Here comes the bride again...Scarlett does successfully marry Frank, not for love of course, but to pay taxes to save Tara. As hard as it is for her, she is not the only one to suffer. But she knows in her heart she is doing the right thing...no matter what people say. Here's what else has been happening recently:
Like I said, Frank marries Scarlett and gives her the money to save Tara. She continues to manipulate Frank into making more profitable business decisions and Frank falls ill, Scarlett takes advantage of his immobility, going to the store to see the account books. She quickly realizes that Frank isn't that great at running his business...his friends owe him vast sums of money that he is too embarrassed to collect. Scarlett thinks she could do a much better job in the "male world" of business and begins to think of acquiring a sawmill. Rhett, who has blackmailed his way out of jail, enters Frank's store and congratulates Scarlett on her marriage. After mocking her for still loving Ashley, Rhett changes his tone and agrees to loan her the money to buy the sawmill as long as she does not use the money to help Ashley. Scarlett quickly becomes a ruthless businesswoman, devoting all her time to the mill and turning a large profit by any means necessary. Scarlett is the only businesswoman in Atlanta, and the city gossips disapprovingly. Embarrassed and afraid of his wife, Frank hopes that a baby will take Scarlett’s mind off business, most likely it will, but I don't think that will help her struggle to save Tara...anyways, Tony Fontaine, a planter’s son from Scarlett’s county, arrives one night in a panic. He has killed Jonas Wilkerson and a black man. He explains that Wilkerson was telling freed slaves they have the right to rape white women, and one such slave made a lewd comment to Tony’s sister-in-law. Ashley, who accompanied Tony on his revenge mission, advised him to seek help from Scarlett and Frank. Tony leaves, and Scarlett thinks about how the South has become a dangerous place. She begins to fear losing everything to the powerful Yankee government and freed slaves, and she pins all her hopes for safety on making money. She tells Frank that she is pregnant, which Frank is excited and relieved to hear. Scarlett thinks of the Ku Klux Klan, a newly formed organization supposedly intended to protect whites against violent blacks. She feels grateful that Frank is not in the Klan because the government in the North has been gearing up to crush the organization.
I have to wonder how acceptable it was in this time for a woman to marry and have a child then repeat the process soon after with another man? I just feel like that was looked down upon back then, but she never mentions any real gossip about it. People of this day are more concerned with the image Scarlett creates as a powerful business woman in the south. Which again brings me to question the morals of this time and possibly a theme of the novel. Where do the morals of people during this time stand? Is judging people by appearance more acceptable than their actions? I feel like Scarlett's life is a microcosm, seeing as she is being judged for the appearance she is creating as a tough business woman while the Civil War is being fought, a war based on the discrimination of black people. Scarlett is one of the first women of her time to realize that we females really can do things that men can do. Men should just get over it.
No comments:
Post a Comment