- Why isn't the book a first person narrative told from Scarlett's perspective? What would be gained or lost by having Scarlett as the narrator?
- How would the novel change if Mammy were the hero rather than Scarlett? What if Dilcey were the hero?
- Why does the novel need to start before the Civil War, rather than picking up after the war is over?
- What purpose does dialect speech serve in the book? What would happen if you reversed the dialect, so that all white people spoke with numerous misspellings, while the speech of black people was all spelled correctly?
- Does Gone With the Wind present the pre-Civil War South as a utopia? And if so, who is it a utopia for? Explain your answer.