Teacher’s notes
LEVEL 4
PENGUIN READERS
Teacher Support Programme
Gone with the Wind – Part Two
Margaret Mitchell
Summary
Gone with the Wind, set against the background of the
American Civil War of 1861–65, has sold twenty-eight
million copies since its publication in 1936. It is one of
the greatest love stories ever written. Part One of the novel
follows its heroine Scarlett O’Hara through the Civil War
between the Northern states and the Southern states. At
the beginning of Part Two of the novel, the defeated South
lies in ruins and Scarlett must work the soil of her family’s
plantation, Tara, with her bare hands to survive. Worse
still, the North is demanding taxes from the large estates,
and Scarlett has no money to pay, so she will have to
struggle to help her family survive.
Chapters 1–3: In Chapter 1, Scarlett is very worried
about the future of Tara. She knows she cannot make ends
meet and pay taxes with the little money she is left with.
Scarlett and Ashley spend some time alone for the first
time since he came back. Ashley tells her she should ask
Rhett Butler for economic aid and Scarlett, hopeless and
shattered, breaks into tears. He tries to comfort her and
they end up kissing. Ashley finally tells her that he loves
her but that he cannot leave his family. In Chapter 2,
Scarlett is shocked by the unexpected visit of a couple:
Jonas Wilkerson, their former plantation manager and
Emmy Slattery, their former servant who made her
mother fall down with typhoid. Now married, they want
to buy Tara for peanuts and Scarlett cannot but kick
them out. Scared to death, Scarlett decides to seduce
Rhett into marrying her. Once in his hometown, Scarlett
learns that Rhett is in prison for having killed a black
man and shocked by the atrocities the Ku Klux Klan are
committing. In Chapter 3, Scarlett visits Rhett in prison
making everybody believe she is his sister. She pretends
that Tara is better than ever and that she has a lot of
c Pearson Education Limited 2008
money. She tries to appeal to him in such a flirtatious way
that he soon starts suspecting she has a hidden agenda.
When he sees her broken nails, he confirms she has been
lying and she is made to confess to him the real purpose
of her visit. Scarlett tells him that she is willing to be his
lover for three hundred dollars but, to her astonishment,
he turns her down.
Chapters 4 –6: In Chapter 4, Scarlett is devastated after
realising that Rhett will not help her. As she leaves the
prison, she runs into Frank Kennedy in his new carriage.
They talk for a while and he tells her how well his new
business is doing. Scarlett thinks of borrowing the three
hundred dollars she needs but she soon recalls his being
engaged to Suellen. Scarlett lies to Frank persuading
him that her sister, tired of waiting for him, is going to
marry Tony Fontaine. So Scarlett and Frank get married.
In Chapter 5, Frank gives the three hundred dollars
to Scarlett and she settles her debt. Frank soon realises
that Scarlett has tricked him into marriage. He falls ill
and Scarlett learns that their business is not doing as well
as she expected, since a lot of people owe a lot of money
to Frank. Rhett Butler is released from jail and visits
Scarlett, now Mrs Kennedy. Rhett offers to help her buy
the sawmill she wants. Scarlett starts working hard and she
makes enough money to buy more sawmills. Many people
are shocked to find that she is doing business with the
Yankees. Scarlett is surprised to find that she is pregnant
and that her father has died. In Chapter 6, Gerald’s funeral
takes place back at Tara. Scarlett learns how her father
died and how Suellen was about to convince him to sign a
Yankee Oath in exchange for money. Gerald finally refused
to do so. Yet all the people in town are now furious with
Suellen. Scarlett finds out that Ashley is planning to leave
Tara for a job in New York. She decides to appoint Ashley
a half-owner of her second sawmill so as to ensure that
he stays. She offers him the job opportunity but he turns
it down. Scarlett makes a scene and Melanie, touched by
Scarlett’s desperate tears, persuades her husband to accept
the offer.
Chapters 7–8: In Chapter 7, Scarlett is worried because
Atlanta is very dangerous since some former slaves are
committing crimes and the Ku Klux Klan are after them.
This makes people stay at home behind locked doors.
Ashley and Hugh stop working for weeks. Scarlett is so
worried that she decides to hire convicts to work at her
sawmills. Rhett Butler returns to Atlanta and seems to
be angry that Scarlett is still looking after Ashley. He also
lets Scarlett know that her husband is up to something
Gone with the Wind – Part Two - Teacher’s notes of 3
Teacher’s notes
LEVEL 4
PENGUIN READERS
Teacher Support Programme
Gone with the Wind – Part Two
secret. In Chapter 8, on her way to the sawmill along
Decatur Road, Scarlett runs into Big Sam, who used
to work at Tara and who is hiding since he had killed a
Yankee soldier. She promises to help him escape. Scarlett
is attacked by two men who try to mug her and Big
Sam helps her escape. Safe at Melanie’s place, Scarlett is
shocked to learn that both Ashley and Frank are with the
Klan, meeting nightly at the old Sullivan plantation, and
that the Yankee Soldiers are looking for them. Rhett Butler
brings Ashley and other men back home. They all pretend
to be drunk and to have been at Belle Watling’s house.
When the soldiers leave Melanie’s place, Rhett confesses
to Scarlett that Ashley has actually been injured at the
Sullivan Plantation and that Frank has been shot dead.
Chapters 9–11: In Chapter 9, Rhett Butler visits
Scarlett after Frank’s funeral. He tells her he is travelling
to England and that he intends to marry her once he is
back in Atlanta. Scarlett accepts his proposal and moves
to New Orleans with him while their new fashionable
house is being built in Atlanta. Scarlett has her third
baby, Bonnie. In Chapter 10, Melanie organises a surprise
party for Ashley’s birthday and asks Scarlett to keep
him busy. Scarlett does so and both she and Ashley start
remembering the old times. They hug each other and,
at that very moment, Melanie’s cousin, Archie and Mrs
Elsing enter the room they are in. Scarlett runs away back
home believing India will tell Melanie everything. Scared
of being humiliated by Melanie, Scarlett refuses to attend
Ashley’s party but Rhett persuades her to go. Scarlett is
relieved to find that India is not there and that Melanie
knows nothing. In Chapter 11, Rhett is furious with
Scarlett because he knows she still loves Ashley more than
anything. To punish her, he spends many nights at Belle
Watling’s place and then leaves for New Orleans with
Bonnie for a long time. While he is away, Scarlett learns
that she is pregnant with his child again. When Rhett
returns home, Scarlett tells him about the baby, they have
an argument and Scarlett falls over to the bottom of the
stairs.
Chapters 12–14: In Chapter 12, Scarlett loses her baby
and is sent to Tara to get better. Rhett feels very guilty
but, at the same time, he still feels jealous of Scarlett and
Ashley. Rhett convinces Melanie that Scarlett should sell
her sawmills to be more relaxed and that Ashley should
buy them with the money that he is willing to secretly
give them. Melanie is in two minds, but she finally accepts
his proposal thinking of her husband, child and friend.
c Pearson Education Limited 2008
Later on, Rhett persuades Scarlett to sell her sawmills
to Ashley. In Chapter 13, Rhett buys Bonnie a horse so
that she can start jumping. Bonnie has an accident and
passes away. Rhett and Scarlett are devastated. Things go
from bad to worse when Scarlett learns that Melanie is
dying after giving birth to her second child. On her death
bed, Melanie asks Scarlett to take care of her child and
husband. In Chapter 14, Scarlett realises that she really
loves Rhett and wants to spend the rest of her life with
him. She tells him how she feels but he does not believe
her. She knows she can win him back after she returns
from the one place she has always cherished in her heart:
Tara.
Background and themes
The background of Gone with the Wind: Part Two is the
problems that the Southern states experienced after the
war. The economic ruin of the South had several causes.
By 1865 many of its slaves, on whom its cotton economy
depended, had run away from the plantations, knowing
that the Northern armies would free them. Other slaves
had taken advantage of an offer that the Confederate
government (the government of the South) made towards
the end of the war: this guaranteed them their freedom if
they fought in its armies. The Confederate government
had stopped selling its cotton to Europe at the beginning
of the war, in the hope that this would encourage Britain
and France to help their cause, but by doing so they
deprived themselves of a major source of income. In any
case, the Union (the North) blockade of the South’s ports
meant that the Confederates could not import goods and
had to turn many cotton fields to food production. There
were many ‘blockade runners’ – like Rhett Butler – who
tried to get past the Union ships to bring materials to the
South, but many of them were only interested in their
own gain, and made enormous fortunes. Both armies in
the war deliberately spoiled huge areas of land, which
ruined and demoralised the Southern states. The South
felt further humiliated by the way in which the North
tried to make the Southern states safe before they could
rejoin the Union. The North said that it would pardon
and give the vote to any Southerner who took an oath
of loyalty to the United States, with some exceptions.
Ex-officers of the Confederate army and the richest
landowners – who were considered mainly responsible for
the war – could only be pardoned if they made a special
application to the President. The government also passed
new laws which freed all slaves throughout the Union
Gone with the Wind – Part Two - Teacher’s notes of 3
Teacher’s notes
PENGUIN READERS
Teacher Support Programme
LEVEL 4
Gone with the Wind – Part Two
and made them citizens. The Southern states could only
re-enter the Union if they agreed to these laws. Still more
bitterness was caused by the ‘carpetbaggers’. These were
Northerners who moved into the South after the war to
try to buy up the property of its destitute people or make
profit in other ways. The greatest fear the Southerners had,
however, was of the newly freed blacks. Southern whites
could never accept ex-slaves as being equal to themselves,
and were frightened of the revenge they might take. This
fear gave birth to the infamous Ku Klux Klan, a secret
society of white people whose purpose was to frighten
blacks and keep them in a lower social position. Riding
about at night in white hoods and robes, they whipped,
burnt and murdered blacks everywhere. They also tried to
prevent them from voting, and terrorized any whites who
tried to help them. The old South that was swept away
by the Civil War was a very conservative culture. Young
men of the plantation-owning families were brought up
to ride, shoot, play cards, race and bet on horses, and little
more. This is what makes Ashley Wilkes, with his refined
manners and taste for books, so different. Women were
denied education and political rights and their behaviour
in public was bound by strict social rules. Women like
Scarlett O’Hara – intelligent, spirited women – must have
found Southern society impossibly restrictive.
Chapters 4–6
While reading
5 Discuss: Ask students to work in small groups and to
discuss the following after reading pages 21–23: What
leads Tony Fontaine to kill his servant and Wilkerson?
Why did ordinary people join the Ku Klux Klan?
After reading
6 Role play: Have students role play the following
conversation in pairs: You are Will and Scarlett when
they drive to Tara and discuss about Ashley and Melanie’s
moving to the North, and Gerald O’Hara’s death.
Chapters 7–8
While reading
7 Role play: Ask students to do the following role play
activity as they read pages 31–32 in groups of five:
Imagine you are Rhett, the Captain, Ashley, Hugh and
Melanie, from the time the captain arrives until he
leaves. What do you all do and say?
After reading
8 Discuss: Ask students to discuss the following in
groups: What is life like now for people such as the
Wilkes and the Kennedys? Talk about work, not having
much money and the power of the Ku Klux Klan.
Chapters 9–11
While reading
Discussion activities
9 Discuss: Ask students to work in pairs and discuss the
following after they read page 36: Why does Scarlett
decide to marry Rhett? What does she want in life?
Before reading
After reading
1 Discuss: Put students into small groups. Ask them to
discuss what they think will happen to the following
relationships in Part Two of the story: Discuss in
groups what you think will happen between Scarlett
and Rhett, Scarlett and Ashley, Rhett and Ashley.
2 Group work: Bring in a map of the United States.
Point out where Atlanta, Georgia, (where the story is
set) and Washington DC are. Encourage students to
use a map as they read on.
10 Role play: Ask students to imagine they are
Rhett and Melanie and to act out the following
conversation: You are Rhett feeling terrible after
Scarlett’s accident. Write down the conversation in which
Rhett tells Melanie what has happened and what he
feels. Then act it out.
Then tell students to read the first pages of Chapter 12
and to compare their dialogue with what Rhett and
Melanie actually say.
Chapters 1–3
While reading
Chapters 12–14
While reading
3 Discuss: In pairs, students discuss the following after
reading pages 5–7: Do you think Scarlett and Rhett
will become lovers? Discuss this with another student and
write down your ideas.
11 Discuss: Ask students to discuss in groups after
reading pages 46 – 48: Why does Rhett want Scarlett to
sell her sawmill? Why is Scarlett sorry she sold them?
After reading
After reading
12 Pair work: Ask students to work in pairs and to
discuss the following: How does Rhett change through
the story?
4 Discuss: Ask students to discuss the Ku Klux Klan.
Guide them with these questions: What do you know
about this organisation? Why do the members cover their
faces and wear long white clothes?
Give them information from the Background and
themes section above, if they have no knowledge.
c Pearson Education Limited 2008
Vocabulary activities
For the Word List and vocabulary activities, go to
www.penguinreaders.com.
Gone with the Wind – Part Two - Teacher’s notes of 3