As one of American literature's classic love story, Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" is the story of the spoiled Southern belle, Scarlett O'Hara and her bittersweet relationship with the enticing Rhett Butler during the tumultuous American Civil War. It is an epic tale of Scarlett's maturity from living as a rich, spoiled, ungrateful Southern belle, to a poor, desperate, money-crazed widow. While Scarlett is struggling through these difficult times, Rhett is there to sweep her into his arms. Although the novel was written nearly half a century ago, it still remains one of the most popular books worldwide. The themes within the book, love, feminism, courage, loyalty, can still be related to 21st century America. The fight for equality, real Christian piety, growing up are all things addressed in the novel that we can still see prevalence to now. The book is certainly a reading challenge--with over 1000 pages in the unabridged version--if you're not up to the challenge, I suggest the abridged version. Regardless of length, Mitchell succeeds in absolutely everything she writes in the novel--from development of characters to adding adequate amounts and divisions of laughs and tears. Mitchell develops the main characters, Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, (Etc.) so well that by the end of the novel, what happens to them, seems also to be happening to the reader. You feel for the characters and feel as if you have known them forever. Mitchell's use of language (diction) is also outstanding and helps develop the over plot and story. She describes absolutely everything--from the setting to what each character is wearing, so that it seems you are standing in the scene with them, watching. When Scarlett sees Rhett Butler for the first time, Mitchell describes Scarlett's thoughts about him: " "He looked quite old, at least thirty-five. He was a tall man and powerfully built. Scarlett thought she had never seen a man with such wide shoulders, so heavy with muscles, almost too heavy for gentility. When her eyes caught his, he smiled, showing animal-white teeth below a close-clipped black mustache. He was dark of face, swarthy as a pirate, and eyes were as bold and black as any pirate's appraising a galleon to be scuttled or a maiden to be ravished. There was a cool recklessness in his face and a cynical human in his mouth as he smiled at her, and Scarlett caught her breath" (98). Even this small description, the reader gets an instant image of Rhett in their mind. Bravo throughout the novel. It's no wonder that "Gone with the Wind" even received a Pulitzer Prize, and was even made into a movie! All that recognition's got to count for something.
EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE
It's evident that Foer made a valiant attempt in his novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. However, his effort doesn't seem to reflect on paper. The story, about a young boy named Oskar Schell, who loses his father on September 11th, find a key in an envelope with the word, Black, on it, who then goes off on a quest to find the owner of the key, is obviously a story that Foer developed out of thin air after failing to find better ideas. The plot is extremely difficult to follow and incredibly frusterating to read. With random spontaeneous side stories about Oskar's grandparents and other people that he encounters, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the perfect picture of confusion and disorganization. Foer tries to make the novel more entertaining and tries to be creative by placing different pictures, colors, and visuals throughout the book. They don't help develop niether the plot nor the characters in any shape or form. Perhaps they're just filler. Oskar describes what he sees at Central Park near the middle of the book, "There was a fat woman with a fat kid, and a Japanese guy with two cameras, and a girl with crutches whose cast was signed by lots of people" (247). Just the randomity of the descriptions and the way various characters emerge is very complex and overall, pointless. Really, in reality, a nine year old young boy would never roam the streets of New York all on his own in order to find the owner of a key that he randomly found in a jar. Humor is forced, sympathy begged for, and overall, extremely boring and incredibly unenjoyable.
~H
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