In 1939, David O Selznick produced a film of Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Gone with the Wind. The movie proved to be among the most important in the history of world cinema. To this day, in fact, it remains the American box office champion when adjusted for inflation. In 1940, the film won a record-breaking eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Recently, however, Gone with the Wind has increasingly come under fire due to allegations of racism in the movie. Consequently, its reputation has fallen in many critical circles.
The film tells the story of a Southern family who fight on the side of the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Scarlett O’Hara, the main character, is a slave owner whose civilization goes to war to preserve the right to own and degrade African Americans. Life before the Civil War, during the days of slavery, is depicted as a golden age.
Scarlett’s maid and confidante, Mammy, is not even given a first name in the script. Meanwhile, Butterfly McQueen, who portrayed Prissy, a house servant whom Scarlett slaps across the face at one point in the film, was told by the director to deliver a hysterical performance emphasizing the character’s dim-wittedness, speaking to age-old negative stereotypes. Civil rights activist Malcolm X wrote of his embarrassment seeing Butterfly McQueen’s performance as Prissy that it made him want to crawl under the rug of the theater.
For all of these reasons, when watching Gone with the Wind today, modern viewers cannot help but feel admiration for how far the movie industry has come since its infancy. There is much to be embarrassed about in the early days of Hollywood films.
The text and the lecture offer two opposing views on the movie Gone with the Wind. While the text states that the movie shows a racist depiction of African Americans during the Civil War, the professor challenges all the specific points presented in the reading and argues that allegations of racism in the movie is overstated.
First of all, the professor states that the movie did not depicted the idea that slavery was right. The lecturer argues that Gone with the Wind did not romanticized slavery as suggested by the reading passage. According to the text, the movie portrays life before the Civil War as ideal. Nevertheless, the professor opposes this point by explaining that the movie only shows how was the South at that time and that in any moment it sent the message that the it right.
Secondly, the lecturer suggests that Mammy´s role provided a rich and complex character. Although Mammy was not given a name in the script, the professor argues that the text is missing the point of the real impact of Mammy´s character. According to her, the movie shows a person who is unfraid and protective, characteristics that the author of the text fails to notice.
Finally, the professor contends that Prissy´s character delivered a unique character with a rebellious element. While some people might perceive the perfomance as hysterical, they are overlooking Prissy´s rebellious character. Butterfly McQueen portrays a character that is not afraid to show her discontentment with the situation. She argues that the author is overlooking the job opportunities that the movie provided to the black community. Thanks to the movie, black actors were able to path the way for the black community for further career opportunities in the movie industry.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 59, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'did' requires the base form of the verb: 'depict'
Suggestion: depict
...professor states that the movie did not depicted the idea that slavery was right. The le...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 153, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'did' requires the base form of the verb: 'romanticize'
Suggestion: romanticize
... argues that Gone with the Wind did not romanticized slavery as suggested by the reading pas...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 455, Rule ID: DT_PRP[1]
Message: Possible typo. Did you mean 'the' or 'it'?
Suggestion: the; it
... in any moment it sent the message that the it right. Secondly, the lecturer sugges...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 462, Rule ID: IT_VBZ[1]
Message: Did you mean 'rights'?
Suggestion: rights
... moment it sent the message that the it right. Secondly, the lecturer suggests tha...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, if, look, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, while, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 22.412803532 103% => OK
Preposition: 28.0 30.3222958057 92% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1494.0 1373.03311258 109% => OK
No of words: 290.0 270.72406181 107% => OK
Chars per words: 5.15172413793 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.12666770723 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86384656057 2.5805825403 111% => OK
Unique words: 144.0 145.348785872 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.496551724138 0.540411800872 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 450.9 419.366225166 108% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.2081818164 49.2860985944 86% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.714285714 110.228320801 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.7142857143 21.698381199 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.14285714286 7.06452816374 87% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 4.19205298013 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.114679329517 0.272083759551 42% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0441488872456 0.0996497079465 44% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0304541869684 0.0662205650399 46% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0744841641303 0.162205337803 46% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.026772387918 0.0443174109184 60% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 13.3589403974 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 53.8541721854 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.59 12.2367328918 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.17 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 65.0 63.6247240618 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.