Gone with the Wind

Gone with the wind is a movie based off of a book written in 1939 by Margarett Mitchell. It is a historical romance film that took place during the civil war and reconstruction periods, which opened viewers' eyes to the reality of these times while still entertaining them with the romantic plot. The film tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara the daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, during her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes who is married to his cousin Melanie Hamilton and Scarlett's later marriage to Rhett Butler. 

After its release, the movie received a large amount of criticism for how it portrayed African Americans/Slaves in the movie. There are claims that the film whitewashed and hid the horrors of slavery and its "racist stereotypes".  This movie has been receiving criticism and protest from the time it was released all the way up to today in modern-day America. 

The movie glamorizes the old south and in doing so glamorizes slavery. Scarlett O'Hara was portrayed as a glamorous white woman of the wealthy south. Her slaves however were present but not acknowledged. In the film, slaves were portrayed as dumb and uneducated. An example of this is the male house slave Pork. He always appeared on screen with a dumb-found look on his face, which was not a coincidence. His character was written to be seen as voiceless and unintelligent. There was a specific scene where he was given a task to complete that was unusual for him, and Pork panicked and became overwhelmed. Other slaves were shown in a similar way. Big Sam's dialogue consists of simple and broken-down grammar. His character is written to appear uneducated and unintelligent. I also noticed the way Prissy is shown in the movie. Her character is always shown as someone who is uncomposed and often is shown as a liar. Although it is true that slaves were not well-educated at the time this movie dramatizes that fact and portrays the slaves as people who are ignorant and incapable. 

Last semester in an English 101 class at a University in my hometown (USCB), I took I had to read a text written by Malcolm X. It was a biography he wrote about his life and his turn to education while in prison. I remembered he had touched on the film and how it made him feel. He writes, "I remember one thing that marred this time for me: the movie ‘Gone with the Wind.’ When it played in Mason, I was the only Negro in the theater, and when Butterfly McQueen went into her act, I felt like crawling under the rug.” Butterfly McQueen played her role as a young teenage girl who was Scarlett O'Hara's personal slave. As I referenced before Prissy was shown as an inferior, incapable, and unintelligent character. 

Gone with the wind is an iconic movie that sheds light on a very dark time in America. Because it serves as fiction entertainment it is glamorized and exaggerated for viewer entertainment. Although it does not accurately address the issue of slavery, this film is still very prominent and popular.