Warfare Quotes in Gone With the Wind

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"All wars are in reality money squabbles. But so few people ever realize it. Their ears are too full of bugles and drum and fine words from stay-at-home orators." (12.75)

Rhett's words seem like cynical realism, but can you find some truth to them? Slavery is an economic system, after all, and secession by Southern states threatened the existing unified economy.

Quote #5

As she looked, two streams of blood crept across the shining floor, one from his face and one from the back of his head.

Yes, he was dead. Undoubtedly. She had killed a man.

[…] suddenly she was vitally alive again, vitally glad with a cool tigerish joy. She could have ground her heel into the gaping wound which had been his nose and taken sweet pleasure in the feel of his warm blood on her bare feet. She had struck a blow of revenge for Tara—and for Ellen. (26.22-24)

Scarlett herself is a fighter in the war, killing a Union soldier. The murder is presented as joyful revenge and as a moral good. The only good Yankee is a dead Yankee in this book.

Quote #6

"I don't know why we fought and I don't care," said Scarlett. "And I'm not interested. I never was interested. War is a man's business, not a woman's." (29.32)

Scarlett says war is man's business, but she herself killed a man, essentially in the war. As often happens with Scarlett, she seems to take on a male role while disavowing it. She provides for her family and works in the mills and even fights in the war, but none of this ever quite amounts to her actually questioning the role of women overall, or really even her own role as a woman.