lfvoy wrote:And in a way each of the characters you've described could be an archetype, WG. The Melanie of the book, for example, represents the best of Southern society but she also ultimately succumbed to that denial-of-the-negative that could sometimes be so positive (she was repeatedly warned not to have another baby). Rhett and Scarlett are definitely "survivor" archetypes and there's a not-so-subtle theme throughout the book about how far a person should go to survive and care for themselves. Ashley's the archetype of the person who just plain can't handle change despite being superficially intelligent and capable. Take him out of his carefully constructed artificial world and he just collapses. (There are themes there about "the good old days" and artificiality of one's world, as well.)
Agreed! Aren't all characters defined by archetype though? Trip is an Archetype, so is T'Pol. I'd say the mark of good characterization is being able to clearly define who a character is and what they represent.
Alelou wrote:Gone With the Wind was published in 1936. The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway) was published 10 years earlier, just a year after The Great Gatsby. The latter two get taught far more often than the former, which is considered genre fiction (a romance novel). Hemingway and Fitzgerald were published as serious fiction and stood the test of time to be included in literary canon, and Gone With the Wind did not, though it's by no means out of print.
I'm sorry, but Gatsby is my favorite book of all time after The Bible, and it was not hailed as a great Classic, when it was first published. It wasn't considered Fitzgerald's crowning achievement, or anything close. It built it's reputation over decades. Granted, both Hemmingway and Fitzgerald were regarded as the voices of The Lost Generation between the end of WW1 and WW2, however they were hardly considered for the ages during their lives. At least, not for their fiction...