Images

Silhouetted against the sunset after her return to Tara, Scarlett O'Hara drops to her knees scrounging for food, and as she rises with a lone carrot in her hand, she cries, "As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."

Gone With the Wind paints the devastation bleakly of the South as the Civil War rages. Hunger is rampant, so when Scarlett flees home to Tara she is completely unprepared for the reality, as her memories of opulence as a spoiled child who refused to eat the food she was served would be long gone...

Nonetheless, this image is powerful. Scarlett's hunger is insatiable throughout her life, but at her lowest point it was for food.

The theme of hunger abounds in literature, and immediately, the Grapes of Wrath comes to mind also. John Steinbeck's vivid portrayal of hunger and the consequences evokes powerful images also during another time in American history when food was scarce, the Dustbowl.

"Starved people can't be taught democracy," Dr. Ancel Keys like to say. Moments into reading The Great Starvation Experiment I encountered this quote. The historian Todd Tucker will reveal this story to me, though one chapter was all I could digest last night, ironically.

Scientists are known for their pragmatic observations, but authors are also astute in their observations, though writers link them back to the human spirit creatively. I wonder how the final perspectives will vary. Thus my reflections on hunger through literature and film in American history are piqued.