movie, and memorabilia. Good Luck

 

[Sparx]

I hate gone with the wind. I could write a book on how much I hate it. lol. I've read it twice, because I decided to give it another chance. It was worse the second time around.

But for your question. You could write about what inspired the book, the civil war itself, specific events in the book (such as turning points for the characters and how the relate to real life and or historical events).

 

[bigolive9]

You could write about what motivated the storyline. My mom and I both love Gone with the Wind, and she recently discovered that Margaret Mitchell actually had written another story previous to GWTW. It is called Lost Laysen and the main characters are very similar to the characters in GWTW. I just found it on Amazon.com. My mom purchased it from our library, and there the first half of the book is her love letters to one of her boyfriends. They actually dated for quite some time, but then she married someone else (I am only repeating what I remember from scanning through my mom's book the other day). The two stories have similar themes of unfulfilled love. She had actually given the originals of Lost Laysen to that boyfriend.
I think it would be a great report to read the 2nd story ( it is extremely short) and discuss the parallels with the 2 stories and Margaret Mitchell's own life.

 

[tar heel]

I wrote my research paper in college freshman English on the filming of GWTW. My prof said it was very refreshing to read a paper that wasn't on euthanasia, Nixon, Vietnam or abortion -- very 1970s topics.

 

[minkydog]

How about writing about one of the themes in the book--there's unrequited love, ambitious women, the lives of the planter's family vs the lives of the slaves, the aftermath of war, medical care during & after the Civil War. I think you could make a very interesting comparison of Scarlett, Ellen, and Melanie.

 

[Texan Mouseketeer]

My vote would also be to focus on the women that had to work hard in a variety of different ways to keep their families fed after the men were all gone. (Including the double standard of how Scarlett did things being so wrong compared to how other women made money...)

 

[Shugardrawers]

I was always fascinated by the underlying theme of a strong woman trying to fend for herself in a society where women were considered only a step above slaves.