Scarlett O'Hara

from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

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" ' Fiddle-dee-dee.' "

" 'Dear Scarlett! You aren't helpless. Anyone as selfish and determined as you are is never helpless. God help the Yankees if they should get you.' "

" ' I’ll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day."

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At the beginning of Gone With the Wind, Katie Scarlett O'Hara is a spoiled teenager who's about to come of age. She's beautiful and knows it, and is looking forward to a season of flirting and plotting and scheming to get the man she wants. What happens instead is the start of the Civil War, and instead of balls and cotillions, she has to put her scheming and plotting to other uses - for her family, for her land, but most of all, for herself. Because deep down, Scarlett just wants everything to go back to the way it was.

She was the backbone of her family and basically kept them all afloat. Her sheer grit and determination allowed everyone else in the story to be true to their lofty goals while she made unsavory deals and did what needed to be done. I'd like to believe that underneath it all, there was a motivation of kindness and love - everyone couldn't have loved the surface Scarlett without there being something underneath it all that was worthwhile. She never gives up, even when she knows what she's doing is wrong - she pushes it down to think of it when she has a chance to later - tomorrow. And then she gets up and tries again. For that determination and her loyalty, I admire her. I hate to think of what happens when "tomorrow" comes and the realization of all she's done and endured catches up with her. And I hope that some redemption will be hers as well.