Gone With the Wind is an excellent movie from the 1930's that does a great job at portraying the destruction in the South from the Civil War. It shows how lives changed from having fun and living a normal life to all hands on deck to aid the war. As we follow the life of Scarlett O'hara (played by Vivien Leigh), we watch her turn from a young, energetic girl to a tired nurse in the war. The Civil War changed the lives of everyone in the South. All the men were fighting against the "Yankees", and the women were slowly changed into nurses to help aid the soldiers. Even in the end, Rhett Butler (played by Clark Gable) changed from a wealthy, ladies man to a last stand soldier for the South.
In almost every battle scene that we see, we see injured soldiers, and canon balls destroying towns and civilians. As time goes on in the movie, almost every town in the South is destroyed. Women and children were rushing to evacuate towns, so that they were not caught in the crossfire of the North's weapons. The North was portrayed as horrible people who want only destruction for the South and not assimilation. You do not see a single Northerner actually on screen. Every single time that a yankee is mentioned, people are either running, or a town is being blown up or destroyed. Not only did the North destroy towns, but also the North destroyed people's sanity and confidence. Imagine being a doctor or nurse in the field of war. You were around screams of agony and pain every single day. You would even have to cut off a person's limbs more than once a day, which would lead to insanity for most people.
In the end, what I see from Gone With the Wind is a Southern perspective of the war. Not only do i see the Southern perspective, but also I see the reality of the Civil War and the destruction that the war had brought to the South. The Southerners were destroyed mentally and physically, as they were going insane and their towns were being destroyed.
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