Our Everly Mag Writing Leaders told us about a single piece of art that changed their life.  Whether it’s a song, book, television episode, YouTube video, or more, our leaders discussed why and how this piece of art made an impact.

This article was written by our writing leader Isabelle.  Get to know our Summer 2018 Leaders here!

The reason I wanted to read “Gone with the Wind” at first was because my favourite book character at the time mentioned it in passing (Sang in The Academy Series). I was so obsessed with these books that I scooped up “Gone with the Wind” as soon as I saw it on the page.”Gone with the Wind” was the most advanced book I had ever read. It was the longest I’d ever read by about 1,000 pages. It took me about two months to read this book on a summer holiday at the age of 13. However, it changed my life.

The book “Gone with the Wind” is a piece of art, simply because of one character. To truly understand how powerful “Gone with the Wind” is, you have to meet Scarlett O’Hara, the world’s most awesome individual. She’s the perfect example of a feminist. What makes this so powerful is that she is written at a time when feminism was non-existent. She breaks social norms through every page of the book. The novel is set during the American Civil War (Around the 1860s) where women were expected to follow their husbands, have children and remain quiet. This backdrop puts into perspective how incredible of a character Scarlett is. The most inspiring part of it is how she uses her situation to better herself. I won’t spoil it for anyone (I’m hoping you will go and read this book once you’ve read this article); however she, for example, uses the fact that men can own businesses to run her own by marrying a man.

Some may say Scarlett is “selfish” and “manipulative”. I put will put “selfish” and “manipulative” in quotation marks because I believe she is self-confident and smart instead. She taught me you have to push the boundaries of confidence and intelligence to rise above society’s barriers and that some people will want to interpret those characteristics as selfishness.

The author has created a character who can realize her mistakes and move on. I can say that this is a skill I want to keep on getting better at. The author presents many trials and setbacks in the book, and the confidence Scarlett shows in overcoming them is admirable. After every trial and trouble, she rises above it. This is one of the reasons why the book is so important to me, it showed me for every setback that come towards me, I can always get through it.

These days, there is one quote on my wall. It is “After all, tomorrow is another day”. This book is a piece of artwork for me because every time I look at my wall, I am inspired. I aspire to be someone like Scarlett. I’ve gone from a tween at the age of 12 to now – at the age of 16 – to someone who feels confident in their own skin and I can attribute part of that to this book. It has taken a while but I still want to be as confident as Scarlett and to break barriers as if they weren’t there. I think every teenager should read this because it inspires confidence to rise above the people who would try and keep you down.

What’s a book that changed your life?  Comment below!  

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“Gone With the Wind” was written by Margaret Mitchell
“The Academy Series” was written by C.L. Stone