其实自己写的太丑，这是女儿改过的。

Essay #3 Prompt
Write about your favourite fictional character.
This time, please fill up at least 2 pages.

Scarlett O’Hara （当年俺读的当然是中文）

For me, Scarlett O’hara is not just a character in a novel, but also a vivid model of

how a vivacious young lady can endure against the prejudices of a conservative

southern American society and fight for the life she wants.

The first time I read Gone with the Wind, I was 16 and living in the newly post-

Cultural Revolution China. I was not a particularly worldly child, and had little

knowledge of western culture and its history. I also rarely thought about who I

wanted to be and how I might pursue the life I wished to live. I felt inspired when

I read about how passionately Scarlett fought for her independence – her

courage and persistence were truly admirable.

A few years later, I graduated from university and became a college lecturer. One

day, Feng (my roommate) asked me to tell her about the novel. I realised I had

read it so many times that I could recall numerous details - thus I began

recounting the tale with gusto. So animated was my retelling that Feng remarked

how she could picture Scarlett’s willful mannerisms and Rhett’s roguish

Decades later now, I can still remember many themes and snippets of interesting

dialogue from the book. Scarlett manipulating many young men at a party with

her coquettish behaviour while intending to win the affection of Ashley,

smashing a vase after Ashley rejected her proposal to elope with her, and her

skillful acting while visiting Rhett in prison – she was very unlike her fellow

southern belles. There were also more touching moments, such as when she

fretted endlessly over Melanie as she was in labour, or awkwardly attempted to

feed her baby girl from her second marriage. Greatly memorable were also the

scenes where she tried hopelessly to deceive Rhett, and her reaction towards

Rhett’s marriage proposal just moments after crying to him in guilt for how she

Gone with the Wind does not have a happy ending. In fact, it was rather tragic in

some ways – her daughter with Rhett died in an accident, and Rhett left her after

suffering much heartbreak. But I never worried about how Scarlett’s future

might pan out. Instead, I always remember how Rhett congratulated her at

having gained the whole world at yet lost her own soul at the young age of 28. In

the last line of the book, Scarlett says to herself in optimism - “After all, tomorrow is another day.”.