The war absolutely changes the way of her life and her affectionate homestead, Tara. The invasive Yankees destroy all of their treasure and cottons, leaving nothing but hunger to them. Her mother is dead and her father’s mind has gone; her two sisters and Melanie are ill; Melanie’s baby and her own child need to be fed; only several perplexed black slaves do not know what to do either. Scarlett is the only one that the family can depend on. Scarlett can’t lead a life comfortably as a child any more, for the reason that no one can protect her from threat.

Scarlett changes her concepts for the new life. She lays down her position of a lady of noble birth and changes her concepts of the old Southern life. She wants to feed her family and herself through her own work, which shows her realistic character towards life. When her sisters and the house servants complain, Scarlett even works in the fields of Tara herself to ensure a good harvest of cotton. To her, the memory of hunger is clearer than the memory of brain. She vows her famous line, "As God as my witness I will never be hungry again.”

When others cannot face flesh and blood, but she believes that one must keep on working to alter the actuality. Thereupon, she adopts the new ways of living which change her from a young lady who must rely on the black slaves to enjoy her to a laborer who supports the whole family depending on her own working.[6]  She walks personally to the destroyed Twelve Oaks to look for something to eat, and even uses her elegant hands to dig greens, to do excavation, to split the wood, to crush the milk, to pick cottons, even to plough the field which used to be done by slaves. Most shockingly, though, is when Scarlett kills a Yankee who comes in and tries to steal what’s left of their money, but Scarlett kills him and takes all of his money.

Scarlett is just different from those people like Ashley who always lives in the dreams of the old South and is unwilling to weak up for the new life. Although the life of the old South is colorful and yearning to most of the Southern people, it is already dead and people still have to seek new ways for living. Scarlett knows this very well. No matter how hard the life is and no matter what the new world is; she has to raise her whole family and protect them from starving and freezing to death. 

2.2.3 After the Civil War
The war is finally over! But they are still in trouble; the Yankee carpetbaggers and southern scalawags have raised the taxes on Tara. Tara faces the danger of being bought away by the others. She must do something to save Tara. She tries all the ways to get money for Tara. After the failure of borrowing money from Rhett who is in the jail, she lures her sister’s lover Frank and marries him undoubtedly; never considering her sister’s feeling and her own sacrifice. She is so realistic that she even has no time to think about the future, but just resolves the problems at present.

Although women at that time are not allowed to go outside to earn money, Scarlett sticks to managing the sawmill herself. She puts her all energy to the business. When she has no accompanier, she will drive the carriage herself even she is pregnant. She employs prisoners to work for her for less expenditure but more profit; she send out her money to mortgage as loan; she trades with black men for money; and she even cleans up the money from the widows. Though she has a bad reputation of having an eye to the main chance, she doesn’t care at all, for the reason that she feels so horrible about the memory of hunger, coldness, loneliness and danger again and again in the nightmares. She makes money to make sure the whole family to lead a life without worry for food and clothes. Rhett says Scarlett wants to get two things in the world: one is Ashley; the other is money for doing what she wants to do. After the war, she becomes a new-rich who is not necessary to worry about money any more and Melanie’s death gives her chance to be together with Ashley, but she suddenly finds that both before her face are not what she really wants. The man who really loves her and her loves is going away…英语作文