Gone with the Wind simultaneously demonstrates the ways that women can be caught in the crossfire of war, just as Scarlett and Melanie are caught between the retreating Confederate Army and the victorious Union soldiers of General Sherman as the two women flee from Atlanta to Scarlett's home, Tara. On the home front, Mitchell's female characters face tremendous sacrifices and challenges in supporting the troops and surviving without male protection: they share food and medicine, donate jewelry and other valuables, nurse the wounded, and perform hard labor on plantations and farms.
Like many wartime epics written before and after, Gone with the Wind follows the literary tradition of the Bildungsroman, a novel in which the main character is initiated into maturity. Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley, and Melanie—along with many minor characters—find ways to cope with these challenges and grow in self-understanding, self-reliance, and compassion as the Civil War progresses and the South begins to rebuild. However, the characters' maturation and growth is not all that drives this story; it also follows the development of a nation.
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