On Thursday, August 7, 2014 12:29:05 AM UTC-4, sf wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Aug 2014 13:01:19 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

>
> > Reminds me of the 16-year-old, book-hating Scarlett O'Hara. "She hated
>
> > people who used words unknown to her."
>
> >
>
> > Why, exactly, was it civilized for her to hate such people, per se?
>
> >
>
> > As if her preferences should rule the world?
>
> >
>
> She was a character in a book, subject to the author's whims, but
>
> maybe you haven't figured that part out yet.


Maybe I should have spelled things out a bit.

While Margaret Mitchell was too cowardly - or just unwilling - to
condemn slavery at any point in GWTW (though I don't remember her even
mentioning Lincoln's assassination), she was pretty clear in certain
criticisms of the times. One was that while Ashley and Melanie were
very well-read, that hardly made up for their overwhelming inabilities
to survive on their own in the post-war era, which made them dependent
on Scarlett. At the same time, while Scarlett had the most-needed
qualities, Mitchell obviously didn't approve of how it was considered
more or less OK back then for her and other rich girls to drop out of
school and/or never read in general.

Example:

"Arrogant devil, isn't he?" he observed, looking after Butler. "He
looks like one of the Borgias."

Scarlett thought quickly but could remember no family in the County
or Atlanta or Savannah by that name.

"I don't know them. Is he kin to them? Who are they?"

An odd look came over Charles' face, incredulity and shame struggling
with love. Love triumphed as he realized that it was enough for a
girl to be sweet and gentle and beautiful, without having an education
to hamper her charms, and he made swift answer: "The Borgias were
Italians."

"Oh," said Scarlett, losing interest, "foreigners."

She turned her prettiest smile on Ashley, but for some reason he was
not looking at her. He was looking at Charles, and there was
understanding in his face and a little pity.
__________________________

Later on, in her second marriage, it's only Scarlett's learned skills
in math that save her from poverty, even though her ignorance keeps
causing her embarrassment.

Not to mention that Rhett's education, combined with his smooth charm,
likely helped him in his profiteering.

And as critics often say, those two selfish scoundrels deserved each
other, in part because Rhett loves to laugh at her and put her down
for her ignorance, but aside from his being disgustingly rude that
way, it doesn't occur to him that she's never going to admire a man
for his education, per se - and so she's just as contemptuous of HIM,
in a way. Not to mention that Rhett blinds himself to the fact that
MOST women really don't want to marry men old enough to be their
fathers, so Scarlett's slowness to fall in love was hardly surprising.
(Many Scarlett-haters don't notice the age difference in the book, I
guess - it's 19 yea.)



Lenona.