Sample essay on the wind done gone: summary

The first novel written by Alice Randall in 2001 was The Wind Done Gone. It was a bestselling novel that had completely alternative plot story told in the novel Gone with the wind written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. The focus of the latter story had been on the life of Scarlett O’Hara, a wealthy slave owner while the latter novel by Alice Randall revolved around the life of one of the slaves of O’Hara by the name of Cynara. The period of time and events discussed in both the novels are the same hence, both novels can said to be the alternative of each other as the life of two completely different people are discussed at the same time.
Actually, Randall presents the diary of Cynara who had been a former slave at the cotton plantation of O’Hara. Rather than presenting a caricature of the former novel, Randall selected some particular episodes and presented those events from the perspective of Cynara. Cynara was not just a slave but also the biracial half-sister of Scarlett O’Hara. In her diary, Cynara refers to her half-sister as the Other and she is also the daughter of Other’s father to whom she refers as the Planter in her diary and the virtual mother of Scarlett is referred by her as Mammy. Cynara is also known as Cindy or Cinnamon.
In this novel, the writer has addressed the question of mulatto slaves on Tara that was left unaddressed in the original classic novel. Cynara is the daughter of mammy and Gerald O’Hara who was sold away at a very young age from the family. But later on, Cynara managed to get back into the life of her half-sister through Rhett Butler, their mutual lover. So, this novel, The Wind Done Gone can be said as the story of a woman who tries making peace with her life while burdened with the question of slavery and the fact how she gets treated due to being enslaved by both her white parent as well as her black parent.
Cynara resides in Atlanta near the home of her lover Rhett which was once shared by Rhett and his wife, who is also the half-sister of Cynara, Other. The child of Rhett and Other had recently passed away; the death of the child coupled with another death of a close family member resulted in becoming the cause of a split in the marriage between Rhett and Other. Just after their marriage split, Cynara gets to learn that mammy, her own mother is dying which triggers her decision to return home so that she could at least see her mother for one last time. But the decision to return home is not easy for her because she did not have a pleasant experience of her last departure from Tara, the home plantation.
Though she wants to return to her dying mother but the letter given to her by her biological father when he sold her acts as an obstacle. In the letter, he had explained his concern that Cynara could become a distraction for her mother in taking the care of Scarlett or the Other, the eldest child of the family. Cynara even remembers the ambivalence of her mother to the decision. Regardless of every bad memory, Cynara finally returns to home but she failed to be in time to see her mother alive. She is told that mammy waited for her return watching the road. But this could not remove the doubtful concern Cynara has and she keeps wondering whether mammy had more concern for Other or her own daughter. After the death of the owner to whom her biological father had sold Cynara, she was placed in Charleston at the auction block where she was purchased by Beauty. It was at Beauty’s place that Cynara first met Rhett at the age of fourteen. A private ceremony of funeral is held in the family cemetery for Cynara to attend. As Scarlett ordered, Mammy was supposedly being buried besides Scarlett’s own mother, the Lady. But all the slaves along with Cynara knew that in fact Mammy was being buried besides grave of Planter because the graves were switched secretly.
After the funeral, Cynara gets to talk with some of the close contacts and acquaintances of her mother for several years including the former valet of her father, Garlic. Cynara gains information about how her mother became a member of the O’Hara household. It was when the lady she worked for married Mr. O’Hara, that mammy became a member here. Garlic told Cynara how he had drugged his first owner so that Planter could win Garlic in a card game and later on he did this again so that Planter could win the land which was being used for the plantation of cotton. Even the house they reside in was designed on the ideas of Garlic.
Moreover, it was also Garlic who arranged the meeting and marriage of Mr. O’Hare with the Lady so that Garlic could get Mammy to come to live on the Cotton Farm. And later on, Garlic and Mammy would run the farm together. Cynara also finds out that the decision taken by Mr. O’Hara of selling Cynara away left her mother heartbroken. Upon her return to Atlanta, Cynara starts remembering various memories from her childhood but now her perception tends to differ the way she sees those times. She recalls how mammy seemed to be very close to Other but at the same time, Cynara remembers her own close bonding with Mrs. O’Hara. In her childhood when Other was getting older, Scarlett’s friends started treating Mammy like a maid and not giving her the respect of a mother-like figure who she was being cosndiered from her duties at home. But Cynara remembers how Scarlett or Other as she refers to her in the diary, manages this conflict: rather than hurting the position of Mammy, she simply ends her friendship and grows even closer to Mammy. At the same time, while Cynara was experiencing growing closeness with Lady she also felt some unnatural interest taken by the Planter in her. But soon, this interest by Planter resulted in the shipment of Cynara to another household.
After some time, Cynara is taken to Washington, D. C. by Rhett where they start living together openly as Cynara being his mistress. Later on, when Rhett finds out that Other has died, he leaves Cynara alone in the city to deal with the two eldest children of Scarlett. Cynara meets many people amongst which are Frederick Douglass and also a very attractive black congressman. Cynara starts falling for the black congressman and starts wondering about how life could be with that person. But just as she started feeling for the man, Rhett finally returned home. This caused Cynara to become awestruck as she finds herself struggling between her sense of self and the belief that Rhett owned her in a sense. She could not make any decision for her own self now as she never had control over he own life. At an occasion, where Cynara and Rhett are invited to a ball, Cynara gets a chance to dance with the congressman and she is again mesmerized by his charming presence. But afterwards, when Rhett takes possession of Cynara at the end of the dance, she started feeling less humane and more like a possession of Rhett.
Upon his return, Rhett Butler brings some letters to Cynara; those letters had once belonged to Mrs. O’Hara, and they revealed the affair the Lady had once with her cousin. The letter also exposed Cynara to information that both Lady and her lover had black ancestry, but they still wanted to marry each other. This made Cynara realize that love can conquer all and her perspective towards life seems to alter. A letter given to Cynara by Rhett indicated that it was Mammy who had dictated Rhett to marry Cynara before her death. Seeing the letter, Cynara cried bitterly as she was referred to as Mammy’s little girl; this was the only time that she had heard her being referred in such a loving manner by her mother. This was the same time when she herself starts to realize that Rhett who she refers to as R. in her diary does not actually have feelings of love for her which makes her fall apart and develop some more tenderness towards the black congressman who she secretly admires.
The relation between her and Rhett seem to her as a formal and more like a slavery where he owns her and she does not have any self-identity. Cynara feels that Rhett does not realize what being a black person really meant and that the only reason why Rhett was willing to marry Cynara was to keep his promise with her Mammy. She feels that marrying a black woman was not the same as marrying a white woman and Rhett was taking this all so casually which hurt Cynara even more.
There is another perspective presented by Randall in her book regarding the self-determination of the African American people. Two of the significant black characters in the book are Cynara and Mammy. Both try hard to protect themselves and to make sure that their positions are improved so that they can have a better future. From one perspective where Mitchell, or otherwise known as Mammy is perceived as a devoted and selfless servant, Alice Randall has shown how she acts to protect her welfare. In order to ensure that she maintains a control over the O’Hare household, she surreptitiously murders each of the Planter’s sons at birth so that there is no male heir in the future of the household that could challenge the authority of Mammy.
At the end, when Cynara feels ill after marrying Rhett, she goes to Washington to see the doctor; actually, Rhett arranges the congressman to accompany Cynara to the doctor back to Washington. The black congressman was very concerned about the comfort of Cynara and this is when he confesses to her that if she had not married Rhett, he would have definitely asked her hand in marriage. He, was also engaged to some other woman. Upon returning to Washington, Cynara has a brief affair with the congressman but she left him considering that this relation would hurt the success of his career even though her relation with Rhett had ended by then. At the end, she gives birth to a baby boy who she gives to the congressman and his wife.