A Close Reading: Scarlett, Mammy, and Pork

When Jonas Wilkerson (Victor Jory) and his wife approach the steps of the main house on Tara, Scarlett tells them to get off of the land. Wilkerson attempts to make amends but Scarlett insults them both. The former overseer says he knows her father has become an idiot (after losing his wife) and Scarlett can't pay the property and so, he was planning to make an offer to buy the place from her. She responds by shouting, "Get off this land, you dirty Yankee."

As the camera cuts to a close-up of Gerald, Scarlett's father, Wilkerson is heard saying that the "high-flying Irishmen'll find out who's running things around here when you get sold out for taxes. I'll buy this place lock, stock, and barrel and I'll live in it." Scarlett throws dirt in Wilkerson's face and says, "That's all of Tara you'll ever get." Wilkerson gets into his carriage and there is a close-up of Gerald's face. He doesn't speak. Instead, he turns around and rushes to the background. After a shot of the carriage leaving and a voiceover by Wilkerson saying, "We'll be back," there is a close-up of Gerald saying, "I'll show you who the owner of Tara is." He begins riding after the carriage but he falls to his death when his horse can't clear a fence. Gerald O'Hara's tombstone appears to designate the passing of time and then the scene moves to Scarlett giving her father's gold watch to Pork.

At first, Pork won't accept the gift because he knows Scarlett should sell the watch for tax money. After she assures him that she wouldn't sell her father's watch, she puts it in Pork's hand. He begins to wipe his eyes and she says, "Don't cry. I can stand everybody's tears but yours."

Scarlett then walks away from Pork and enters the room where Mammy (Hattie McDaniel) is cleaning. As she walks to the window, Mammy follows her to the window:

Mammy:You've been brave so long, Miss Scarlett. You've just got to go on being brave. Think about your paw like he used to be.
Scarlett: I can't think about paw. I can't think of anything but that three hundred dollars.
Mammy: Ain't no good thinking about that, Miss Scarlett. Ain't nobody got much money. Nobody but Yankees and scalawags got that much money now.

That prompts Scarlett to think of Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). After going to the mirror and complaining about how thin and pale she is, Scarlett goes to the curtains and tells Mammy to go upstairs and get her mother's dress patterns.

Mammy: What you up to with Miss Ellen's portiers?
Scarlett: You're gonna make me a new dress.
Mammy: Not with Miss Ellen's portiers. Not while I got breath in my body.
Scarlett [grabbing the curtains and tears them down]: Great balls of fire! They're my portiers now. I'm going to Atlanta for that three hundred dollars and I've got to go looking like a queen.
Mammy: Who's goin' to Atlanta wit' you?
Scarlett: I'm going alone.
Mammy: That's what you think. I'se goin' to Atlanta with you. With you and that new dress.
Scarlett: Mammy, darling....
Mammy: No use to try to sweettalk me, Miss Scarlett. I'se known you since I put the first pair of diapers on you. I said I'm goin' to Atlanta with you and goin' I is.

The threat to Tara is not racial but regional as the Yankees make a bid for controlling the plantation. In response to this threat, Scarlett, Pork, and Mammy reinforce their investment in both the land and one another. This is clear when Scarlett offers her father's watch to Pork instead of selling it for the money that they desperately need. Her comment, "I can stand everybody's tears but yours," Scarlett places Pork in the role of a surrogate father.

Scarlett then goes into the next room to seek counsel with Mammy. Throughout the scene, Scarlett moves about the room but Mammy follows--always standing directly behind her as though her physical proximity is representative of her emotional support. Their only minor dispute occurs when Mammy challenges Scarlett using her mother's curtains as a dress. For a moment, Mammy aligns herself with the legacy of the family she has served instead of the individual member that needs her more.

When Scarlett points out that these are her curtains now (since her mother has died), Mammy recognizes the situation and immediately moves to the question of who is going to accompany Scarlett to Atlanta as she searches for Rhett Butler. This scene adheres completely to the notion of the "faithful servant" addressed by Griffith. At the same time, the exchange between Scarlett and Pork over the watch and Mammy and Scarlett over the curtains emphasize the transferral of possessions once owned by her deceased parents. As Pork takes the watch, he also assumes the the role of the stable, uncrying, surrogate father. And when Mammy comforts Scarlett, argues with her about the curtains, and finally decides to both make the dress and accompany Scarlett to Atlanta, like any good surrogate mother would do. This is especially clear when she explains that Mammy's known Scarlett since she put her first pair of diapers on which is almost as long as Scarlett's mother knew her.

Although these familiar stereotypes are firmly established, they become far more developed than one might expect. This is due to the emotional investment all that entails in the screenwriter and director's investments in these mythical black characters) that allow them to work as well as they do. Donald Bogle notes the importance of Mammy when he writes:

Like earlier film slaves, Hattie McDaniel's character is motivated almost solely out of the concern for the master family, but her Mammy also feels confident enough to express anger toward her masters. She berates and hounds anyone who goes against her conception of right and wrong, whether it be Mrs. O'Hara or Scarlett and Rhett. . . . But most significantly, Scarlett and Mammy maintain a complex mother-daughter relationship, much like those which actually existed in the old South, the kind of relationship that was either glossed over or treated condescendingly in other films.⁽¹⁾

Bogle is correct in identifying the mother-daughter relationship but he seems a little too willing to accept these characters as real people. M. M. Manring offers a refutation of his claim in Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima:

This is a rather unpersuasive argument, given that McDaniel was portraying the outspoken Mammy just as Margaret Mitchell or, more to the point, Thomas Nelson Page and Thomas Dixon did. The archetypal mammy was always outspoken, particularly when it came to offering advice to white women, but that in no way compromised her place in the slave hierarchy or made her any less subservient, ultimately. And if McDaniel's Mammy was not as superstitious or silly as many popular mammies were. . ., it should be noted that Gone With the Wind had Butterfly McQueen in the ridiculous role of the maid Prissy. . . to complete that task. Mammy was a stock character in films as well as advertising because (white) people knew exactly what to expect from her--that's what stock characters are for.⁽²⁾

While the desire to believe that these characters are sincere and authentic is due in part to the strength of Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen, and Oscar Polk's acting, the blurring of the line between the black actor and their role must also be considered. This becomes more clear when excerpts of Susan Myrick's columns from White Columns in Hollywood are examined in this light.