How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I do not know what the future will bring, but it cannot be as beautiful or as satisfying as the past." (11.16)
Ashley sums up the book's attitude neatly: The past was always better. It's worth pointing out that this pretty much assumes that you're a pro-slavery Southern white person.
Quote #2
Oh, there were so many things she would preface with "Do you remember!" …And while they talked she could perhaps read in his eyes some quickening of emotion, some hint that behind the barrier of husbandly affection for Melanie, he still cared […]. (15.10)
The memory of the world before the war is here linked directly to Scarlett's love of Ashley. It's almost like the way she hangs onto that ideal past is by pretending she loves the doofus.
Quote #3
When she arose at last and saw again the black ruins of Twelve Oaks, her head was raised high and something that was youth and beauty and potential tenderness had gone out of her face forever. What was past was past. Those who were dead were dead. The lazy luxury of the old days was gone, never to return. And as Scarlett settled the heavy basket across her arm, she had settled her own mind and her own life.
There was no going back and she was going forward. (25.49-50)
Scarlett's strength comes from not looking back… or does it? She says she's not looking at the past, but her determination to go forward comes from looking at the ruins of Twelve Oaks. Running from the past doesn't exactly mean you're not paying attention to it or thinking about it.