And so, here we are.
Another pivotal moment in the story. Another rescue.
A few weeks ago, I introduced a theory to my sister and a few other interested parties with backgrounds in American literature. My theory is that Gone With the Wind is a story of three rescues.
Rescue 1: Rhett Butler rescues the girls from the Fall of Atlanta.
Rescue 2: Rhett Butler rescues Atlanta high-society after the failed KKK raid here in chapter 45.
Rescue 3: (SPOILER) Melly rescues Rhett after Bonnie dies.
(I know a lot of GWTW novel fans have quibbles with the motion picture, and I find many parts of the movie problematic. But I also believe that each of these three rescues are rendered almost perfectly on screen. There's a reason why these are three of the most famous movie scenes in history, and that reason is because they are so very, very tense. Largely because these are the scenes that were most faithful to the novel. And also because these are scenes that actually let the actors act. I love Clark Gable, but I don't always love his acting, especially in his later, post-war films. But he had moments of absolute brilliance, particularly in the late 30's and in The Misfits, moments when you can feel his charisma emanating from the screen. He's not in the same league with Vivian Leigh, Olivia DeHavilland or Hattie McDaniel in GWTW, but he's always vibrant and always interesting and always so gosh darn good looking. But there are times in GWTW when he absolutely kills it and actually becomes Rhett Butler, and this botched KKK raid is one of those moments.)
So here we are. The last chapter left us up to our elbows in the nasty world of Reconstruction-era Georgia, with Our Girl being attacked by vagrants moments after she implicitly agreed that working convicts to death was A-Okay. But now we're up to our necks in the foulest part of the world, because we quickly learn that Frank and Ashley and all the other men we know (i.e. the "safe" men) are avenging the attack by "cleaning out" the shantytown. And this is gross on so many levels. I don't know what we're supposed to think "cleaning out" means, and I don't know what MM thinks it means, but my takeaway is that this is organized KKK violence. Which is to say, terrorism and attempted eradication of undesirables. I'm not making light of Scarlett's fear, but c'mon guys. Really? Big Sam saved Scarlett from...actually we're not at all certain about what's going to happen. But he does save her from something bad. Which means nothing bad happens to Scarlett.
So why are they going to burn down the shantytown again? Scarlett and her upper-class friends think the shanty is filled with nothing but prostitutes and violent drunks, but what do they know about it? Nothing except what they've gathered from the rumor mill. And yet they think this is the right thing to do? Oh boy. They're really in the sh#t now, aren't they? But then again, given their moral codes and the culture of fear that has understandably permeated every moment of their lives, what else could they have reasonably been expected to have done? Ashley and Melly are the closest thing to liberal pacifists in Scarlett's social circle, and even they are out for blood now. As a matter of fact Ashley is leading the raid. Because he's brave but oh so foolish.
Scarlett couldn't help being obsessed with money which meant that Scarlett couldn't help riding past shantytown and leasing convicts which meant that Scarlett the impulsive and greedy citizens of shantytown couldn't help but attack her when she drove by in her buggy which meant that Big Sam couldn't help but help which meant that Frank Kennedy couldn't help getting mad and declaring that enough was enough which meant that Ashley couldn't help agreeing with him which meant that the men had no choice but to charge over to shantytown and show them who is boss.
Haven't these guys ever heard of punching-up? Haven't they ever heard that people who live nice lives in mansions shouldn't take out their frustration on the folks in shantytown? Haven't they ever heard that...actually, I don't know why I'm asking this question. The Confederate-era south was a close-knit echo chamber, and anybody who didn't share their ideas about the world was shunned as an outsider, a Negro (ahem) lover, or a Yankee. They're getting riled up and there's no moderating force around to tell them that their rage is misplaced and misdirected. Nobody around except Rhett and lord knows they'd never consider listening to somebody like him.
So the boys are off at a KKK rally and the girls are stuck at home, reading Les Miz. But of course Scarlett is the very last to realize what's going on, because Scarlett lacks the impersonal view and never really considers the repercussions of her actions. Scarlett is intelligent and driven, but she has such a low degree of emotional intelligence she doesn't even realize Frank and Ashley are in the Klan, let alone that they are going out there to avenge the attack. She really does think the boys are at a political meeting. Which they kind of are since war is politics by other means, and this is war.
Anyway, this is one of those times when the movie strongly parts from the book. The book makes it clear that this is all about the KKK, but the movie puts the emphasis elsewhere, chiefly by having Mammy sub in for Archie during this all-important scene. Archie isn't even in the movie at all of course, which is a shame because he's such a rich and interesting character. But he's also a bitter racist, and by the time GWTW got to Hollywood in 1938/1939 the California folks smartly side-stepped all the nasty, icky KKK stuff and made it look like Frank and Ashley are...well, it's pretty clear they're up to something but let's just say you would never know there were white robes involved. Besides, if Mammy is playing such a pivotal role in the action, surely this can't be a Klan rally. Right?
I'll get to all of that in a later blog post. A much later blog post. So for now let's return to Scarlett and her taut nerves and the slow, slow way in which our heroine finally figures out what in the hell is going on in front of her. At first she's annoyed with Frank for leaving her at Melly's house on a night when she's already scared out of her wits. Next she's totally cheesed off at the other women around the table for not allowing Scarlett to wallow in her fear and tell them what happened to her out in shantytown. But then she slowly realizes that everybody in the room is weirdly tense, a situation that Aunt Pitty (of all people!) describes perfectly when she says that "[Melly] and India are as jumpy and cross as two old sticks." MM is so good at those little folk descriptions, ya'll!
Scarlett realizes that Archie and India are both mad at her. But that's no big deal because Archie and India both hate Scarlett like poison. Then she finally sees that Melly is also tense, and she begins to realize that "something was afoot," although it takes her forever to realize what's going on. Now, why on earth did the men think it was a totally fine idea to tell Melly what's going on, but everybody conspires to hide the truth from Scarlett? Or maybe Melly guessed at what's about to happen and only Scarlett is too thick to figure it all out. Or not thick exactly, since there's no indication that Scarlett is stupid. But she is self-absorbed, so that prevents her from realizing that people have entire lives that exist even outside of her presence. Scarlett and India get into it like a few sorority sisters arguing bitterly about who hates whom and why, but their feud is interrupted when Rhett comes racing up the stairs. In a cape!
Why is he doing this?
I don't...I mean, okay. If we accept the notion that he's in love with Scarlett (I don't think there's any debate about it, but there is some confusion about what love means to him at this point in the novel), then why in the world is he racing off to help Frank and Ashley? He should totally want to see those guys killed, right? Wouldn't his life be so much easier if the two of them were in jail? If Frank were in jail he and Scarlett would finally be free to..do whatever it is he thinks she'll agree to do with him. Which probably isn't much, come to think of it, but still.
So do you think he's stepping in to help the boys because of his loyalty to Melly? I think that's probably closer to the truth, although I don't think this is quite on the nose either. You know what I think? I think Rhett is motivated here by the same impetus that drove him into the Confederate Army at the end of the war. Which is to say, it's a little bit gallantry, a little bit loyalty, a little bit love, a little bit humiliation, and a whole lot of crazy. Even Rhett himself admitted that he'd lost his mind when he left Scarlett by the side of the road on the way to Tara back in 1864, and I think there's something totally nuts in everything he does on this night to save the boys. Plus, Rhett's face is blank in this section. As a matter of fact, Scarlett/MM take time to tell us that "she had never seen a blanker, more expressionless face than Rhett's," and we all know that the more emotionless RKB pretends to be the more he has going on underneath the surface.
Mmmm hmmm.
After Rhett leaves Archie breaks the whole situation down for Scarlett and the reader. There are three possible options for the boys at this point, and not one of them is a good look.
1.) Rhett was telling the truth and the boys have walked into a trap. The Yankees are waiting for them out by the old Sullivan Plantation, and they're all going to die because of Scarlett.
2.) Rhett was lying, and he's a spy. Which means that this is a huge trap, one big enough to capture the boys, the girls, and almost everybody in polite southern society.
3.) Rhett was telling the truth, and he's not a spy. This scenario would spare the boys lives, but they'll have to live forever on the run in Texas.
Things come to a head not too long after Rhett leaves because the Yankees come up, threatening to search the house, which they can totally do since Georgia is no longer a state and these ladies are no longer United States Citizens which means they don't have the same rights most of us currently enjoy. The Union Army can search any rebel houses they want, I guess. Although what in the hell they expect to find on the premises is a mystery to me. When I went to law school all the cases we read about illegal searches were about guns or drugs, and I think the boys took their guns and Klan sheets with them, and I seriously doubt Ashley was a cocaine kingpin. I wouldn't put drug dealing past Rhett, of course, but that's an issue for another day.
The Yankees surround the house at this point, and things get super tense while we wait to see what's going to happen. And then there's a breakthrough just like in the movie, a moment when we hear Rhett and the boys singing loudly and pretending to be drunk and all that. The movie does a pretty good job of covering what happens, and I don't think a blow-by-blow recap is necessary here since we all know how it plays out. You know what though? I love MM but can I call BS on two things that happen here?
1.) How in the world did Ashley escape all of this with nothing more than a flesh-wound on a part of his body that won't normally be seen by the outside world? Which is to say, why is it that whenever anyone gets shot in a novel and lives, the wound never changes their lives? It changes them internally sometimes, but how many works of fiction have you read where somebody gets shot, but the bullet miraculously doesn't shoot off their face or their arm or harm anything important? Would it have been so terrible for Ashley to have lost an arm here? There were millions of amputees after the Civil War, he probably should have been one of them.
2.) So what are the odds that Frank would be the one to get killed? I realize we're supposed to conclude that Frank and Ashley bore the brunt of this situation because they are Scarlett's closest male relatives, but..come on. Because if this actually was a trap, then it was likely an ambush. Which means the men were surrounded, which means there would have been bullets fired from at least two ends, which means...you know what? Never mind, ya'll. Frank Kennedy had to leave the story, and I applaud MM for having the stones to take him out in such a fashion. The other alternative would have been for Frank to catch a disease and die or something, which probably would have happened in the normal course of things but that wouldn't have been anywhere near as interesting.
Besides, if MM believes anything, I think it's clear that she believes fictional characters should die the way they lived. They should leave the world because of the same character traits they've demonstrated on many prior occasions. So Charles Hamilton dies a pitiful death because he was pitiful. Ellen dies from disease after nursing the diseased. Gerald dies because he's impulsive and courageous. The boys who died in the war died on the battlefield because their defining characteristic was loyalty and bravery. And Frank dies the way he lives: frustratedly, imperfectly, and more than a little stupidly. Ashley hasn't lived that way, so he can't die that way, but Frank can. And he does.
No comments:
Post a Comment