1. The Wind Done Gone: A Novel by
Alice Randall
We Need This Point Of View.
In this daring and provoc ative literary parody which has captured the
interest and imagination of a nation, Alice Randall explodes the world
created in GONE WITH THE WIND, a work that more than any other has
defined our image of the antebellum South. Taking sharp aim at the
romanticized, whitewashed mythology perpetrated by this southern classic,
Randall has ingeniously conceived a multilayered, emotionally complex
tale of her own - that of Cynara, the mulatto half-sister, who, beautiful and
brown and born into slavery, manages to break away from the damaging
world of the Old South to emerge into full life as a daughter, a lover, a
mother, a victor. THE WIND DONE GONE is a passionate love story, a
wrenching portrait of a tangled mother-daughter relationship, and a book
that celebrates a peoples emancipation not only from bondage but also
from history and myth, custom and stereotype (San Antonio Express-
News).
The WIND DONE GONE acknowledges the rich tradition of American and
African American letters even as it offers imaginative revision and
innovation of that tradition. Composed mostly of protagonist Cynara's diary
entries, Alice Randall's first novel recovers the banished black female
(child, born of the problematic and complex sexual relationship betwe en
white slave master Planter (Gerald O'Hara in Mitchell's novel)and black
bondswoman Pallas (Mammy in Mitchell's novel). Randall uses Cynara's
story to lay bare the complex relationship between slave mother and
mulatta offspring and ultimately to deal with the psychological rift between
mother and daughter. In relating their stories, Randall complicates and
revises both the prototypical mammy figure, especially the one in Mitchell's
GONE WITH THE WIND, and the often tragic or victimized mulatta of late
nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century literature. Randall's
insertion of Cynara's story into the gaps left by Mitchell's American classic
allows her to make visible a subject suspiciously missing from Mitchell's
novel--the offspring of sexual relations between Blacks and Whites. In
WIND, Cynara's story is intricately connected to that of her mother. As she
comes into her own as a subject, she is able to use her life to reverse the
effects of her mother's life. Where her mother had served as sexual
surrogate who gave birth to a child destined to become property, Cynara
serves as a surrogate in order to give birth to a child who whose progeny
will have a chance to become President of the United States. Thus,
Randall refuses passive sexual victim status f or Cynara and Pallas,

2. choosing instead to portray them as radical sexual subjects who seek and
find the kinds of "loopholes" in a skewed system that served real life
women such as Harriet Jacobs (see INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A
SLAVE GIRL). In addition to its success as an astute parody of GONE
WITH THE WIND, the novel offers a gendered perspective on the theme of
invisibility that is at core of another great work of American literature--
Ralph Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN. Its narrative style is a combination of the
style used by Gwendolyn Brooks in MAUD MARTHA and that of Alice
Walker in THE COLOR PURPLE. I especially appreciate Randall's ability
to create a protagonist who exudes a natural, earthy sensuality --much like
the character named Hope in her forthcoming REBEL YELL. Cynara's
sexuality is as essential an aspect of her self-identity as any other. In this,
the protagonist is akin to Hurston's Janie Crawford of THEIR EYES WERE
WATCHING GOD, Walker's Celie in THE COLOR PURPLE) and other
such characters on their journeys toward self-discovery. As a university
professor, I use WIND in a variety of seminars and courses. I recently had
my honors students read the novel in conjunction with the film version of
GONE WITH THE WIND and some court documents from the case filed by
the Mitchell estate to halt release of Randall's novel (see
www.thewinddonegone.com), and I have taught the novel in a variety of
other courses and seminars. Most notably, I found it especially useful as a
central text for my study of property, race, and ethics.Race, Theft, and
Ethics: Property Matters in African American Literature (Southern Literary
Studies). While it might be a little too complex for the untrained or
inexperienced reader, I highly recommend that you at least give it a try.
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