“Gone With The Wind” exam review

2. “Gone With The Wind” exam review • 25 multiple choice questions about plot and the film itself. • Know the film’s general background: year of release, actors, etc. • 25 matching that describe the characters or require you to identify key passages of dialogue by characters. • Know the characters well; how they know or are related to each other; where they are from

3. “Gone With The Wind” exam review • 12 points worth of short answers that primarily address the supplementary articles we read. • Read the review articles: have a sense of the film’s place in history and reaction to it, then and now. • Review “Why We’re Still Fighting the Civil War”: what are the two sides of the argument as to the war’s cause? What role has slavery played in our history? What was Lincoln’s view of or plan for the South after the war?

4. Gone With The WindEssay Questions • Three short essay questions: Everybody does the first one; then choose two more. Do only three. • Be able to use details to support your answers. Study your viewing guides and PowerPoint notes, especially regarding race portrayals and gender (feminist lens). • Be especially familiar with Rhett’s and Scarlett’s personality traits.

5. Gone With The WindSample Essay Question • Consider this statement: The characters in “Gone With The Wind” are most successful when they depend on no one but themselves. Agree or disagree with this by demonstrating your view through the main characters.

6. Sample essay answer • The statement that characters in “Gone With The Wind” are most successful when they depend on no one but themselves is true. The characters who most illustrate this point are Scarlett, Melanie, Rhett, and Ashley. • Although she uses men as means to an end, including her strategic (if loveless) marriages to Charles Hamilton and Frank Kennedy, Scarlett refuses to listen to other people’s opinions and builds a successful business (the mill) relying on her own judgment and skills. By the time she marries Rhett, she is no longer financially dependent on men. She only wants more, driven by the horrors of poverty she experienced during the war and her pledge to “never go hungry again.”

7. Sample essay answer • Like Scarlett, Melanie similarly refuses to allow the opinions of others to influence her. Even in the face of (false) gossip that Scarlett and Ashley are involved in a physical affair with each other, her judgment of them as a loving husband and dear friend, respectively, never wavers. While some may call her judgments foolish (especially in her somewhat blind allegiance to Scarlett), by sticking to her convictions she dies having lived a happier life than anyone she leaves behind.

8. Sample essay answer • As for the men, Rhett, rejected by his family in Charleston, builds a fortune through his own confidence and abilities. He has allegiance to no one. His downfall occurs when he becomes entangled with Scarlett. His need for Scarlett’s affection eventually drains him of his strength, which he doesn’t fully regain until he heads out on his own again, saying he seeks “peace” in his life. • Conversely, after the war, Ashley depends on Melanie and Scarlett’s strength to the point where he fades badly and is almost dysfunctional by the time Melanie dies. He is the weakest of the main characters. His feeble attempt to leave Atlanta for New York to start a new life and career after the war is quickly squelched by the two women who dominate his life. It’s tempting to say that Ashley would have been better off (in the context of independence) out from under their influence, but the reality is he may not have been able to survive without them.