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1-Page Summary of Gone With the Wind

It’s the spring of 1861. Scarlett O’Hara, a pretty Southern belle from Georgia, lives on Tara, a large plantation. She wants to marry Ashley Wilkes but is rejected because he has chosen Melanie Hamilton as his bride. When she hears about it at a barbecue with her friends and family, she confronts him and slaps him in public for rejecting her advances. He leaves the room and Rhett Butler enters just after that scene happens. He compliments Scarlett on being unladylike when she reacts so strongly to rejection by Ashley Wilkes.

The Civil War begins. Charles Hamilton, Melanie’s timid brother, proposes to Scarlett. She spitefully agrees to marry him because she wants to hurt Ashley. Over the course of two months, Scarlett and Charles marry and he dies from measles. She is pregnant with his child and learns that she is also bored and unhappy in her marriage. So she makes a trip back home where Rhett Butler infuriates her by being so blunt but encourages her to flout social restrictions for widows in mourning after her husband has died in war (or something). As the war progresses food becomes scarce in Atlanta as well as clothing due to lack of trade with other countries due to the civil wars going on around them which affects everyone including those who live outside it like Melanie who lives inside Atlanta at her house which was once owned by an old lady named Pittypat before it was taken over by Melanie’s family after they moved into town from somewhere else nearby rural Georgia where there are farms etc., I think Tara might be one of these places? Anyway a while later when things get worse more people start moving away from Atlanta towards anywhere they can find safety or food such as Tara if you have any left since there isn’t much left now because all this stuff happened already…

After the Yankees capture Atlanta, Melanie and Scarlett give birth to children. Rhett helps them escape from the city during a fire set by the Yankees, but he leaves them to re-enlist in the Confederate Army. After driving all night through dangerous forests filled with deserters and soldiers, Scarlett finally arrives at Tara where she learns that her mother has died while her father has lost his mind. The Yankee army also looted Tara leaving no food or cotton for survival. Angry about this situation, Scarlett vows never to go hungry again.

Scarlett O’Hara, the main character in Gone With The Wind, is a strong-willed woman who is determined to do what she can for her family and home. She takes charge of rebuilding Tara after the war ends. Scarlett murders an enemy soldier and puts out a fire set by another soldier. Finally, Ashley Wilkes returns home from fighting in the war and Scarlett marries him. Once Ashley comes back, many soldiers start coming back as well; one such soldier stays on at Tara with Scarlett to help rebuild it. One day he brings terrible news: Jonas Wilkerson has raised taxes on Tara so that he may buy it for himself! Distraught over this news, Scarlett hurries off to Atlanta where Rhett Butler lives; she seduces him into giving her three hundred dollars so that she can pay off the taxes on Tara before they are due again next year. Rhett Butler has become incredibly wealthy since he started running blockade during the Civil War; however, while visiting Atlanta during Reconstruction times (when there was no official government), he got caught up in some trouble with Yankees which landed him behind bars—he cannot give Scarlett the money she needs because of his imprisonment. Knowing this information will not help save her family’s land, Scarlet decides to marry Frank Kennedy instead, even though Frank isn’t very fond of her.