Gone With The Wind, Part 2
I actually read the 9 chapters in part 2 faster than part 1 and this post has been sitting as a draft for a week! But first, thanks again to mbak Fanda at Fanda Classiclit blog for hosting this read along. I’ve enjoyed reading the update posts of other participants and I’m guessing this read along will not be the last on my reading life.
So.
I’m wondering why I can’t come up with anything to write for this part. Well, there is a thing or two but those seem to be things that are trivial, not part of the serious problem in the story i.e. the war. And the longer I delay finishing this post, the more I forget about those things.
I re-read my last update post and it sounds so cheerful (or maybe it’s just in my head). To me, part 1 was like one bright day when everything was fine and dandy and part 2 was a cloudy day. And perhaps that’s why, why I couldn’t bring myself to finish this post, keep writing, changing, and deleting what I’ve been writing.
I notice some people don’t like to talk about bad things or serious topic, they change the course of conversation, they embrace happier stuffs, tell embarrassing stories about themselves just for fun, pick any other stories as long as it’s not sad, bad stories or the elephant in the room. I guess I’m like that too?
Or! Or maybe I am a bit like Scarlett, having no interest in the war. Such important event that affects many people, it’s natural to want to tell our heroine (and myself too) to stop being so self-absorbed. I did want to slap Scarlett once but that’s because I couldn’t find Wade, Scarlett’s son, in pages except one time when the readers were told that the shy child was fond of Rhett Butler.
So, The War.
Talk always turned to war now, all conversations on any topic led from war or back to war — sometimes sad, often gay, but always war. War romances, war weddings, deaths in hospitals and on the field, incidents of camp and battle and march, gallantry, cowardice, humor, sadness, deprivation and hope.
The word ‘hope’ somehow crafted in my mind and I traced back along part 2 for usages of this word.
Hope was rolling high in every Southern heart as the summer of 1863 came in. Despite privation and hardships, despite food speculators and kindred scourges, despite death and sickness and suffering which had now left their mark on nearly every family, the South was again saying “One more victory and the war is over”.
In part 1, the Southern men were excited and they want to have the war as soon as possible. The war did break and the unavoidable cost of war was not above the excitement over the thought of licking the Yankees in no time. They hope for celebration which in their mind were a fact waiting to happen.
But even this loss on top of the others, the South’s spirit was not broken. True, grim determination had taken the place of high-hearted hopes, but people could still find a silver lining in the cloud.
Victories and victories and then losses and losses. It’s clear now that an easy win was not going to happen but the hope was not fully forsaken. There was still a chance to win the war. But years went by and the war did not come to an end. The list of casualties got longer, grieves, short of food and medical supplies, people grew tired but they could not put war out of their mind.
Talk always turned to war. War romances, war weddings, deaths in hospitals and on the field, incidents of camp and battle and march, gallantry, cowardice, humor, sadness, deprivation and hope.
Always, always hope. Hope firm, unshaken despite the defeats of the summer before.
At this point I think they hoped because they needed something to hold on to, something that could keep them going day by day. It’s such an awful feeling to live in uncertainties and that makes the end of part 2 so blue.
Letter From Ashley
Oh, I’m wrong. I want to slap Scarlett twice. How dare she opened a letter from a husband to his wife! And the satisfaction she got when she found out that the letter lacked of romantic tone, tsk. I disagree with her on that matter. I think it’s sweet that Ashley opened up to Melanie and told her his honest thought. I think that was more romantic than a letter full of amorous praises. Oh well, what does this inexperienced girl know…
Next On Part 3
Can we read the end of the war, please?