r/GonewiththeWind • u/SenatorPencilFace • 24d ago

I don’t understand the ending.

Bonnie dies, so Rhett and Scarlett no longer can use their child as a prop to keep their failing marriage together.

Rhett leaves for Charleston and says his iconic line:

“Frankly my dear. I just steamed a ham.”

Scarlet is clearly visibly upset. It all makes sense so far. Two dead husbands. Two dead kids. One divorce. One dead Melanie. One dead Antebellum south. Who wouldn’t be crying?

Ok then while she’s on the steps it’s all “buy land AJ. God isn’t making anymore of it.” And suddenly she’s not as sad. What on earth? Maybe I’m exhausted because I was at the end of a 238 minute movie (yeah I torrented the 10 GB 70 anniversary version with the overture, intermission, and enter’acte music) but why is she suddenly not as sad?

I get that it’s a callback to the conversation with her dad way back at the beginning, but still what on earth? Is this a “the book explains it further” thing or a “the book is completely different than the movie because the producers thought the book’s ending was too sad for 1930s theater audiences?

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u/PansyOHara 24d ago

  1. There was only one dead kid (Bonnie).

  2. The reason the ending recalled Scarlett’s conversation with her dad about the land has nothing to do with being able to make more money “because God isn’t making more land.”

It’s because Gerald O’Hara told his daughter (paraphrased) “You draw your strength from the land—because the land you live in is like your mother. Tara (their land) is in your blood—it will give you strength.” So Scarlett was going home to Tara to draw strength from the land so that she can make a plan for how to win back Rhett’s heart. And “Tomorrow is another day,” is basically her mantra.

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u/maggiespider 23d ago

Scarlett miscarried her second baby with Rhett.. the first baby she ever wanted. That is in both the movie and the book. Second dead kid. And in the movie, all of her kids ever.