bookreport飘.doc

Bookreport

英语学院

07级7班
20号

张同

Book report---Gone With the Wind

(Oringion of the name—a poem)
Cynara
Last night,ah,yesternight,betwixt her lips and mine there fell thy shadow,Cynara!
Thy breath was shed upon my soul between the kisses and the wines;
And I was desolate and sick of and old passion,
Yea,I was desolate and bowed my head:I have been faithful to thee,Cynara!In my fashion.
All night upon mine heart I felt her warm heart beat,night-long within mine arms in love
and sleep she lay;Surely the kisses of her bought red mouth were sweet;
But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,When I awoke and found the dawn was gray:
I have been faithful to thee,Cynara!In my fashion.I have forgot much,Cynara!Gone with the wind,
Flung roses,roses riotously with the throng,Dancing to put thy pale,lost lilies out of mind;
But I was desolate and sick'of an old passion,
Yea,all the time,because the dance was long:I have been faithful to thee,Cynara!In my fashion.
I cried for madder music and for stronger wine,But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire,
Then falls thy shadow,Cynara!The night is thine;And I am desolate,and sick of an old passion:
Yea,hungry for the lips of my desire:I have been faithful to thee,Cynara!In my fashion.

This book is my favorite one.The name of “gone with the wind”came from the beautiful poem above.In a sommur of my middle scool,I was completely caught by the world in “Gone with the wind”.I have learned more from the book than from the textbook in school.Scarlett ,as the very independent woman,has taught me what is the humanilty and what we should purshue in our life.It effects my life in the way of reviewing humanlity and the world.
1. background
Published in 1936, Gone with the Wind became an immediate best-seller, bringing first-time novelist Margaret Mitchell an overwhelming amount of critical and popular attention. Awarded the 1937 Pulitzer Prize, the novel was adapted as a film in 1939—an achievement that won ten Academy Awards. A historical romance set in northern Georgia during the drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction years, Gone with the Wind traces the life of Scarlett O'Hara and her relationships with Rhett Butler, and Ashley and Melanie Wilkes. The novel addresses such themes as survival, romantic love, and the societal structuring of gender and class.
2. the content of the book
The novel is set in North Georgia at the time of the American Civil War, from 1861 to 1865 and beyond when the Southern plantation owners fought the northern Yankees for the right to own slaves. They lost the war, suffered innumerable losses of life in the process, and the romantic plantation life depicted in the early chapters of the novel is utterly destroyed. During this period the characters in the novel undergo the transition from a carefree playful life of picnics and parties (underlain by the hard graft of their slaves) to one of hand-to-mouth living and hard physical labour, and finally, back to prosperity.
There are four main characters in the novel, all introduced very early on of whom. Scarlett O’Hara is a spoilt society beauty with “bristling black eyelashes”( I love this description) which she uses to charm men. She lives with her sisters and parents on their plantation estate with dozens of slaves, including Mammy, their black housekeeper who is regarded (as much as was possible at that time) part of the family and plays an important role in Scarlett’s life. The storyline centres around Scarlett’s life at the time of the civil war and the other characters which interact with her.
Rhett Butler is a dashing renegade, the man who is rumoured to have ruined a woman. He is described as having “absurdly tiny feet” which Scarlett admires – an interestingly dated concept - certainly I don’t look for my men to have small feet…!
Melanie Hamilton is a fellow society girl, generous, well respected and sensible. Scarlett despises her for being wishy washy and pathetically feminine.
Ashley Wilkes is the good guy, respected throughout the neighbourhood, the Luke Skywalker to Rhett’s Han Solo. He’s the object of Scarlett’s affections, yet engaged to be married to Melanie. When Scarlett discovers this fact she throws a vase across a library, nearly decapitating Rhett in the process.
The book starts with the heroine of the piece, 17 year old Miss Scarlett O’Hara flirting to the best of her capacity with the handsome Tarleton twins on the porch of Tara, her plantation house home, and berating the seriousness of the impending war because it ruins her capacity to have fun, attend parties and have beaux. I mention this first page because it encapsulates the very nature of the entire novel. Scarlett O’Hara is a spoilt, selfish beauty with enormous power to manipulate men and a desire for the good things in life. Knowing this, you can see why she makes some of her seemingly ridiculous choices throughout the novel.
Throughout the novel Scarlett makes some appalling decisions, such as marrying the shy, nervous Charles Hamilton for spite because Ashley dared to marry Melanie. She quickly finds that married life isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, and that she can no-longer flirt to her heart’s content. Matters are made even worse when Charles dies while at war, and Scarlett is doomed to years of widowhood, wearing black and no dancing. Worse than this even, she is pregnant with her first child, a fact she despises. However, Scarlett is not one to be held down for long and she quickly rebels against the constraints the society imposes by both dancing and wearing brightly coloured clothing while still in mourning.
Later on when the guns of war come close around Scarlett and her comrades she shows surprising resilience and strength, delivering Melanie’s baby single-handed amid the sacking of Atlanta, and taking on the responsibility of managing Tara. She proves to be a sound and resourceful businesswoman, who can make difficult decisions when they are needed.
You can’t help but like Scarlett. She’s hopelessly selfish, vain, manipulative, deluded and foolish, but she’s also an extremely vivacious, loyal and strong character who can be relied upon to say and do just exactly what she thinks, regardless of the impact on other people. Again and again through the novel you find yourself thinking “no! don’t do that” but you know she’s going to do it anyway. Rhett Butler is the perfect foil to her exuberance and wilfulness, and though immensely frustrating to Scarlett, proves to be the only man who can help her at certain points through the novel.
The book is very dramatic, and very much of the era, though written 60 years after the events it describes. For example, racism and snobbery is blatant and frustrating to a modern reader, but this just serves to evoke the period more accurately. The strictures imposed on the life which Scarlett and her companions live in is a key feature of the novel, and the gathering rebellion against these constraints a parallel with the emancipation of the slaves
3. Scarlett
Of course,Scarlett is my favorite figure in the book.The figure is so alive as a real woman.Scarlett is not beautiful, as indicated by Margaret Mitchell's opening line, however she is a coquettish Southern belle who grows up on the Georgia plantation of Tara in the years before the American Civil War. Selfish, shrewd and vain, Scarlett inherits the strong will of her Irish father Gerald, but also desires to please her well-bred, genteel French American mother Ellen, from a good Savannah family.Of course ,Scarlett has lots of defects---she is selfish and capricious .But in my eyes, she is a real ,brave ,strong-willingly,warm and optimistic woman who loves life and tries to struggle with lifeShe can say her love warmly to the man she loves.She can take the burdern of her whole family by herself after the abrupt change of her life.She helped Melanie Hamilton give birth to baby bravely even though she knowed nothing about birth-giving.She could protect her family and shot a man when the man break into their house….All these shows that Scarlett ia a woman who are brave and loves life.I have learned the attitude towards life is the most imoportant when we face life.
4. conclusion
In conclusion, “gone with the wind” has taught me that every person has his or her own life and personality and cannot be perfect.What we should do is to love our life and struggle against the difficulties.