《飘》是美国现代女作家玛格丽特.米歇尔于1936年发表的一部长篇通俗小说,也是其一生唯一的一部长篇小说,《飘》问世70多年来,被广泛流传并受到广泛的好评,不失为一部旷世经典之作。然而《飘》所走过的路程却并不是一帆风顺的,在许多批评家看来,《飘》不能被称为一部优雅的艺术之作,甚至不能进入美国文学的神圣殿堂。小说的女主人公斯佳丽被他们描绘成一个极度自私、爱慕虚荣、冷酷无情、为达目的不择手段的女性。但是,经过

the later chapters, if she has no love for Ashley, she will have been discouraged in adversity and will not have lived through so many difficulties to obtain financial independence.

The very obvious is her disregard for religion, and indispensable element in Southerners life. At prayer time in the evening before the ball, while all the other family members and the blacks are praying piously and asking Holy Mary to forgive their sins. Scarlett is so absent-minded that she neglects to make any responses, causing her mother to look at her reprovingly. Ever since childhood, prayer time is a moment for adoration of her mother Ellen, rather than Holy Mary. To the pious people, it is sacrilegious to show any indication of irreligion. Her heart goes up to God in sincere thankfulness only when a pathway for her has been opened to the arms of Ashley. In other circumstances, God is not important or sacred to her at all. As a matter of fact, her irreligion is more and more apparent in the following years of her life. In Chapter XXX, everything is unfavorable to her, because her mother is dead, her father in a state of dementia, and her two sisters ill. She is annoyed to see her sister Carreen always on her knees by her bed praying for a better life. Scarlett s God is a bargaining God.

Compare with God, Scarlett trust more herself, in her eyes the God is an absentee God. “the Lord stopped thinking about us years ago, and don t go telling me Mother is turning in her grave to hear me say it either” (p.542). As we can find in the later chapters, every time she does odious or unethical deeds in order to protect her own life, Tara, or the lives of those for whom she is responsible, Scarlett repeats to herself an important motto: “I ll think about it tomorrow.” This motto becomes her survival mechanism and justifies every future decision she makes. Owing to her irreligion, it is not unusual for her not to bother about things that do not matter, such as the expectations and civilities of the Old South. But though she is so perseverance and so brave, at some time she also afraid of God.When her conscience torments her over the cold, bald way in which she has used Frank Kennedy, her second husband, who is later killed in an attack to revenge her, she sighs to herself, “Oh, if only God did not seem so furious and vengeful! If only the minutes did not go by so slowly and the house were not so still. If only she were not so alone” (p.804) When she confides her fear and remorse to Rhett Butler, “I m afraid I ll die and go to hell” (p.808)

2.4 The Summary