Gone with the Wind: 3 4
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Penguin Readers Factsheets l e v e l E T e a c h e r’s n o t e s 1 2 Gone with the Wind: 3 4 Part 2 5 by Margaret Mitchell 6 S U M M A R Y INTERMEDIATE one with the Wind, set against the background of import goods and had to turn many cotton fields to food G the American Civil War of 1861–65, has sold 28 production. There were many ‘blockade runners’ – like million copies since its publication in 1936. It is Rhett Butler – who tried to get past the Union ships to one of the greatest love stories ever written. bring materials to the South, but many of them were only Part One of the novel follows its heroine Scarlett O'Hara i n t e rested in their own gain, and made enorm o u s through the Civil War between the Northern states and the fortunes. Southern states. At the beginning of Part Two of the novel, Both armies in the war deliberately spoiled huge areas the defeated South lies in ruins and Scarlett must work of land, which ruined and demoralized the Southern the soil of her family’s plantation, Tara, with her bare states. The South felt further humiliated by the way in hands to survive. Worse still, the North is demanding which the North tried to make the Southern states safe taxes from the large estates, and Scarlett has no money before they could rejoin the Union. The North said that it to pay. In desperation, she goes to the rich but wild Rhett would pardon and give the vote to any Southerner who Butler. He wants her, but he will not marry her if it is his took an oath of loyalty to the US, with some exceptions. money that attracts her. So Scarlett must turn her Ex-officers of the Confederate army and the richest attentions elsewhere. Meanwhile, Rhett cannot forget the landowners – who were considered mainly responsible for charming and vivacious Scarlett, and Scarlett cannot the war – could only be pardoned if they made a special forget the gentlemanly Ashley Wilkes, the husband of her application to the President. The government also passed best friend, Melanie ... new laws which freed all slaves throughout the Union and made them citizens. The Southern states could only re- BACKGROUND AND THEMES enter the Union if they agreed to these laws. Still more bitterness was caused by the Margaret Mitchell had a deep knowledge of the American ‘carpetbaggers’. These were Northerners who moved into Civil War and the years following it, which she gained from the South after the war to try to buy up the property of its stories told in her family and from her own research. The destitute people or make profit in other ways. background of Gone with the Wind: Part Two is the problems that the Southern states experienced after the The greatest fear the Southerners had, however, was of war. the newly freed blacks. Southern whites could never accept ex-slaves as being equal to themselves, and were The economic ruin of the South had several causes. By frightened of the revenge they might take. This fear gave 1865 many of its slaves, on whom its cotton economy birth to the infamous Ku Klux Klan, a secret society of depended, had run away from the plantations, knowing white people whose purpose was to frighten blacks and that the Northern armies would free them. Other slaves keep them in a lower social position. Riding about at night had taken advantage of an offer that the Confederate in white hoods and robes, they whipped, burnt and government (the government of the South) made towards murdered blacks everywhere. They also tried to prevent the end of the war: this guaranteed them their freedom if them from voting, and terrorized any whites who tried to they fought in its armies. help them. The Confederate government (the government of the The old South that was swept away by the Civil War was South) had stopped selling its cotton to Europe at the a very conservative culture. Young men of the plantation- beginning of the war, in the hope that this would owning families were brought up to ride, shoot, play encourage Britain and France to help their cause, but by cards, race and bet on horses, and little more. This is what doing so they deprived themselves of a major source of makes Ashley Wilkes, with his refined manners and taste income. In any case, the Union (the North) blockade of the for books, so different. Women were denied education South's ports meant that the Confederates could not © Pearson Education 2000 l e v e l Penguin Readers Factsheets 4 T e a c h e r’s n o t e s and political rights and their behaviour in public was 2 Ask students to read pages 31–32 again. Then, in bound by strict social rules. Women like Scarlett O'Hara – groups of five, they role-play the conversation between Rhett, the captain, Ashley, Hugh and Melanie, from the intelligent, spirited women – must have found Southern time the captain arrives until he leaves. society impossibly restrictive. Chapters 9–11 Put students into pairs. Ask them to discuss the following Communicative activities questions: (a) What do you think Ashley really feels about Scarlett? The following teacher-led activities cover the same (b) What do you think Scarlett really feels about Ashley? sections of text as the exercises at the back of the reader, (c) How do you think Melanie feels when she hears that and supplement those activities. Further supplementary Ashley and Scarlett were in each other’s arms? exercises, covering shorter sections of the book, can be found on the photocopiable Student’s Activities pages of (d) How do you think Rhett feels when he hears about it? this Factsheet. These are primarily for use with class Chapters 12–14 readers, but with the exception of pair/groupwork Put students into small groups. Tell them to list the things questions, can also be used by students working alone in in these chapters that Scarlett realizes about her feelings a self-access centre. for (a) Melanie, (b) Ashley, (c) Rhett. Then ask students to discuss how Rhett changes through the story. How do ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK they feel about him at the beginning and at the end of the Put students into small groups. Ask them to discuss what story? they think will happen to the following relationships in Part Two of the story: ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK Scarlett and Rhett, Scarlett and Ashley, Rhett and Ashley. The film of Gone with the Wind is one of the most successful films ever made. Put students into small ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION groups and ask them if they can explain why this is. Then Chapters 1–3 ask students to imagine that they are film directors and they are going to make a film of Gone with the Wind 1 Put students into pairs, and ask them to role-play the today. Which actors would they choose to play the main conversations between the following people: parts, and why? (a) Scarlett and Ashley in the fields. She tells him news about taxes, and she wants them to go to Mexico. He tells her that he loves her but can't leave Melanie and the baby. G l o s s a r y (b) Jonas Wilkerson and Scarlett when he arrives at It will be useful for your students to know the following new words. Tara to buy it from her. They are practised in the ‘Before You Read’sections of exercises at the back of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman 2 Ask students to discuss the Ku Klux Klan. What do Active Study Dictionary.) they know about this organization? Why do the members cover their faces and wear long white Chapters 1–3 clothes? Give them information from the Background honour (n) good level of behaviour that makes people think well of and themes section of this Factsheet, if they have no you knowledge. oath (n) a very serious promise will (n) a piece of paper that says who will have a person’s things 3 In pairs, students discuss whether they think Scarlett when they are dead and Rhett will become lovers. Chapters 4–6 Chapters 4–6 candle (n) this is long and thin, with string in the middle, and burns to give light 1 Put students into groups of three, and ask them to funeral (n) a religious event in which the body of a dead person is role-play the conversation between Frank Kennedy, burned or put into the ground Scarlett and Tony Fontaine when Fontaine knocks on fussy (adj) someone is fussy if they are very careful about which their door one wild wet night in April. Ask students to things they choose reread page 18 before they start. owe (v) to have to pay money to someone because they have lent you money 2 In small groups, students discuss: (a) What leads up to rape (v) to force somebody to have sex Tony Fontaine killing his servant and Wilkerson? sawmill (n) a factory where trees are cut into boards (b) Why did ordinary people join the Ku Klux Klan? Chapters 7–8 3 Put students into pairs, and ask them to role-play the arrest (v) if somebody is arrested, the police take them away conversation between Will and Scarlett when they convict (n) somebody who is guilty of a crime and has been sent to drive to Tara.