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329:question:329--week_6_questions_comments-2026 [2026/10/08 02:13] – [How does this movie work as a primary source about the time in which it was made?] 76.78.172.79329:question:329--week_6_questions_comments-2026 [2026/11/12 06:29] (current) – 76.78.172.13
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 I think Gone With the Wind works as a secondary source because it shows how people in the 1930s wanted to remember the Civil War and Antebellum South era of American history. The movie does get some parts right, especially with showing how much destruction the war caused and how different the South became after the Confederacy lost.  But honestly, I think the movie is more useful for understanding the people who made it than the actual Civil War because it romanticises the “Old South” so much. It gives viewers this almost “beautiful” version of the South that leaves out a lot of the uglier parts of its history, so I think it tells us more about how history was being remembered in 1939 than what the past actually looked like. ——Cait Edwards I think Gone With the Wind works as a secondary source because it shows how people in the 1930s wanted to remember the Civil War and Antebellum South era of American history. The movie does get some parts right, especially with showing how much destruction the war caused and how different the South became after the Confederacy lost.  But honestly, I think the movie is more useful for understanding the people who made it than the actual Civil War because it romanticises the “Old South” so much. It gives viewers this almost “beautiful” version of the South that leaves out a lot of the uglier parts of its history, so I think it tells us more about how history was being remembered in 1939 than what the past actually looked like. ——Cait Edwards
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 +This film is truthful in terms of events and portrayal of social interaction between the wealthy, plantation-owning elite. It is however, quite inaccurate in it's discussion and portrayal of slavery. Enslaved African Americans are presented as loving and loyal to the families that enslaved them even after emancipation. The film pushes a lost cause narrative that is not truthful to the historical happenings that actually took place. -Leah B.
  
 The film generally sticks to truth with the portrayal of the wealthy white plantation owners, and how they experienced the civil war and reconstruction era. The film really deviates with its portrayal of slavery, and generally ignores the issue as a whole. The reason for the civil war is not really mentioned, it is just a big deal that the south is going to war. The main slave characters never get called slaves, and stick around even after they’re free. While that could have happened, they don’t mention it. Emancipation in general is rarely mentioned, and skirted around whenever possible. Scholarly articles about slaves’ experiences, and their personal letters, share that they always sought freedom, and that emancipation was a really big deal. Not a nuisance. -Katie D. The film generally sticks to truth with the portrayal of the wealthy white plantation owners, and how they experienced the civil war and reconstruction era. The film really deviates with its portrayal of slavery, and generally ignores the issue as a whole. The reason for the civil war is not really mentioned, it is just a big deal that the south is going to war. The main slave characters never get called slaves, and stick around even after they’re free. While that could have happened, they don’t mention it. Emancipation in general is rarely mentioned, and skirted around whenever possible. Scholarly articles about slaves’ experiences, and their personal letters, share that they always sought freedom, and that emancipation was a really big deal. Not a nuisance. -Katie D.
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 While Gone with the Wind includes many historical inaccuracies, especially regarding the nature of slavery, it does contain some accurate depictions of how white southerners felt during the period of Reconstruction. Many of the sentiments echoed by people like Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas on reconstruction are prominent in the latter half of the movie especially. The attitude of southerners toward the carpetbaggers in addition to their disdain for successful freedmen seen in the film mirror many of their written opinions. The extent of the destruction Sherman brought to Atlanta and subsequently towards other parts of Georgia are also portrayed in the film, though only in terms of the side of the war experienced by southerners. Only one Union soldier has a speaking role in the film, and the destruction is otherwise shown only from the perspective of the Confederate army and civilians of Atlanta. Overall, while there is some historical truth in Gone with the Wind, it mostly comes in the form of accurately depicting how white southerners felt about Reconstruction, rather than truthfully depicting it as a whole. - Hunter M. While Gone with the Wind includes many historical inaccuracies, especially regarding the nature of slavery, it does contain some accurate depictions of how white southerners felt during the period of Reconstruction. Many of the sentiments echoed by people like Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas on reconstruction are prominent in the latter half of the movie especially. The attitude of southerners toward the carpetbaggers in addition to their disdain for successful freedmen seen in the film mirror many of their written opinions. The extent of the destruction Sherman brought to Atlanta and subsequently towards other parts of Georgia are also portrayed in the film, though only in terms of the side of the war experienced by southerners. Only one Union soldier has a speaking role in the film, and the destruction is otherwise shown only from the perspective of the Confederate army and civilians of Atlanta. Overall, while there is some historical truth in Gone with the Wind, it mostly comes in the form of accurately depicting how white southerners felt about Reconstruction, rather than truthfully depicting it as a whole. - Hunter M.
  
 +This film does a good job at depicting the war’s impact on southern society through the evolution of characters like Scarlett and Melanie, who begin as symbols of domesticity and marriage-focused society. When their husbands leave for the front, Scarlett is forced to shed her social status to secure survival at Tara, while Melanie embodies the idealized devotion to the Confederate cause, with both ultimately volunteering their time and energy to helping the wounded. Melanie’s attitude specifically, with “this could be Ashley” motivating her to keep supporting the cause, seeming very much like a strong motivator for women at the time. Their characters illustrate the shift from the (in hindsight) superficial expectations of Southern womanhood to the harsh reality that followed, reflecting the broader disruption of traditional gender roles during the war. The film also tracks the South's trajectory from initial, arrogant optimism to the stark reality of what war actually meant. Early scenes radiate a sense of security and inevitable victory, which is quickly dismantled by the scale of death and the economic devastation of their setting. By visualizing the massive loss of life (I’m thinking of the scene when Scarlett walks onto the large amount of wounded soldiers at the train depot) the film characterizes the war as a catastrophic event that shattered their idealistic, simple, and inconsequential way of life. - Izabella M
  
 ======Problems with historical accuracy? Errors in fact?====== ======Problems with historical accuracy? Errors in fact?======
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 +My favorite inaccuracy in this film regards a character that has no physical depiction in it, yet who is just as instrumental to its plot as he is in history. Sherman! We get a good sense with the primary source reading by him, his views on warfare. While initially at the war’s beginning he followed the belief of treating Confederate civilians as a misguided people (even returning captured slaves), his view of war hardened as did most generals as they encountered the popular early support for the war effort even among poor, non-slave holding whites. He began to see the war as not being decided by decisive battle, but rather the elimination of the capacity and will of the enemy to continue the fight. This “hard war” however was not “total war,” in my opinion. Sherman’s epoch March to the Sea, while destructive and devastating, was not indiscriminate and sought only to eliminate targets of industry and infrastructure and requisition supplies and food as a result of cutting his forces off from supply lines, though foraging itself was common for both armies. When viewed from a historical perspective, Sherman’s strategy forms a coherent and calculated military strategy that, while brutal, was undeniably effective in bringing a swift end to the war in concert with the overall strategy surmised by General Grant. To the film, however, Sherman’s name is only mentioned once, only to be replaced by “The Great Invader!” The movie portrays Sherman as an unseen, monstrous, apocalyptic force of absolute destruction, the personification of the Yankee invader tasked with the destruction of a civilization by any means necessary. While historically inaccurate, this certainly is accurate to the Lost Cause perspective this film represents. - Charles Salcedo
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 +My largest issue with this film is the way it approaches slavery. Gone With The Wind pushes a lost cause idea that is a product of the time, but uses a minimized, inaccurately written image of slavery that turns African American characters into caricatures. In the film, emancipated slaves showed loyalty to their past enslavers. One formerly enslaved character comes running to save Scarlett immediately, his loyalty unwavering. This film showcases a lost cause narrative by portraying characters in such a way that presents them as palatable to an audience that is not ready to or does not want to confront racism and the history of slavery in America.
  
 There is no doubt Gone With the Wind is a product of its time period; it is intrinsically shown in its overt sugarcoating of the horrors of slavery and perpetuating racist stereotypes, such as the explicitly displayed ‘Mammy’ archetype portrayed by Hattie McDaniel, and other ‘happy slave’ archetypes displayed liberally throughout the film. One such scene shows Scarlett O’Hara, now the widowed Scarlett Wilkes, reuniting with enslaved men she had previously overseen during the height of the Confederate War, each greeting her kindly and positively as she does in turn. The reality was vastly different, as seen in Judith Cocks, Emily, Susan (Sukey) & Ersey, Harriet Newby, and Louisa Alexander’s Letters from Slaves, which detail the separation of families through the international and domestic slave trade, as written by Emily upon being forcefully separated from her husband by his master: “O! Mother, what shall I do? A time is fast approaching when I shalt want my husband and mother, and both are gone!” - Bailee E.  There is no doubt Gone With the Wind is a product of its time period; it is intrinsically shown in its overt sugarcoating of the horrors of slavery and perpetuating racist stereotypes, such as the explicitly displayed ‘Mammy’ archetype portrayed by Hattie McDaniel, and other ‘happy slave’ archetypes displayed liberally throughout the film. One such scene shows Scarlett O’Hara, now the widowed Scarlett Wilkes, reuniting with enslaved men she had previously overseen during the height of the Confederate War, each greeting her kindly and positively as she does in turn. The reality was vastly different, as seen in Judith Cocks, Emily, Susan (Sukey) & Ersey, Harriet Newby, and Louisa Alexander’s Letters from Slaves, which detail the separation of families through the international and domestic slave trade, as written by Emily upon being forcefully separated from her husband by his master: “O! Mother, what shall I do? A time is fast approaching when I shalt want my husband and mother, and both are gone!” - Bailee E. 
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 I think this demonstrates how a film can portray actual historical events while still presenting a misleading interpretation of history simply through whose experiences it chooses to emphasize. - Todd H. I think this demonstrates how a film can portray actual historical events while still presenting a misleading interpretation of history simply through whose experiences it chooses to emphasize. - Todd H.
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 +It deviates through slavery. Most films struggle to show the hardships of what slavery truly was or they are afraid to show it through film. It was cruel and heartless; whites didn’t rarely and if at all show humanism towards African Americans. They were treated as objects and the answers to their product/wealth. They are portrayed to be happy to be with their masters; the only violence is through a slap or threat that was it. This is not what happened in reality. --Shelby-Marie Hawley
  
 ======How does this movie work as a primary source about the time in which it was made?====== ======How does this movie work as a primary source about the time in which it was made?======
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 +Gone With The Wind works fairly well as a primary source. There were many aspects of the film that were very much of its time, including but not limited to the pervasive gender roles and sexism of the 30s, caricatures of black characters and blatant disregard for racial sensitivity, old film tropes that would certainly be considered problematic today (i.e. noir style male love interest who doesn’t know how to take “no” for an answer and a dramatic female love interest who constantly seems to switch  from “I love you” to “I hate you.”), among other things. It’s also a good secondary source for the civil war if one is trying to research the heavily flawed perspectives of the privileged white southern slave owners of that time. - Leo Tooks
  
 Gone With the Wind was released nearly right smack-dab in the middle of the Jim Crow era, as depicted by the rampant utilization of racist archetypes, such as the aforementioned ‘Mammy’ portrayal and character that appears throughout the film. However, another major event that occurred during this time period, and reflected deeply in Scarlett O’Hara’s own drastic economic instability, was the Great Depression, with the film released near the end of that time period. While not exactly a one-to-one portrayal, the decimated land and production value of Scarlett O’Hara’s beloved Tara likely resonated deeply with the American populace still healing from the wounds of high unemployment rates and their correlating consequences: a substantial amount of physical and emotional loss. - Bailee E.  Gone With the Wind was released nearly right smack-dab in the middle of the Jim Crow era, as depicted by the rampant utilization of racist archetypes, such as the aforementioned ‘Mammy’ portrayal and character that appears throughout the film. However, another major event that occurred during this time period, and reflected deeply in Scarlett O’Hara’s own drastic economic instability, was the Great Depression, with the film released near the end of that time period. While not exactly a one-to-one portrayal, the decimated land and production value of Scarlett O’Hara’s beloved Tara likely resonated deeply with the American populace still healing from the wounds of high unemployment rates and their correlating consequences: a substantial amount of physical and emotional loss. - Bailee E. 
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 To me, the film is almost more valuable as a historical source about 1939 than about the Civil War itself. It reveals not only how Americans chose to remember their history, but also how racial attitudes and economic experiences influenced the stories Hollywood told. - Todd H. To me, the film is almost more valuable as a historical source about 1939 than about the Civil War itself. It reveals not only how Americans chose to remember their history, but also how racial attitudes and economic experiences influenced the stories Hollywood told. - Todd H.
  
-This works as a primary source for 1939 America because it shows us the stories people wanted to believe at that moment, especially white audiences who were living through Jim Crow, the tail end of the Depression, and the rising global anxiety. Its dreamy, sanitized Old South, its loyal enslaved characters, and its romantic framing of the Confederacy aren't reflections of the Civil War; they're reflections of how 1930s America was still clinging to the Lost Cause narratives as a comforting myth. +This works as a primary source for 1939 America because it shows us the stories people wanted to believe at that moment, especially white audiences who were living through Jim Crow, the tail end of the Depression, and the rising global anxiety. Its dreamy, sanitized Old South, its loyal enslaved characters, and its romantic framing of the Confederacy aren't reflections of the Civil War; they're reflections of how 1930s America was still clinging to the Lost Cause narratives as a comforting myth. -Alyssa G.  
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 +This movie showed just how wartimes can be brought to the screen. During the production of this film and when it was released it was just the beginning of WWII and people were starting to hear what was happening in Poland and Germany. While it was two different timeframes comparing a film about the Civil War and WWII it reflects the concept of wartime and the struggles that people can go through. -- Shelby-Marie Hawley
  
 ======The "So What" Question -- Why should we care about the movie and its version of history?====== ======The "So What" Question -- Why should we care about the movie and its version of history?======
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 I care about this movie because it's inspiring. Seeing young men and women making sacrifices for their families is hard. This film brought a lot of what I've learned in school to life. Now in our past films for this class I've seen brutality and death, but in Gone with the wind I got to see more of the afteraffects of war. The film displays the list of those lost in battle to the families. This was very eye opening because the families of the fallen had no closure for their loved ones, they had an idea of how they died but there was no actual remembrance of their bravery in battle unless they knew someone who survived. It was cruel to see how a single sheet of paper could make an entire crowd of people cry. In other films they at least have a fellow soldier or commander come to the houses of the fallen to let their families know of their death but not in this one. Another factor of why I care about this film was the abandonment of women and wives. In the film of course Melanie gives birth to her baby but it is with Scarlett with no experience because no doctor has the time to help. It was surreal to see how much many women had to stand up for themselves during the war compared to before it. -- Autumn M. I care about this movie because it's inspiring. Seeing young men and women making sacrifices for their families is hard. This film brought a lot of what I've learned in school to life. Now in our past films for this class I've seen brutality and death, but in Gone with the wind I got to see more of the afteraffects of war. The film displays the list of those lost in battle to the families. This was very eye opening because the families of the fallen had no closure for their loved ones, they had an idea of how they died but there was no actual remembrance of their bravery in battle unless they knew someone who survived. It was cruel to see how a single sheet of paper could make an entire crowd of people cry. In other films they at least have a fellow soldier or commander come to the houses of the fallen to let their families know of their death but not in this one. Another factor of why I care about this film was the abandonment of women and wives. In the film of course Melanie gives birth to her baby but it is with Scarlett with no experience because no doctor has the time to help. It was surreal to see how much many women had to stand up for themselves during the war compared to before it. -- Autumn M.
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 +The story I’d like to compare the most with Gone with the Wind is surprisingly Little Women. Both Gone with the Wind and Little Women are definitive film and literary masterpieces centered on the civilian experience immediately surrounding the American Civil War through a classic female “coming of age story” where girls learn to become women (strong women in this case). However, their differences are just as startling as that of their literary authors. Margaret Mitchell was born into a socially prominent, affluent Atlanta family growing with the stories from Confederate veterans and the generational memory of the “Old South” and the trauma of its fall. Lousia May Alcott (author of Little Women) was a born-again transcendentalist, abolitionist, feminist (shared in large part with Mitchell), and vegetarian raised in an impoverished but intellectual family and volunteering as a Union nurse. The important difference between Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind and Alcott’s Little Women is what's at the center of “Home.” “Home” to Gone with the Wind is land, the permanent soil of Tara, representing persistent endurance and survival and the ground of oneself in their traditional values and moral place in society. “Home” to Little Women however is family, serving a similar role as an anchor and emotional core which, in Little Women, sustains the March sisters through poverty, war, and personal loss with the ultimate lesson over generosity and selflessness over social status or vanity. Ultimately, this core lesson in Gone with the Wind, and thus its significance especially when compared with Little Women, reveals much about what the film views as the centerpiece moral value of the historical “Old South” (at least in the reflection of the “Lost Cause” myth) and its importance to movie-going audiences in 1939 going through the Great Depression. - Charles Salcedo
  
 This movie is still so present within the culture consciousness of this nation and adjusted for inflation, is still the highest grossing film of all time. This movie is often referred to in conjunction to other hallmarks like Birth of a Nation which are so blatant in their racism. This movie is probably the best representation of the Lost Cause myth and its an important artifact in understanding how some viewed and still view the history of the American Civil War and tried to twist it to fit into their narrative of white superiority. This movie left a massive mark on how many think about the American past, a scar that has taken so long only to partially undo. Many in this nation still believe in this idyllic south, and some want to take us back to that fake past. This movie is crucial in understanding that way of thinking. Along with this, Gone With the Wind produced and proliferated so many popular racist archetypes like the Mammy character that are still seen in films today and have even been plastered on products like maple syrup. – Nora M. This movie is still so present within the culture consciousness of this nation and adjusted for inflation, is still the highest grossing film of all time. This movie is often referred to in conjunction to other hallmarks like Birth of a Nation which are so blatant in their racism. This movie is probably the best representation of the Lost Cause myth and its an important artifact in understanding how some viewed and still view the history of the American Civil War and tried to twist it to fit into their narrative of white superiority. This movie left a massive mark on how many think about the American past, a scar that has taken so long only to partially undo. Many in this nation still believe in this idyllic south, and some want to take us back to that fake past. This movie is crucial in understanding that way of thinking. Along with this, Gone With the Wind produced and proliferated so many popular racist archetypes like the Mammy character that are still seen in films today and have even been plastered on products like maple syrup. – Nora M.
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 We should care about Gone With the Wind and its version of history because of its portrayal of the pre- and post-Civil War south (in a “lost cause”/ positive light) because this had/continues to have real life consequences for how audiences view slavery and the Confederacy. Because this is the highest grossing movie of all time (with inflation), its impact on American pop culture is significant. This means its overall stereotypical and revisionist portrayal of slavery and Black people was seen and believed by many (white) audiences. Hattie McDaniel’s Mammy is the stereotypical mammy caricature, and, although it should be celebrated that she was the first Black winner for an Oscar, she won it for portraying a harmful Black stereotype that continues to persist in the depiction of Black women. Even now, people still perpetuate the narrative that slaves had overall positive experiences working in White households and some still call for “the good old days” of the confederacy like Scarlett O’Hara calls for in the movie.  - Aaliyah A. We should care about Gone With the Wind and its version of history because of its portrayal of the pre- and post-Civil War south (in a “lost cause”/ positive light) because this had/continues to have real life consequences for how audiences view slavery and the Confederacy. Because this is the highest grossing movie of all time (with inflation), its impact on American pop culture is significant. This means its overall stereotypical and revisionist portrayal of slavery and Black people was seen and believed by many (white) audiences. Hattie McDaniel’s Mammy is the stereotypical mammy caricature, and, although it should be celebrated that she was the first Black winner for an Oscar, she won it for portraying a harmful Black stereotype that continues to persist in the depiction of Black women. Even now, people still perpetuate the narrative that slaves had overall positive experiences working in White households and some still call for “the good old days” of the confederacy like Scarlett O’Hara calls for in the movie.  - Aaliyah A.
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 +We should care about this movie because it shows how a single, wildly popular story can shape the way people remember history. Its dreamy, sanitized version of the Old South didn't just entertain audiences in 1939, it helped normalize a narrative that downplayed slavery and romanticized the Confederacy, and that myth stuck around for generations. -Alyssa G. 
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 +This film does an excellent job at romanticizing the antebellum South, presenting plantation life as a refined, stable society while glossing over the inherent brutality of slavery as an institution. It depicts enslaved individuals, such as Mammy, through the trope of the loyal, devoted, yet stubborn servant, which sanitizes the power dynamics of the era and minimizes the reality of forced labor both indoor and outdoor. By focusing on the perspectives of the elite class, the film prioritizes the perceived elegance of Southern culture and frames it from a nostalgic perspective, almost like reminiscing on a life of luxury that they once had. We should care about this film because of its perspective on the past. It’s problematic at best, and it’s okay to recognize that fact, and place this film within the broader context of history. It’s a time capsule of how 20th century United States, in the midst of a depression, chose to remember, mythologize, and reconcile with the outcome of the Civil War. It shows us the longstanding attitudes of the Southern loss (and loss of its economic structures) carried into the 1930s. - Izabella M
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