Chapter 26
Scarlett
realizes that Gerald is not going to recover from Ellen's death and that Tara
is wholly her responsibility. One day, a Yankee cavalryman arrives at the house
and walks in, looking for loot. Furious that he is picking over Ellen's
belongings and that he could steal their hard-earned food, Scarlett shoots him
dead at point-blank range. Melanie, who has got up from her sickbed, appears at
the top of the stairs dragging Charles' heavy sword. Her look of pride and
approval makes Scarlett momentarily forget her contempt for Melanie, as she
knows that Melanie would have done the same thing. Scarlett feels a grudging
respect for Melanie's courage.
Melanie takes
control, telling Scarlett that they must tell nobody and bury the body
immediately. They go through the Yankee's pockets and find a wallet full of
money and some jewelry that he has looted from other families. Scarlett drags
the body into the garden and buries it in a shallow grave. Scarlett tells
herself that she will not think about the fact that she has killed a man; the
shell of hardness that is forming in her heart thickens.
Scarlett now has
a horse - the Yankee's. She rides to the Fontaines' to consult Dr Fontaine
about Melanie's health. She finds the house still standing, but Dr Fontaine is
away with the cavalry, and two of the three Fontaine women's husbands have died
in the war. At the house are Grandma Fontaine, Young Miss Fontaine and Sally
Fontaine. Grandma Fontaine tells Scarlett that the Yankee General Sherman has
taken Atlanta. Scarlett says that the Yankees have burned a hundred and fifty
thousand dollars' worth of Tara's cotton, leaving only three bales, which will
be no use since only field hands and "white trash" pick cotton. Grandma
Fontaine is unsympathetic, pointing out that when she was young her father lost
all his money; she picked cotton and would do so again.
Grandma Fontaine
says that the Calverts' house escaped being burned because the Yankee Mrs.
Calvert and her Yankee overseer, Hilton, told the Yankees that they were
staunch Unionists.
Scarlett asks
Grandma Fontaine if she can lend them something to eat, and Grandma readily
agrees to send half of their provisions to Tara. Scarlett tells Grandma the
hardships that she and her family have suffered, particularly the death of
Ellen. Grandma comments that it is a bad thing for a woman to face the worst
that can happen to her, because afterwards she can never fear anything again:
"And it's very bad for a woman not to be afraid of something," since it makes
her hard-hearted. She describes how, when she was young, she saw her family
scalped by Indians and her house burned. The experience made her unafraid of
anything, which in turn caused her much unhappiness. She recommends always
saving something to fear and something to love. She also warns Scarlett that
she will never be able to lay down the load.
Scarlett feels
encouraged by the fact that she has neighbors and that they have been so
generous with their food. She now has food, a horse, and the Yankee's money and
jewelry. She feels that the worst is over.
Pork, Mammy and
Prissy refuse to pick the remaining cotton as "they were house niggers, not
field hands," and Melanie, though willing, is too weak. In the end, the job
falls to Scarlett, Dilcey and the inefficient Prissy. Scarlett plans to sell
the cotton and replant next spring.
Chapter 27
In mid-November,
Sally Fontaine gallops through Tara shouting the terrible news that the Yankees
are coming once more. Scarlett knows that they will take everything. She sends
the entire household into the swamp and the woods with the food, horse and
livestock, and has Mammy put the silver down the well. Melanie leaps on the
horse and drives the cow and calf into the swamp. Once again, Scarlett feels
respect for Melanie's courage. Scarlett takes Melanie's baby, Beau, hides the
Yankee's wallet in his diaper, and meets the Yankees on the front steps. The
Yankees swarm through the house, seizing what they can and ripping open
upholstery to look for hidden valuables. Scarlett hears a shot and knows that
the Yankees have killed the sow, which Prissy must have abandoned. One of the soldiers
takes Charles' father's sword, which is now Wade's. Scarlett asks the Yankee
sergeant to make the soldier give the sword back, which he does, but then he
rushes off to the back of the house, shouting that he will give "these damn
Rebels" something to remember him by. One of the soldiers comes in and reports
that they have set fire to the few bales of cotton that Scarlett and Dilcey so
laboriously picked.
The soldiers
leave, taking with them anything they can carry. Scarlett smells smoke coming
from the kitchen and realizes that the Yankee soldier who tried to take the
sword has set fire to the house. Scarlett and Melanie, with great difficulty,
manage to put the fire out by beating it with wet rugs. At one point, Melanie
hits Scarlett across her shoulders with her rug. Scarlett faints. When she
comes around, Melanie tells her that she had to hit her with the rug because
her back was on fire. Melanie discovers the wallet that Scarlett hid in Beau's
diaper and laughingly embraces Scarlett, saying no one else would have thought
of it. Scarlett permits the embrace partly because she feels a greater respect
for Melanie's courage and comradeship.
Chapter 28
As winter sets
in, Scarlett bitterly reflects that what she described to Grandma Fontaine as
the worst that could happen to her, was not: things are now much worse. The
Yankees have burned the cotton, taken their food and the sow, and left her
neighbors with nothing, thereby taking away one of her remaining supports. She
only has the cow and calf, some piglets, and the horse. The Tarletons', the
Munroes', and a wing of the Fontaines' houses have all been burned. Everyone is
now short of food and has to live off yams, peanuts and what game they can
catch. Pork goes out foraging for food, and when he returns with some, nobody
asks where he got it, suspecting he has stolen it. Scarlett remembers Ellen's
teaching that she is responsible for the moral welfare of the slaves, who are
"like children," but pushes it aside, being simply grateful for Pork's loyalty.
She promises him that one day, she will have lots of money, and will reward him
with a gold watch.
At
Christmas-time, Suellen's beau, Frank Kennedy, and some Confederate soldiers
arrive at Tara, looking for food for the army. During their stay, Scarlett begrudges
them every bit of food they eat, and forbids her household to mention the
slaughtered piglet hanging in the pantry. Frank tells them that General Sherman
has burned Atlanta. Scarlett believes that the warehouse that Charles left her
is burnt, but Frank says Aunt Pittypat's house is still standing. The Atlanta
citizens who survived Sherman's visit have come back and are living in tents,
shacks and log cabins.
Frank asks to
speak to Scarlett alone. He asks her, as head of the household, for Suellen's
hand in marriage. He has been courting her for years. He is no longer rich,
having put all his money into Confederate bonds, which are now worthless. He
tells her that the war will soon be over, as the Confederate army cannot fight
without food, and there is none. Scarlett happily gives her consent, reflecting
that having Suellen married off will mean one less mouth to feed.
Analysis of
Chapters 26-28
In spite of her
contempt for the past, Scarlett twice draws strength from ancestors and elders:
once in Chapter 25, when she remembers how her ancestors overcame adversity and
prospered, and decides that she will never be poor again; and again in Chapter
26, when she listens to Grandma Fontaine's story. Scarlett goes to the
Fontaines' with the attitude that, being neither a slave nor "white trash," she
cannot pick cotton; but Grandma Fontaine points out that she has picked cotton
in the past and would do so again. When Scarlett returns to Tara, she cannot
persuade Mammy or Pork to pick cotton, since they are even more bound by status
than she is. She ends up doing it herself, helped by Dilcey, another flexible
pragmatist who is able to see what needs to be done and to do it with minimum
fuss. The episode shows that the war has enabled Scarlett to learn what her
ancestors and elders knew: that survival is more important than status and
convention.
Melanie matches
Scarlett's courage in these chapters, though she lacks Scarlett's physical
strength. When the Yankee cavalryman invades the house, Melanie appears, dragging
Charles' sword and prepared to use it, though she can hardly lift it. After
Scarlett shoots him, it is Melanie who coolly directs the looting of his
possessions and the burying of his body. When the Yankees return to Tara for
the second time, Melanie fearlessly leaps onto the horse and drives the cow and
calf into the swamp; she exercises as much bravery as Scarlett in putting out
the fire that the soldier starts. In addition, she saves Scarlett's life by
putting out the flames engulfing her back. In spite of Scarlett's resentment
and dislike of Melanie, she begins to feel a grudging respect for her.
Both households
portrayed in these chapters, the O'Hara and Fontaine households, are now run by
women, the men being either dead or away fighting (the Fontaines), or
debilitated (Gerald). Historically, wars have played a major part in the
emancipation of women, as with the dearth of men, who are away fighting, the
women have to take over jobs and roles previously confined to the men. The
American Civil War was no exception and put an end to the role of decorative
"Southern belle." Its influence can be traced in Scarlett's story: at the
beginning of the novel, her only aim is to attract rich men who can keep her in
the pampered lifestyle to which she is accustomed. But the depredations of the
war have forced her to become self-sufficient, laboring, killing and stealing
food in order to protect herself and her household.
There is a price
to be paid for Scarlett's strength, however, and it is described by Grandma
Fontaine. Grandma says that it is a bad thing for a woman to live through the
worst that can happen to her, since she fears nothing, and a woman who fears
nothing becomes hard-hearted and unhappy. Scarlett's heart became more hardened
in the vegetable garden at Twelve Oaks, when she decides she will never be poor
again, and the process is accelerated by her killing of the Yankee. However,
while her hardships undoubtedly have contributed to her hard-heartedness, they
do not fundamentally change her. Scarlett is selfish and hard from the start,
but tries to cover up this less acceptable side of her character with her
"Southern belle" act. The trials she is put through by the war simply develop
her existing hard-heartedness and embolden her not to pretend to be a "lady"
any longer.
Mitchell makes
those trials seem particularly terrible by lulling us into a false sense of
security when Scarlett manages to begin to rebuild life at Tara after the
Yankees' first visit and her terrible journey home on the rickety wagon.
Scarlett and Grandma Fontaine both assume that she has been though the "worst"
that can happen to her, and we accept their view. But then, after Scarlett has
with great difficulty acquired some food, livestock and a horse and gathered
some cotton, the Yankees return for a second time - and much of what Scarlett
had achieved is destroyed at a stroke. Many would succumb to despair, but
Scarlett does not, drawing inspiration partly from Frank Kennedy's account of
Atlanta's rebirth after its burning by the Yankees. The parallel drawn between
Scarlett and Atlanta (earlier in the novel, Gerald liked to point out that they
are the same age) is developed. As Atlantans begin to move back into the town,
living in shacks and log cabins, Scarlett reflects that she is like Atlanta in
that "It takes more than Yankees or a burning to keep me down."
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