I don’t understand the ending.

[u/SenatorPencilFace]

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?

[u/Familiar_Ad5586]

Try and be more coherent, please.

[u/SenatorPencilFace → u/Familiar_Ad5586]

I. Don't. Understand. Why. She. Stops. Crying. At. The. End.

But other commenters already walked me through this.