"Gone With the Wind": Scarlett O'Hara. The New Southern Woman

The Civil War era comprised an ethos when Southern women of upper social classes were expected to conform to rigidly defined social boundaries or face obstacles as lower classes of society. Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, follows the story of the main character Scarlett O'Hara, a prototypical Southern woman of her day, who grapples with the loss of the old Southern traditions and must forge a new path for herself and her family. This thesis investigates Mitchell's novel, which accurately chronicles Scarlett's coming of age. While employing criticism regarding this admittedly often sentimental and melodramatic novel and the sudden-celebrity author, this analysis demonstrates that Scarlett depicted the new Southern Woman rising to define a diversity of roles.