Is hominy the same thing as regular grits? Anybody know? Weirdly enough, I had grits for breakfast this morning (instant and delicious!), but somehow I doubt MM is describing the bacon-flavored, (over) processed packet of calorie-laden goodness I digested along with my regular daily ration of turkey bacon and CBS News at 7AM, but I could be wrong. Wikipedia seems to think that the difference lies in treatment of the corn meal, but I don't know. Anyway, I tend to think of myself as a yankee most of the time, but most true Yankees I've met in life (New Englanders and people who went to private liberal arts colleges in small towns because they liked the "setting") are scared to death of grits and cornbread. So maybe I'm not such a dyed-in-the-wool Yankee after all.
Okay, that's enough about grits and breakfast food. Although if you have any good recipes for red eye gravy please pass them along in the comments section. I've been reading about red eye gravy for my whole life, but I've never tasted it!
Now that the situation is no longer hot and Melanie has had her baby, Scarlett can relax a little bit. And because she's Scarlett "relaxation" basically just means "it's time to be mean to Melly." Scarlett keeps most of her frustration with Melly locked inside and almost everybody misunderstands her relationships to Ashley's wife, but the reader knows the truth. Scarlett hates Melly and can barely tolerate her sister-in-law most of the time, but fate and circumstances keep bringing them together and isn't that always the way? The co-worker you hate the most will always be assigned to your projects, you'll run into your arch enemy every day on the train platform, the guy who dumped you will always pop up as a possible friend connection on your social network. That's life, and while it's kind of funny that Scarlett can never get away from Melanie I don't think the coincidences that keep bringing them together are all that contrived, really.
Anyway, Scarlett knows she should go back upstairs to help Melly and look after her, "but the idea of returning to that room where she had spent so any nightmare hours was repulsive to her." So she stays downstairs instead, finishing her grits and cornbread, regaining her strength, and waiting for Prissy and Rhett to emerge from the darkness. And then--
There's a roar and Scarlett sees a fire somewhere and "her brain swirled with confusion and panic so overpowering she clung to the window sill for support." And that's a wonderful sentence, a real gem that I haven't really appreciated until just now. MM has been throwing new experiences at Scarlett for a long while now, and at this moment Scarlett's senses become over-whelemed and over-stimulated. But instead of merely stopping at the "swirl" and "confusion and panic" MM has Scarlett physically explode in a way that mirrors the explosion in the center of town. The poor girl is so overcome and exhausted by the day's events and surprised by the roar that she almost falls out the window!
And then Prissy finally returns.
Scarlett assumes that the Yankees are burning the town, but Prissy exposits that the explosions are actually the result of the CSA burning ammo as they retreat out of town. MM is masterful here because Scarlett's disinterest in the events of the broader war or military strategy have kept all the actions of the grays and blues almost totally away from the focus of the novel. Therefore, the reader assumes the same things that Scarlett assumes, and we are just as surprised as Scarlett to learn that the inferno was caused by the confederates. Of course, most people living in Atlanta in the 1930's were probably very familiar with the history of the Battle of Atlanta and Sherman's March to the Sea, but I certainly wasn't too intimate with the details the first time I read GWTW. I'm a Civil War buff, but I certainly assumed that Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground as soon as he took control of the city. But I was wrong. And so is Scarlett.
Anyway, Prissy finds Rhett "in a bahroom" on Decatur street, one of the bars that Scarlett probably passed earlier on her way back from the hospital no doubt.
Hang on a second, though. I get that Rhett is a non-combatant, but how in the hell is he able to just hang around drinking shots at a bar when the town is in the process of being invaded? He's explained a little earlier in the book that he's staying in Atlanta because he wants to experience a siege and won't be harmed because he's not in the military, but why is he so sure about his safety? Rhett might not have considered himself a threat to the North, but that doesn't necessarily mean the North doesn't consider him a threat to them, does it? Bottom line, Rhett Butler is an able-bodied southern man between the ages of 16 and 60, and the Billy Sherman I've read about would have locked him away almost instantly.
But anyway, although Prissy's recollection of her conversation with Rhett is basically one long, hilarious excited utterance, she does a great job of painting a picture of the scene as it unfolded. And the most striking image that emerges is that Rhett Butler thinks everything Prissy tells him is hi-la-ri-ous. He laughs when he tells Prissy the army took his horse and carriage, and he laughs when he tells Prissy to run home, after he explains that he will steal a horse for Scarlett because he's got lots of experience doing it, apparently ("Ah done stole hawses befo' dis night," Prissy relates).
After I finished GWTW the first time I decided that laughter was Rhett's "tell." He's normally pretty good at keeping his face frozen and keeping his emotions hidden, but he laughs during the strangest times, and I initially assumed this was MM's way of showing us how emotionally affected he actually was deep down in his soul. But now that I'm a little older, I'm not really so sure.
Maybe he really does think all of this is funny? Maybe he's not really jeering or being sarcastic or cynical. Maybe he really does think all of this is amusing. And it kind of is, come to think of it. The fall of the south is heartbreaking for many of the characters, but Rhett is the ultimate realist so perhaps he's giggling with delight at the demise of his homeland.
Or maybe he's got some sort of inappropriate laughter mania syndrome?
Anyway, Rhett eventually pulls up in a "small wagon." And:
He came into view and the light of the lamp showed him plainly."
- His clothing: "debonair as if he were going to a ball." Like, why in the world is he wearing a white suit at a time like this? It's not even summer, Rhett! It's hot and we get that, but the fashion police should arrest him for his crimes! But then again, the fashion police probably retreated along with the army...
- His hat: a "wide Panama hat was set dashingly on one side of his head..."
- His weapons: "in the belt of his trousers were thrust two ivory-handled, long-barreled dueling pistols." And "the pockets of his coat sagged heavily with ammunition."
All of which...I mean, what the hell was he planning? I get that Southern men like to be armed at all times (2nd amendment and everything), but if the Yankees are absolutely nothing to worry about and this is all so hilarious, why in the hell did he roll over to Scarlett's house armed to the teeth like that? The easy explanation is that Rhett was planning on protecting Scarlett and the gang from the looters and not Yankees, but--maybe we're supposed to think he was already planning on joining the CSA by the time he arrives at Aunt Pitty's house? He's not exactly dressed for a military enlistment, but perhaps the idea was already at the back of his mind at this point?
Anyway, Rhett is totally excited by everything that's happening. As a matter of fact, "there was a carefully restrained ferocity in his dark face, a ruthlessness which would have frightened [Scarlett] had she the wits to see it."
Rhett jokes around with Scarlett and tells her he made the trip out there just to see where she was planning on going, but the reader knows he's lying--even if Scarlett is too frantic to see through his words. He went through a lot of trouble to steal a horse, and he's grabbed two pistols and stuffed his pockets full of ammunition, so I don't really buy his explanation of coming out there on a curiosity jaunt.
Scarlett wants to go home, but Rhett ain't having it. He's all: "You can't go to Tara. Even if you got there, you'd probably find it burned down. I won't let you go home. It's insanity." And Scarlett is all: "I will go home! I'll kill you if you try and stop me!"
They did a great job with this scene in the movie, I think. VL does a great job of being hysterical, and CG does a wonderful job of being amused and comforting. No kidding, the Planet Hollywood restaurant on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta used to have one of the white suits CG used during the filming of the burning of Atlanta scenes right in the front foyer of the restaurant. I used to go in there and eat terrible chocolate cake for like $12 per slice, just so I could stare at Rhett Butler's clothes. I hated the food, but a week's worth of allowance seemed like a small price to pay for the experience.
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